Today was crush, I’m worn out but wanted to share some updates here.
I harvested on Thursday morning as planned. This was the first crop off the vineyard so yields were expected to be low, but the hail storm and the severe case of black rot did not do any favors either. I was able to get a small, but good quality crop off the vines and with the low yields I decided to combine the Mourvedre, Syrah, and Counoise all together (which still netted only 30lbs).
With my investment so far in all the material, equipment, and sweat I decided that it’s not much more work to make 130lbs than it would be to make 30lbs and fortunately I was able to get in touch with a grower about 15 miles away who had Syrah at 21.2 brix that he was willing to sell. So in the name of making more volume I started my morning by driving my truck over to his vineyard (felt like a real winemaker doing this ) where he had 100lbs already picked off for me and ready to run through his destemmer. He was also gracious enough to allow me to put my grapes through the destemmer too so that saved some time when I got back home.
Once back home I was ready to crush, I did a foot tread and figured I would let the juice sit on skins for 4-6 hours.
Unfortunately the press I borrowed was tiny so it took about 6 loads to get it all through, it took a couple hours but I finally got it finished and all cleaned up. One thing I will add is that it felt wrong throwing 6 “fruit cakes” of all the pomace straight into the composter. I think next year I want to try to make something in addition - either rehydrate those skins and make a piquette or just bleed off juice from the soak and make a saignee in addition to a red, I’m open to advice/opinions on this idea.
I transferred all juice to tank, added my yeast and have it attempting to ferment at about 60F (it’s holding more like 65F), I’ll report back on the progress.
Correct @Al_Osterheld this first attempt is an intentional rose. Just getting a feel for what I’m doing this time around, next year I will keep skins and juice together for several days. Day 3 and the ferment is really looking good!
I understand this feeling. I have made a lot of different things over the years but rarely did any of them turn out as well as I had hoped. Maybe, we would drink a bottle or two. Most sat in the cellar, often for years before I finally got around to dumping them out. Thanks to your post, I went down to the cellar tonight and dumped some failed experiments and some other bottles that weren’t failures but were well over the hill. All of them should have been dumped long ago. My point isn’t to say don’t do it. Just noting that the results of these efforts were rarely satisfying.
These are my expectations Brian, I don’t have any delusions that I’ve had some hidden winemaking talent buried inside me for 40 years. At worst I learn a ton about the process and at best I produce something that is somewhat drinkable. I’m already way ahead on the former as this has been a challenge and given me additional respect for growers and makers alike.
Fermentation is still going along smoothly, but I think we are on the tail end of that now. I will probably take a sample tonight and measure gravity to see where we are. A couple of complete n00b questions I have because at this point I’m really getting outside the realm of having a clue what I’m doing.
How do I know when the wine is fully dry? Should I be looking for 0 Brix (or close to it) on the Hydrometer?
At that point I believe I’m also supposed to check the pH and the Free SO2, correct? That ratio will tell me how much Potassium Metabisulfite I need to add before moving into secondary fermentation?
I believe I should I also measure the T.A. at this time? That reading will tell me if/how much I need to add tartaric acid? For reference the starting T.A. on the juice was 0.75%
Once I have done these calculations and added the needed ingredients I can then rack to carboys and airlock the wine. What temperature/environment should I store this in? Can I just stick it in the back of a dark closet at this point? How long does this part of the process last? Given this is rose and I’m not waiting for tannin to soften or anything can I safely assume about 2 months?
Thanks in advance for any and all expertise/advice here.
There is what I should probably do and then there is what I actually do as the two are generally different.
Knowing the wine is dry - one should measure with the hydrometer to verify zero brix. I think it is actually a bit below zero as alcohol is less dense than water. But I never do this. I let the wine sit in carboy until around May. If any malo-lacto is going to happen, it generally will by then and the wine is almost always fully dry by that point. The one time I thought maybe it stuck, I checked brix before bottling just to be sure it was safe.
Checking pH and TA. I check prior to primary fermentation and make adjustments then. I don’t check again later as I am not going to make any further adjustments.
