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.