Topping protocols

I have been discussing this a lot lately for some reason. I guess I did not realize opinions varied so much. I top every 3 weeks +/- a day or 2 . Cellar is 58-60* and 65-75% RH. I check status of ml and free so2 every other topping. Typically adding .5-1l of wine to each barrel with older ones getting less usually and new ones getting more. This is also just about a 5 gallon carboy which is perfect to fill my 30 PN barrels.

What are you doing? Have spoke with some who do weekly. I think there adding more oxygen to the wine by opening the barrels that much. I know a few who do 6-8 weeks and claim the vacuum created protects the wine. They also seem to rack much more than I and use more so2.

If any presence of surface yeast what do you do? I overfill and splash then spray a bit of so2 solution on top and seal up, then clean barrel and floor with ozone.

Do you top in place if stacked or unstack to top? Topping stacked makes a bigger mess if the upper ones spill, so start from the bottom up? I am still single stacked barrels and don’t move them but once to clean after racking and bending. Then I have to stack them for our big open house with oysters and whole leg of prosciutto for the Anderson Valley Pinot Noir festival.

Interesting Joe, I have been noticing a wide variation in topping practice as well. I am on the longer, 6-8 week side of things but hear of those who only go 1 or 2 weeks. I usually need 1-1.5L per barrel topping wine. I have always assumed that a longer interval creates more O2 interaction due to a larger headspace and greater vacuum in the barrel. But I have not seen oxidation issues with the longer interval. But I am not typically pushing the limits of high pH or low SO2 so that’s probably a factor. If I see surface yeast I usually just dab the surface with a paper towel to capture the skin and then check free SO2 and adjust. If I were to run into something nasty looking I would haul it to the drain, over flow, and top. I normally don’t move barrels for topping, just try not to spill. I have a number of different varietals so I go by varietal rather than starting at the top or bottom. My super high tech way of keeping track of what is topped and what no is a piece of blue tape on each one topped until they are all done.

Even if you go bottom up, what happens if you make a mess on the top barrel? Does it magically not drip down?

We top once per month and send samples for each lot prior to topping so we can make adjustments if need be. At this point I’m just following orders and can’t make any decisions (not that I’m the least bit qualified to do so) so it will be interesting to see everyone else’s regimens.

We generally alternate on whether we top in place or bring them out over a drain. If we never spill, we’ll just leave the barrels stacked. If it looks like the barrels need a scrub down, we’ll bring them out to clean them and top while they’re out.

I’m a every two weeks, over-flow the barrel to ensure no film yeasts or air bubbles are in there, kind of guy. Not much for beautiful looking barrels. :slight_smile:

Andrew, some of the winemakers where I am incessantly clean their barrels, I don’t get it. Sure, keep the mold off, but sometimes it’s just too much.

I don’t care about how the barrels look, but I get asked all the time where my old barrels are. Only working with PN as a red and always using hot water over the barrel prior to opening keeps them looking almost to good. The hot water soaks in so if I spill or overflow the wine never soaks in.

I top every 2 to 3.5 weeks and SO2 once a month post ML. I’m only stacked 2 high, so I top while they’re stacked. I made wine in a custom crush place for 4 years where they stacked 5 high, so for topping they would unstack every 2 weeks, KMBS the tops of the barrels, top, rinse, then stack again. Very time-consuming, but safe.

I see film yeast every fall in many of the barrels prior to ML finishing. I used to worry about it and spray SO2 on the surface of the wine. However, over the years, I realize that eventually they’ll finish ML, and once I start adding SO2 to the wine, the film yeast goes away. So, I stopped worrying about it. Another way I stopped worrying about it is that I top by sound and rarely look in the barrel with a flashlight while topping. Out of sight, out of mind.

Ed. Not surprisingly were about on the same protocol as you. We top about every three weeks (it takes us about a week to do it) then go through the barrel room and scrub around the bunghole with citric SO2. We only deal with sulfur once every 3-4 months, but because we’re fastidious we haven’t had any problems of late, and we like the lower molecular in our wine (although when they are higher, we get comments about how ‘European’ they taste). The last couple years have been dry and that’s affected humidity around here. A humidification system is on the to do list. If only because it’ll bring wetter weather. I’ve heard about vacuum and the bung roll. I’m not interested, I hear too many whispers of issues. I want wines taut and tense in the winery, clean with low molecular so they come into themselves reliably in the bottle. This regimen seems to work, for both you and me. PS I like your wines.

Ian,
When you say low molecular, how low? Does your number vary on a case by case basis? Where do you prefer to keep molecular as a general rule?
TIA,
Noel

I’ve kind of assumed that surface film yeast and acetobacter will cling as residue on the underside of the top of the barrel, even if I overflow the barrel during topping; i.e., I doubt that I’m floating out very much of whatever’s there, and the inoculum remains in place for whenever head space re-develops. I like to sulfur with the Efferbactol-like products because they immediately spread out at the surface of the wine, and, I hope, deliver a concentrated dose of SO2 at the air-wine interface. The downside is that these products seem to leave a residue at the surface that makes me worry that I have one of the very things I’m trying to prevent – surface film yeast.

I worked with Efferbactol for one vintage at a winery, we went back to regular meta due to the film left behind. Not sure what it was but did not like the idea of “other stuff” being left behind from that product.

Noel,
So a theoretical situation that is pretty common around here would be a finished red with a pH of 3.65 going into the bottle with a FSO2 around 25 and a TSO2 below 70 having seen 90-100 ppm total addition over the life of the wine. That would put our molecular around the .5-.6 level and keeps our totals low, leaving the wine pretty stable but still expressive and accurate. The pH and TSO2 are as important in the equation FWIW.
Ian

Ian,

I’ve been to a famous winery in the northern Rhone that does the bung and roll on their three wines that begin with La. So no barrel tasting out of those! I think they leave them 3 years without topping. That’s what the tour guide said, I wish somone on the winemaking staff had been there to confirm that.

Do you have an ST of wine this year, is that why it takes you a week to finish the topping?

Ed,
Just shy of 900 barrels, close to 100 lots, 34 different varieties (ok maybe 28 of those are actually in barrel). Does that qualify as a ST? A brother has got to do what he has got to do to make a living in this backwater, as you well know.
Ian

I believe a fso2 of 25 and ph of 3.65 will get you a molecular of 0.35. You’d have to boost the fso2 to ~40 (or lower the ph to 3.45) to get a molecular of 0.55.

I’ve read similar things about total so2…in reds anyways. Basically that reds provide lots for sulfur to weakly bind to…since it’s bound it doesn’t count towards free so2…but since weak it ‘easily’ unbinds (as ‘conditions change’) to maintain free sulfur levels. One reason why wine with high total so2 is hard to get through ML, even if the free is low.

Eh. Whatever. Even lower than I thought. Not worried about it either way. Total, I find, can really affect wine flavor in ways I don’t like. A little too young in the business to give much on how it affects longevity, but 95% of what we make is to be enjoyed in the next five years anyway, so I’m not staying up nights worrying about it. Hopefully balance, tannic structure and good cellar care carry those wines through, rather than dropping a bunch of sulfur in there and winding it up. Time will tell.