Rose - My first time, tips, advice, help!!!

Cellar Rats (ITB)
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[rofl.gif]

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How did the rose turn out?

I am making my first rose (Cab Franc & Merlot, half of it saignee, other half nice fresh underripe Franc destemmed & pressed directly) or, I should say, I am taking over for winemaker who left town and my rose I just discovered to be, well… not dry! It was fermented with resident (that’s my version for the term war) yeasts in 55degree bbl cellar in several partly-filled SS drums. Four of 6 drums are stuck at 2- 5% brix.

One question I’m asking myself is what effect combining the direct-pressed franc into the saignee of merlot since there was a full week between harvest of each. Fresh juice added after ferment started? In his defense, this not by winemaker orders, just a cellar accident. But I heard no discussion/attempt to remedy ill effects of the accident; just that my “Rose of Cabernet Franc” became a “Right Bank Rose.”

I was after a nice fresh wine. Crisp. What do I like? Tempier, sure, but typically choose 3 bottles of Domaine Dragon for same $, just had a delicious Foley rose–lovely pale color, watermelon/strawberry/mineral flavors, clean edges. Only Rose of Cab Franc I’ve ever tasted was Havens, and it was delicious–I know it was made from unripe fruit from virused vines. Definitely assumed, for starters, my rose should be dry.

Any advice on strategy here, other than calling local winemakers and embarrassing myself further?

(Mean things said about winemakers deleted.)

My plan:

  1. Taste it all
  2. Test it – all three drums separately? I’ll ask ETS what to test for.
  3. Come back here hoping someone has generously offered up #4

[thankyou.gif]

Emily

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Emily
Two options:
1)
Get the wine up to 65 F. In a ‘rustic’ cellar, your best bet is a) a separate room or b) creating one with tarps. Then you can use space heaters, but you’ll have to monitor temps.
Mix up a starter culture of something bomber, like UV43, add it to a separate vessel. Keep adding wine until you reach 20% of total volume.
Add the starter culture back to wine. Keep warm (65-70 degrees). Watch your VAs.
2)
Don’t sulfur. Wait for spring to warm up the cellar. Watch your VAs. You’ll have more luck with this if your pHs are pretty low, as I hope they’d be on a rose.

The addition of juice to already fermenting juice shouldn’t really affect anything as long as temps were not a shock to the yeast and nutrient levels were kept an eye on. I do it all the time, and its commonplace in Chateauneuf, for instance. Natives have had a hard time getting finished this year. I think all my native whites and roses are still, um, working on it. Cross your fingers!

Ian

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I agree with Ian, plus a few opinions. I’d find out what the alc, ph and va levels of the rose are. If the alc or va is high then inoculating with uvaferm 43 or something similar seems appropriate. Otherwise if the ph is higher than, say, 3.55 then inoculating with a more rose compatible yeast…looks like Cross Evolution is active at low temps and works well for Rose, so that seems like an interesting choice. In both cases, I’d warm up the barrels to the low 60’s and inoculate using a restart procedure.

If the alc/va/ph are all low then I’d leave it alone. It’s probably moving along tho slowly due to temps.

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Ian and Eric - you guys are awesome, thank you, this helps me feel comfortable with our plan. We inoculate today with EZFirm 44, energized with ‘Nutra Firm’ food, and prepped in a “slurry” (sorry, I’m a cook, so this my frame of reference) with rose slowly added before it goes into the drum. Looks like the EZFirm44 tolerates alcohol, low temps (to 10degC) and SO2. Perfect. Not sure about the SO2 plan - I will proceed cautiously on your advice.

Three of my four stuck/sluggish drums are still active, but we’d like to bottle sooner than later and get this ferment done, so I’m told this yeast is a killer and will do in the natives, and get there sooner…

Winery host doesn’t want a “tent” in the cellar, prefers fishtank heaters; I’m hoping this will wrap without heating, and keep flavors fresh as possible.

Thanks for helping the novice vintner, I’ll report back the results. And test pH too - good idea, we haven’t done that yet.

Cheers,
Emily, ITB, and now ITC

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Hell, Emily. Just bottle it off-dry. Bob Trinchero made millions that way! newhere

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Pretty funny, truly. All of us idealists scrap for our daily meals. Trinchero gave the people what they want! And Trinchero Family bought the old Havens winery and will no doubt make a lovely place of it. I liked that location too, but don’t have the budget/crew to fix 'er up…

Maybe need to rethink those sugar levels :slight_smile:

Cheers guys! I just got a 92WE on my first release, and I’m gonna go celebrate and hope the trend continues with RP and Spectator. And say a ‘prayer’ for the sluggish yeast population in all our whites & roses.

Emily

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Didn’t know Trinchero bought the Havens facility but they should do something nice with it, and congrats on your 92!

True story. In about 1976 or 1977 Bob Trinchero was at a winemaker tasting I attended in San Diego. I can’t remember who was there beyond Bob and Mike Grgich and perhaps Paul Draper, but I hadn’t really discovered Ridge yet so I’m not sure of that. Anyway, at the end of the evening, during which Bob poured, if memory serves, massive quantities of the Eschen Ranch zin from Amador that he was still making, the two of us polished off all the partial bottles of moscato and talked for a long, long time. That was a wine he was quite proud of, and rightly so. I’d have to guess it was somewhere around 6-8% RS, and it was the first dessert wine I fell in love with.

No, wait. That would have been Charles Krug’s frizzante moscato that had to be bought at the winery because it couldn’t be stored at room temperature for any length of time.

Yes, I’ve been at this a long, long time.

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Hi Emily. If you’re looking for examples, and you can get your hands on one, Charles Joguet makes a Chinon rose that is 100% Cab Franc, and IMO is one of the best representations of the grape I’ve had.

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I wholly appreciate the tip --I will look high and low. I think the grape makes an exquisite rose and have been dying to make one!

Thanks.