Zinfandel

Wondering about a couple things with zin. My first crack at it. First, what type of commercial yeast is appropriate for a high brix style. Also, crushed or whole berry, stem inclusion? I have heard some like to treat zin tenderly like Pinot Noir?

Hi Brian,

What are you considering high brix? Also, what kind of wine do you like? That would influence my answer for your other questions.

26/27 brix.

Wines I have tasted from this vineyard have in the past produced both powerful and elegant wines at the same time. Huge ABVs wrapped in subtle lifted elegance.

If you are willing to water back a bit you can do natural yeast or use the assmanhausen yeast. Assmanhausen is by far my favorite cultured yeast but these days I do all non-inoculated fermentation. I have not made a wine at the brix you have but my understanding is that LALVIN K1 V1116 is a good high alcohol yeast. IIRC its a rather neutral yeast from a taste perspective. Also, make sure you measure PH and add acid before fermentation if you need it. Zin generally has good acids (Ive never had to add any) but at that brix the PH is probably getting a bit high.

As far as crushing the grapes, I like to destem but keep the berries as whole as possible. Zin is such a thin-skinned grapes they mostly break up before the end of fermentation from the punchdowns anyway. I like this approach because it adds some floral esters to the wine. As long as the fermentation gets to the low 80s it wont be too tutti fruity and will have some rich berry fruit as well. I also do only one punch down a day. All this is geared towards making a less powerful wine than many people aim for with zin. At the end of the day, if you want a more robust wine you can increase the punch downs, use enzymes, increase the maceration, increase the temps, etc.

Also, this is just my subjective opinion but I think Zin does much better in neutral oak than new/newer. I like to preserve Zin’s fruit flavors and not cover them up.

I just remembered that the winery where I did custom crush last year used BM 4x4 for their zins which were later picked than mine and they had no problem finishing their fermentations.

http://www.scottlab.com/product-45.aspx

  • 1 on the Assmanhausen if are shooting for a lighter style.