Secondary Fermentation

[Thomas_Pellechia]

@Mary Baker

Heh, good point Thomas. Stranger things have happened, so who knows? Just from tasting Turleys I have always had the impression they run high in pH, so who knows perhaps some vigorous beastie in that bottle managed to survive? But that’s one of the reasons I asked for a description of the wine … also, perhaps the sensation of spritz could be from the burn of unbalanced acids or dead fruit that can no longer support the alc? The longer you age a zinfandel, the less unilateral consistency you’ll find. Other bottles of the same release might be outstanding? I will never know as I prefer older Ridge to old Turley.

High in pH, for sure.

In any case, if the spritz is from ML, shouldn’t the wine smell almost like sauerkraut?

On the other hand, if the spritz is from primary, I should think the wine would be either doughy, H2S-like, or bubble gum-ish, as in carbonic maceration, since the CO2 has nowhere to go…

I’d guess that if the spritz was there but no off odors, it is likely what you refer to as “the burn of unbalanced acids or dead fruit that can no longer support the alc”

[Jeff_Brinkman]

@Thomas Pellechia

@Mary Baker

I’d guess that if the spritz was there but no off odors, it is likely what you refer to as “the burn of unbalanced acids or dead fruit that can no longer support the alc”

I’ve never perceived acid or alc as spritz. I think you can make a pretty convincing argument that spritz can be only one of two things, which Linda pointed out above, minimal handling/racking that preserved CO2 at bottling or secondary fermentation. Knowing that Turley zins very often have residual sugar, I’d have to say it sounds like residual yeast kicked it off again. Just my 2 cents-

[Linda_Baehr]

@Thomas Pellechia

Linda, Mary, et al,

Are the new yeasts completely impervious to alcohol these days that they can restart in the bottle at 17 plus alcohol?

We had a tank of Zin go completely dry at 18,55% EtOH this year.

[Bob_Wood]

@Linda Baehr

@Thomas Pellechia

Linda, Mary, et al,

Are the new yeasts completely impervious to alcohol these days that they can restart in the bottle at 17 plus alcohol?

We had a tank of Zin go completely dry at 18,55% EtOH this year.

Uhhh . . . what are you going to do with it? Call it “port”?

[Ed_Kurtzman]

An old winemaker’s saying (not mine, even though I’m old) is that the best way to restart a stuck primary or ML fermentation is to bottle the wine unfiltered.

Without having tried this '97 Turley, I’d guess that primary finished in the bottle. It wouldn’t be surprising to see significant bottle variation.

[Linda_Baehr]

@Bob Wood

@Linda Baehr

@Thomas Pellechia

Linda, Mary, et al,

Are the new yeasts completely impervious to alcohol these days that they can restart in the bottle at 17 plus alcohol?

We had a tank of Zin go completely dry at 18,55% EtOH this year.

Uhhh . . . what are you going to do with it? Call it “port”?

Nope. No sugar left.
Don’t tell anyone, but we had it de-alc’d. It actually hide the alcohol pretty well, but:

1. The ML was stuck, and it damned sure wouldn’t restart at that alcohol level.
2. It did have a rocket fuel finish after the first few sips.
3. We have so many high alc’s this year, it was a good idea to get this large lot to a lower alcohol.
4. Significant tax savings over the life of the wine.

Let the nay saying begin. [rolleyes.gif]

[Thomas_Pellechia]

@Linda Baehr

@Bob Wood

@Linda Baehr

We had a tank of Zin go completely dry at 18,55% EtOH this year.

Uhhh . . . what are you going to do with it? Call it “port”?

Nope. No sugar left.
Don’t tell anyone, but we had it de-alc’d. It actually hide the alcohol pretty well, but:

1. The ML was stuck, and it damned sure wouldn’t restart at that alcohol level.
2. It did have a rocket fuel finish after the first few sips.
3. We have so many high alc’s this year, it was a good idea to get this large lot to a lower alcohol.
4. Significant tax savings over the life of the wine.

Let the nay saying begin. [rolleyes.gif]

Linda,

I’m sure you’ll appreciate this from one fellow in a cold region to those of you in a hot region: sometimes it’s clear that each region can be too much for wine