Residual sugar test

Our mourvedre must was over 27 Brix. It is now completely dry. The native yeast ate it up. That was the big challenge for our native yeast fermentation. Maybe next year we will use only native yeast. Time to rack the mourvedre and counoise and start thinking about blending cuvées.

Counoise and mourvedre pressing

Yesterday we pressed the counoise and the rest of the mourvedre.

I had a half bottle of the mourvedre left over from pressing and tasted it last night side-by-side with a decent, simple cotes du ventoux. Our mourvedre was much bigger and had an impressively long swallow with licorice and blackberries in the finish. It was a little bit too rich for me, high in alcohol and lacking acidity. Might be very good blended with the others.

Update on pressing and racking. Tally

We pressed some of the mourvedre and racked the grenache and the syrah. That left us with an odd 3/4 bottle of grenache that Coleman took home and drank. He pronounced it "superb" and said it was, "better than last year. I think it's much more than a pleasant young wine."

So here's what we have, in gallons, where G=grenache, M=mourvedre, C=counoise, S=syrah, and "n" indicates native-yeast fermentation.

In the carboys:
G/S cuvée: 6 gallons (mostly syrah)
Gn: 3 gallons
Sn: 5 gallons
M: 8 gallons
G: 3 gallons

In the buckets still fermenting (approximate):
Cn: 2 gallons
C: 2 gallons
Mn: 3 gallons
M: 3 gallons

Summed up:
Native yeast cuvée:
Gx3, Sx5, Cx2, Mx3

Innoculated:
G/S 6
M 11
G 6
C 3

39-40 gallons of wine = 200 bottles, total production for 2008.

Pressing the grenache, racking the syrah

Today we pressed the inoculated grenache and racked all of the syrah.

The grenache still had a lot of sugar (after more than two weeks of fermentation) and it is fermenting in the carboy.   We decided to let the native-yeast grenache stay on the skins for a few more days.

The syrah is getting smoother. I think it will not be unduly harsh. We are going to need its higher acid and lower alcohol after the mourvedre with its high sugar content ferments.

photos from 9/10/08 harvest

Mourvedre and counoise harvest

Today Coleman and I harvested about 300lbs of grapes. A little more than 200lbs of it was mourvedre and the rest counoise. Most of the fruit looked very good. Some signs of white mold or mildew, but I don't really know.

It took me and Coleman and Lisa and Jay forever to destem by hand. We filled seven fermentation buckets, some of them a little short.

I sulfited all but one each of the mourvedre and counoise.

The mourvedre must: Brix 27.3. Yikes! That would indicate about 15.4% alcohol.
The counoise must: Brix 23.5.

Jay tested the syrah wine that we made with native yeast and no yeast food: it was perfectly dry. No residual sugar.

If the same thing happens with the mourvedre with its higher sugar content, I think we should try a lot more native yeast fermentation next time.

Syrah pressing

Yesterday, with Doug's welcome assistance, I pressed the syrah. We got about ten gallons. The wine is extremely turbid, dark but not black. It tastes tart and hard but not as sharp as the must tasted a couple of days ago. The fruit seems to have come out a little.

I'm going to test for residual sugar with special attention to the wine we got from native yeast fermentation.

Grenache harvest September 1, 2008

Coleman and I brought in the grenache early this morning with the help of Jay and Monica. Our 25 grenache vines yielded about 130 lbs, filling three fermentation vats. The must measured 25 brix on Jay's refractometer. The fruit looked good with a little bit of black mould on four or five clusters only.

We continued our experiment with native yeast fermentation on one out of the three fermenters. Tomorrow I will add yeast food to the others and innoculate with Rhone yeast.

Only the mourvedre and counoise are still on the vines.

We tasted the syrah must. It's almost dry but still shows signs of active fermentation. It is tart, sharp, and a little harsh. That worries us, but it might be a blessing if the mourvedre comes in very ripe.

brix readings - august /september 2008

tuesday am august 26 2008

lower mourvedre - 24 brix 80% brown pip
upper mourvedre - 19.5 brix 75% "
grenache noir - 24.3 brix 75% "
counoise - 19.5 brix 75% "

thursday am august 28 2008

mourvedre row 1 - 24 brix 75% brown pip
row 3 - 23 brix 50% "
row5 - 22.5 brix 50% "
row 7 - 22.5 brix 45% "
grenache noir - 26 brix 90% "
counoise - 21 brix 75% "

wednesday september 3 2008

mourvedre row 1 - 24 brix 50% brown pip
row 3 - 23 brix 50% "
row 6 - 26 brix 70% "

tuesday september 9 2008

mourvedre row 1 - 26 brix 60% brown pip
row 2 - 27.5 brix 90% "
row4 - 24.5 brix 90% "
row 6 - 27.5 brix 80% "
grenache noir row 9- 27 brix 90% "
counoise row 9- 26 brix 100% "
row 12 - 25.5 brix 100% "

Thursday September 11 2008
Mourvedre must brix 27.4
Counoise must brix 23.5

Syah update

The native yeast fermentation with no yeast food is going faster than the Rhone yeast. I don't know if that's good or bad. It looks, smells, and tastes good. The only thing that kept it from being a really fast fermentation is the whole-berry must that we started with, almost like whole-cluster fermentation, because we destemmed by hand and did not crush.

Inoculation and fermentation

This morning, Michael inoculated three fermentation buckets with Rhone yeast and added a little yeast food. He saw the first signs of fermentation in the two buckets that he did not sulfite. That's the native yeast at work.

Although fermentation is not yet vigorous, the temperature of the must is already rising, to about 76 degrees.

2008 harvest: syrah

We harvested the 75 syrah vines on August 19, 2008.

In the field we got brix readings of more than 22-high enough.  However, based on appearance, taste, color of berries, and color of pips, we wanted a little more maturity in the grapes.  Still, we decided to pick, because we were a little short of netting and the birds were doing some damage and we wanted to water the other vines but not before harvesting the syrah.

We got about 150 pounds of beautiful fruit, very clean with no apparent problems, medium-sized berries for syrah.  We destemmed by hand with the help of Tom and Nick and RJ and his children.  That was fun.

On the morning of August 20, 2008, Michael sulfited three of the five fermentation buckets.  The other two will be an experiment in native yeast fermentation.  In the evening of the same day, Michael took a brix reading of the must.  It was 21.6.  Temperature of the must was about 73 degrees.

We didn't measure PH or total acidity.

Tomorrow, on August 21, 2008, Michael will inoculate three of the fermenters with Rhone yeast.