Checking free SO2. This should be done but again I have been lazy in the past without negative results. I add SO2 at the crusher. How much depends on how clean the fruit is when harvested. Then I generally add a bit more at bottling.
Time in secondary is nothing I have really thought about in much detail. As I noted already, I usually just keep it there until Spring so that I know it has had time to complete malo-lacto if it starts naturally. I don’t want to bottle early and have it go through malo in bottle. For bigger reds in glass, you will want to rack the wine a few times to get air into it since you are not putting it in barrels. For rose, I haven’t noticed that this is needed but do smell it every so often as if you start to notice a sulfide smell you will want to rack it.
A lot of this makes sense for a red wine or anything I would want to go through malo. I’m going to try and prevent this rose’ from seeing malo and also assume it will be ready a bit sooner than waiting the 9 months or so that you suggest. I think (hope) this wine will be about freshness and acidity (even if I need to add some to get it there) and optimistically it will be ready to drink by Thanksgiving, but I guess we’ll see.
Have you ever had any issues with turbidity? It sounds like you mostly make reds so perhaps this hasn’t been a concern in the past. I’m hoping I dont need to enter the realm of fining agents down the road, but we shall see.
No and I’ve made red, rose, white, and sparkling. Time and gravity has always worked. If you want to turn this fast, you may have issues. I haven’t really paid attention to how long it takes for a carboy to become clear naturally.
Thanks, sounds like best plan is just not to rush it. Did you pay any attention to the environment where you stored it? This being Texas we don’t have basements and the temps outside are 106 so a garage is out of the question. Best I can do is probably back of a closet somewhere, it will stay around 72 in there.
Also - did you let your rose’s go through malo? I would think preserving the bright fruit would be the objective for this wine. I do like your free wheelin’ attitude though, ideally I want to be that way but with this first go-around I’m trying to cautiously do everything “by the book”
I never attempted to prevent malo from occurring. It is true that I stress over the vineyard and then don’t pay enough attention to the winemaking.
For temperature, you should be fine at 72. My carboys sit in my cellar so are a bit cooler than that but before this house, I made some wine in less ideal conditions. One batch of Riesling I made in a converted attic apartment in Indiana that had very limited AC cooling capacity. I put the carboys in the tub as it was the coolest spot I had and the wine turned out great.
I really don’t think this will be ready by Thanksgiving. You’re not making nouveau. Let it sit and clarify until spring, at least. The extra lees contact will give the wine more body and texture.
Appreciate you helping me get my expectations in line, I will stay patient here. Trying to balance that fine line of wanting the wine to be done with wanting to drink it at maximum freshness (only because this is a rose’)
I racked the wine out of tank and into carboy today. I was able to get 5 gallons of “clean” juice and then I poured off another 1 gallon of really muddy juice into a separate container. I’m hoping that muddy stuff will settle out enough to at least be used as juice to top off with, but I’m also prepared that it might just be the angels share when all is said and done.
Final stats as we go into a long resting period:
T.A. 0.75%
Starting Gravity: 1.0900
Final Gravity: .0992
Alcohol: 12.84%
pH: 3.32
Free So2: 4ppm (added KMBS: .59g to boost to 24ppm)
Of course! I had to try some in the name of science, this is about learning afterall. It’s lighter in the glass than it looks there in bottle, but still quite dark for a rose’ - especially considering it only saw 2 hours of skin contact. I’m hoping some of that will settle out during this phase and I’ll finish with something slightly lighter, but if nothing else I’ve learned that I will free run the juice if I decide to make rose’ again.
At the this stage I really like the taste and hope it’s a preview of what is to come in the finished wine. It definitely shows the flavors of the red grapes included (~80% syrah, 15% mourvedre, 5% counoise) but it has so much freshness and a very present acidity. It’s still very cloudy at this stage and had not seen any sulfites yet, but I enjoyed it especially after putting a chill on it and letting it open up over the course of an hour.
) where he had 100lbs already picked off for me and ready to run through his destemmer. He was also gracious enough to allow me to put my grapes through the destemmer too so that saved some time when I got back home.
