Hi all
a question for those of you who have experience with Syrah.
what are your overall thoughts on stem inclusion (when ripe) for syrah ferment?
for those who do it: what qualities you get that you like? Aromatically and texturally?
for those who don’t entertain the idea: what makes you cringe?
one last question:
do you whole cluster ferment? Carbonic macerate? or crush but also include stem? any advice on temperature control or must treatment?
cheers
The one time I made syrah (have done WC with Pinot many times), I looked for pleasant/floral green stems…not vegetal stems. Don’t use more than 50% whole cluster your first time out. Life in simpler if you put the whole clusters in the fermenter first, and foot stomp them a bit. Then put the destemmed fruit on top of them. Using at least partial rollers/crushers to get some juice in there is a good idea.
I would use no higher temps with stems than you have without stems…at least to start. If you’ve never worked with the fruit then high 70s or low 80s is a good peak ferment temp.
Just my opinion tho, of course.
Love stems and the black pepper character they give syrah. Put them in the bottom of the fermentor and destem over the top for best results. Whole clusters are the only way to assure whole berries and a slower release of sugar to the yeast. Its more important for the stems to not taste green(yes bite them!) and have no sap running than being brown and lignified.
Agree with above dont do over 50% if you have not worked with fruit. Keep etoh under 14 (as much above and etoh becomes a great solution to extract to much) and you can go with highter peak cap temp up to 95. For a longer duration.
ps… I only love syrah made by pinot winemakers for some reason.
Funny you say that. My three favorite Syrahs are Swan, Dehlinger and Clos Saron. Three winemakers who focus on Pinot as their flagship wines.
I worked at Swan for a couple of vintages. Love the estate and its a conferment with a little viognier. Love the Delhinger stuff as well got to know them as they were just down the road. Still buying some of both. Will have to try some Clos Saron.
Awesome wines. Very low to no sulfur. All old barrels.
Its funny, I want to like Syrah with stem inclusion and always try wine by those who used them. And it fairly easy to taste it when they include stems and don’t mention it. But I never really end up liking those wines, they always seem to taste like…stems. I have not tried using them in my own Syrah. Maybe I would if I run across the ever-elusive lignified stems. In my own Syrah’s, we get nice black pepper and earth flavors without using stems. We do have a high percentage of whole berry in our ferments. The cooler vintages like '10 and '11 really bring out the “non-fruit” flavors in Syrah. So far, the 2012 vintage has so much fruit on the pallette its hard to taste those nuances. I suspect '13 will be similar. I do like a good, warm temperature spike mid-ferment to help extract all of whats good.
thnx to all for your responses.
that black and white pepper notes have been proven to do with the skin and not other parts of the grape. rotundone is the terpene that is responsible for those aromas. NZ and Ausi researchers have done quite a bit of work and have results to report on what conditions/work in both vineyard and cellar and enhance or minimize the presence of this compound.