2022 Chardonnay: day 37

1600

Well, we did rack yesterday, and only lost a couple of liters of volume.  We're cloudy now.  Free SO2 barely dropped according to today's reading (a surprise), but the pH still shows wildly high (as disappointment).  Have written Musto to see if they know what the pH was at the start - haven't heard back yet.  And i've just ordered some tartaric acid, which should be delivered tomorrow.  

The sample I've tested from has good color and tastes medium acidic, so I'm still puzzled by the pH.  

This article has a formula for raising pH - but using it suggests I'd need a pretty massive dose of tartaric for each carboy.  No way.  So I just gave up and ordered a new pH meter - this time with calibration and storage solutions.  Won't be here until Wednesday.

Meanwhile, I'll make some 10% meta solution and bump the free SO2 to 30 ppm.

2018 Sauvignon Blanc, day 175

Big day, kiddos.  First a trip to Brooklyn Terminal Market for 6 cases of bottles, and then the final racking of the SB before bottling next month.

3 PM:
Outside 44 F
Cellar 68 F
SO2 15 PPM (Carboy C by Titrette)

We went from 5+5+5+1 to 5+5+5 plus three 175 ml soda bottles with caps, losing very little from each CD, and continuing to isolate each CB except for the topping off from the 1 gallon jug.

A little bit of dust-up in carboys A&B while racking.  Maybe there was in C, too: I did it first and possibly was too excited to notice it.  Still, all three vessels look sparkling clear.  We'll see what settles out in the next month.

Taste was great.  A bit green apple / lemon lime.  Chill that baby and it's summer.

Of special note was the layer of bitartrate salts in each vessel under the thin layer of dead yeast and grape particles.  Cellar was never cold enough to make these drop out like they would if we cold-stabilized the wine.  Checking back, I've confirmed that we did not make any tartaric acid adjustment this year.  So, it just is.

21 gallons ready to rock

The rig

Wacky potassium bitartrate salt layer (KC4H5O6)

2015 Muscat, day 87

SO2 at about 20 PPM.  Will have to decide on whether to give a slight boost at racking and then not touch it again, hoping that this will be the last rack before bottling.  Or leave it alone now and test again next week to see what racking did to the wine?

Acid at about .65% tartaric, or 4.16 ppt sulfuric.  Probably slightly higher, but not much, and that puts us just into the bottom of the range we were shooting for.  (Tasting it at 6:30 in the morning on an unwashed tongue I would have guessed higher.)

Color is great.  Nose isn't remarkable.  I think we're somewhere between the very good 2013 and the OK 2014

Put a couple of carboys up on the bench for racking later today.  The thin lees look like they have crystals in them.  We'll know pretty soon.

No measurement of the rosé yet.

2015 Muscat, day 31

Sharply colder outside the last day, 38 at 8 AM, and 68 in the cellar.

A bright light shone into the necks of the carboys shows that there are still fine threads of gas rising through the wine.

Wine put into a test glass isn't yet clear but is showing the familiar dandelion yellow finish.

pH 3.71, SO2 somewhere between 20 and 25 (using year old Titrettes).

Acid measurement was off the charts.  Hmmm.  Let's try new chems.  Saw a similar measurement at this phase last year, but at the second racking a lot of acid had fallen out in potassium bitartrate crystals: let's look for the same this year.

2014 Muscat, day 57, Nov 30 2014

Tested Betty and Charlie for acid: at or just under .75% tartaric, 4.8 ppt sulfuric.  Higher than my hopes, but at least not above the normal white range (though at the very tippy top of it).

2014 Muscat, Day 1, Oct 5 2014

0700
Temp outside is 47 F, chilliest morning of the young autumn so far and the first time we've had cool weather on winemaking day in a years.

It's also the latest date we've started Muscat: 2009 9/26, 2010 9/25/, 2011 9/24, 2012 9/29, 2013 9/22).  Last year was the earliest, which maybe makes this year feel all the later.

19:30
Brix +28, juice temp 58.5F, acid 4.5 tartaric, pH 4.3.
Wow!  What a day.  Mihai & Colleen got here first, then Jon, then Helen & Mike, then it's a jumble - Peter, James, Doyle, Michael & Kelly & Nate, Mike & Pam & Carmello, Judy & Danny & Lief... Lots of other folks stopping.

We set up two sorting tables - one in the yard and one on the sidewalk, and we used one of our 50 gallons fermenting drums to hold the sorted grapes until we were ready to press.  Tony Pagano told us yesterday that the grapes were at 28 Brix and I was doubtful, but it was exactly what I was seeing on the refractometer while we worked.  At some point Mihai and I decided not to press while the sorting was going on because we would have to use the wash-up hose for the bladder - turned out to be a mistake in that it stretched the work out for a couple of hours longer than if we pressed (as we usually do) while sorting.

One of Mihai's pics of the sidewalk sorting table - Peter, Jon & Lori.

I think we have the process of using the bladder press down now.  Next year we might elevate it a bit to make the gauge more accessible, we'll know what combination of hoses to have ready, and we'll get a Y splitter so we can press and still have a hose for washing.

Our yield was about 66 liters of juice - more than the last two years but less than 2012 and 11.  Given the condition of the grapes I don't know whether the new press helped get us a better yield, but it's nicer to use - easier for everyone to get a hand in.

At 7:30 or so we tested the juice.  Brix was where we now expected it to be, whopping high.  Acid was correspondingly whopping low - .45 tartaric, and we decided to raise it just as we did last year, to a target .65.  Using the rule of 1 g/l to raise it 1% we uses 2 g/l for 66 liters - 122 g.  That seemed like a heck of a lot, but I went with it.

Also tested for free S02, which was nowhere in sight, and using the rule of .53ml per liter to impart 30 ppm, we added 35ml for the 66 liters.

Then we hydrated the D47 and pitched it in.

During the course of the day Doyle and Peter asked and prodded about doing something with all of the raisened and bruised fruit.  At first I thought we might ferment them on their skins, but then we changed gears, ran them through the destemmer, pressed them, and put the juice (there's only 5 liters of it) into their own container to ferment.  We added appropriate amounts meta, tartaric, and yeast using the same rules as the main wine, though I did not take separate measurements.

2009 Muscat titratable acid: 7 g/L

Used the Accuvin titratable acid test this evening on the Muscat.  7 grams per liter as tartaric acid - which means that we are in the target range for whites - 7 to 9 g/L.