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.

2016 Wines - Chapter 5 - Syrah

We got swept up in the moment 2 weeks ago at St. Louis Wine and Beermaking and bought a juice bucket of Pinot Grigio and 3 lugs of Syrah. Doing so further violates our "locally grown" winemaking precedent, but extending our winemaking boundaries requires sacrifices.

We crushed and destemmed at the shop. The volume would have required splitting the batch, so I picked up a larger fermenter. Once home, we added a small dose of Kmeta and took some measurements. SG was 1.102, pH 3.65, and TA 0.5%. We added 30g of tartaric acid, 6g Opti Red, and 12t pectic enzyme and let it macerate overnight.

The following day we pitched RC 212. This yeast is supposed to have higher nutrient requirements, but usual step feeding with Fermaid K resulted in an uneventful, steady fermentation. Temperature peaked at 29.4C. By day 6 it was down to SG of 0.998. On day 8 Jake helped me press.

We got just under 9 gallons. After racking off the gross lees I expect about 8 gallons. We'll MLF with CH16, give it some oak, and age this for a year.