2018 Wines - Chapter 8 - Zinfandel

The 2017 OVZ is looking great with some barrel aging but we're trying some more new techniques with the 2018 batch. Started with 108#, added 14ml 10% KMS at crush, along with 2t tannin, 8g Booster Rouge, 8g Opti Red, 2T pectic, 1.2g Lallzyme EX, and into the fridge for a 3 day cold soak. I pulled it out and let it warm for an entire day before inoculating with RC 212. It was step fed with Fermaid K. The malolactic bacteria was co-inoculated the next day. We used 2.5g VP41 with 10g Acti ML. We got good peak temps, 85F or better, punched the cap twice a day, and the SG was down to 1.006 within a week. But rather than press the wine at that time, we did an additional week of extended maceration. This is supposed to lighten the color slightly but soften the tannins.

The wine was pressed yesterday. There's a fair amount of sludge so I'll rack again today and bring the carboys up into the nice, warm pantry to finish MLF. Great tasting yummy wine already.