Which commercial yeast to use for Napa Cab?

I am getting two tons of Howell Mountain cabernet fruit this year. Which commercial yeast strain have you had good results with? I am aiming for a big, structured age-worthy cabernet. Thank you for your help.

For me, I’ve always liked D254 as a commercial yeast. I’ve done trails with D80, BDX, FX10 and they work well, too. With HM fruit you’re probably going to be in barrel (likely new oak) for 2 years and then another year in bottle so the yeast differences are minimal to un-noticeable - it’s all about the fruit. My experience is limited to a few tons of HM fruit each year. I’ve been doing more native ferments, but keep D254 around in case it’s needed. I’m curious what those with more real-world experience have to say.

This…1+ year out.

NONE!

Sorry could not resist. Go wild if your not shooting for highish over 14.5 ETOH or so and you have good natural nitrogen levels. BDX seems to the classic and very popular choice. You also could mix a bit of many strains to try and get a little competition going. D80 seems to make a little bigger wines. FYI this is all second hand from friends of mine who make Cab, I’m a PN guy.

I accidently picked a test batch of primitivo at 25 brix and let it ferment naturally. It raced through fermentation and seems like its finishing up fine. This is the highest brix Ive done with native ferment so I was curious to see how it would do. Whatever yeast came with the grapes (or from me) seemed pretty voracious. This was a brand new fermenter at a location that’s never had wine/cider/beer made in it before.

Thanks for info. I still think I may play it safe with a commercial yeast strain. Since this is a home winemaking project and have very limited winery/ lab equipment at my disposal if a problem where to arise.

I may segregate a bit of fruit and try a wild ferment to compare.

The only lab equipment you should need to monitor a ferment is a thermometer and hygrometer. Plus your nose. I understand the better safe than sorry. Usually home projects are to small to generate enough heat on their own. Since your doing 2 tons, hopefully in T-bins. You should be fine. Macro bin ferments have a hard time building and staying warm enough to finish with either native or inoculated ferments.

I have done many Zin ferments over the years. If there are not any raisins or soak up then 25 brix when done native with whole clusters in a open top fermentor a conversion rate of .57-.58 is attainable giving 14.25-14.5% final ETOH. However I have seen raisined up clusters closed top inoculated ferments convert as high as .60-.62 for 15-15.5% final ETOH.

The only stuck natives/wild ferments I have seen all had one thing in common, high final ETOH, though often low YAN can contributed to it as well. To get to higher final ETOH numbers you need much more YAN to complete.

I agree with Joe. Let it rip. Sure you can purchase a yeast if you like, but just think of using it as a closer if/when things get sluggish.

Being a newbie is the best time to take a chance. And remember, the hardest thing to do is nothing at all.

I have thermometers, hydrometers and a pretty basic ph meter. I do not have any equipment to measure available nitrogen though. I suppose whether I choose to inoculate or not I would still use Fermaid or DAP to keep the fermentation happy.

I will be doing two barrel ferments plus I just recently bought a food grade plastic Egg Shape fermenter from Flextanks to try out. It holds about a ton of fruit.

Thanks again. I think you may have convinced me to let her go wild!