2017 Wines - Chapter 4 - Zinfandel

We pushed vacation back in order to avoid any conflict with fall grape shipments. As it turned out, we'll need every day in order to get the two California wines tucked away.

I drove to St. Louis for these 3 lugs of old vine Zinfandel. It was nice to meet one old friend and one new friend at St. Louis Wine and Beermaking. Jerry, with whom I have corresponded for years but had never met, gave me his leftover KMS. Stephen helped me with the dosing. There we crushed the 3 lugs, dosed the KMS at 50ppm, and I trucked the grapes and the Sauvignon Blanc juice bucket back home.

The numbers were decent - TA 0.58%, pH 3.45, and 22.5 Brix - good enough that no preferment adjustments were needed. I added 4.5t pectic enzyme and 1.2g Lallzyme EX, each divided between the 3 buckets, and stacked them in the fridge for a 2 day cold soak.

After warming, I added 8g Booster Rouge, 8g Opti Red, then pitched RC 212 rehydrated with GoFerm. To get the temp up, like last year, I added a nice comforter.

Over the next 3 days I used Fermaid K, 2t step fed, with 12g bentonite. Tm was 26.0C. It fermented steadily down to 1.004 on day 7. With vacation looming, I pressed.

I have 7-7.5 gallons (not sure if that is 6 or 6.5g carboy), but there is at least 1/2 gallon of gross lees. I expect it to be under 1.000 by tomorrow, at which time I'll rack off the gross lees and get the MLF started with VP41 on oak cubes.

Fall Has Arrived

Fall blew in suddenly last night. Fortunately yesterday we got most of the plants in the greenhouse. Still harvesting purple guava, passionfruit, sugar apple, acerola, and cherimoya.

Sega Palms did not make the greenhouse cut this year

The juice and grapes from California arrived. I picked them up Friday in St. Louis. It was fun to run into Jerry, who I have corresponded with now for a couple of years but had never met. Also great to meet Stephen, head of a St. Louis-area winemaking club, who provided some helpful advice on sulfites. The Sauv Blanc and Zinfandel are underway, full posts to follow.

I bottled some wine. Blueberry is smooth and delicious.

Passionfruit is Sauv Blanc-level sharp but polished and beautiful; it fills the room with passion fruit aromas. Maybe it could have used a little more sugar.

The QA 23 left our Vignoles with plenty of tropical aromas as well. I got this guy off the fine lees, now we just need to wait for it to clear.

We have just a bit more yard work to do to be ready for vacation. I fear we will return to winter.

2017 Wines - Chapter 3 - Pawpaw

We ended up with about 9# of pawpaws, so I decided to go ahead and try making the wine.

They look like potatoes

• 5# pawpaws, consisting of 2# pulp and 3# peeled fruit
• Sugar, 2# 1oz
• Tannin 1/2t
• Pectic 1t
• Lallzyme EX 0.1g
• Citric acid 2.75t
• Water 8.5 pint
• Opti White 1.9g
• Booster Blanc 1.1g
• Bentonite 2g

The pH started at 4.51 but adjusted to 3.54. SG 1.085. I used QA 23 and started off in a cooling bath, but when the fermentation didn't really take off, I let it come up to room temperature.

I added bentonite day 3 and then pulled the fruit bag at 1.032 on day 7. Racked to carboy on day 9.

As you can see, this wine is a pulpy mess. A few days later when the wine was quiet, I racked off the pulp, coming up about 100ml shy of a gallon.

At this point I topped it with some Vignoles and dosed with KMS. The pawpaw smell (closest perhaps to bananas) is gone, and at this time the aroma is closer to pineapple than anything else. We can count it as a success so far, having avoided any stink during the ferment.