2016 Wines - Chapter 4 - Chambourcin

I'm not going to lie, this wine has me a little nervous. It is my first red from grapes and first MLF. But I did not chose this wine or these grapes, they chose me. Thank you, Books Vineyard.

Lisa and I destenned the grapes by hand the day they were picked, then gently crushed them. We got 6 gallons of must. The original numbers were 1.082 (~20 brix), pH 3.01, TA 0.85%. Just tasting the grapes, I would not have guessed that the acid was quite so high. I treated with a small dose of Kmeta, then 5t pectic enzyme, 5g Opti Red. The pH came to 3.55 with 10t of calcium carbonate. Then 2 days of cold maceration.

After the must warmed, I pitched a starter of Montrachet. Fermentation took off, and the wine seemed to color up nicely. I step-fed Fermaid K. By day 7 it was down to 1.000. I needed the bucket for grapes the following day, so we pressed.

We got 3 gallons of free run and almost 2 more gallons with pressing. The plan is to let the wine go completely quite, rack off of the gross lees, then pitch WLP675 which arrived last week.