Wine Time Again
It's fall, and time for grapes. They came early this year, and we have been working hard on Syrah, Riesling, and our red blend from last year.
The syrah arrived on September 16 from WWAWA. We got the call on Wednesday evening, and had to make sure we had everything we needed. We decided, based on previous years to use Wyeast yeast (http://www.wyeastlab.com/winery/wineryprod.htm) and in particular, the Bordeaux strain. Had some fun getting it: we went to the Cellar to get it Thursday evening. They didn't have any, but Brian, the owner, called Mountain Homebrew (http://www.mountainhomebrew.com/) to see if they had any, and he would pick it up that evening on his way home, and he would bring into work the next day and we would pick it up Friday evening. Because we didn't need to add the yeast until Sunday, it would have ample time to grow up. So Charlie road his motorcycle out there Friday afternoon after work, and Brian wasn't there and there was no yeast....Charlie let them know that we needed it, (we had already paid for it) and lo and behold the Wyeast delivery came in with 8 packages of Bordeaux, but all going to one customer. Well, one of Brian's customers only got 7 packages. It was time for that customer to learn how to grow the yeast up.
So the grapes: the Brix was quite high: 27, and Jerry Warren gave instructions on how to modify by adding water, and then adding acid blend back to bring up the acid. More on that later. Total acid came in at .62, and pH was 3.56. Optimum for reds is 22.5-24.5 Brix, 6-8 TA and 3.3-3.5 pH (http://wineserver.ucdavis.edu/content.php?category=Winemaking ) But for the 16th we were most concerned with steaming and crushing. Dr Z, Miss Elaine, Charles and I got them babies crushed in less than 2 hours. Then we had breakfast at Rudy's here in Magnolia, and it was quite delightful. Headed to the farmer's market and picked up some things then back to work.
By this time it was afternoon, and it was time to bottle last year's red blend. The Zobersts were able come and join the fun.
We had done three blends in each of the stainless steel kegs:
#1: 4:1 2005 Syrah to 2004 Cabernet Sauvingnon with French Oak
#2 3:1:1:1 2005 Syrah, 2005 Grenache, 2004 Cabernet Franc, 2004 Cabernet Sauvingnon with French Oak
#3 3:1:1:1 same as above, but with American Oak.
The oak was from Stavin (http://www.stavin.com/homewines/products.htm), and worked well.
We bottled over 18 cases (just over 6 cases for each blend), so each couple got 2 cases plus a few bottles of each blend.
By this time we were hungry, and we had Creamy Sausuage Pasta, using the Faure/Mahan homemade Italian Sausage. Rounded it out with a salad and bread, and the Ziegler/Zedella's brought a couple of excellent bottles of Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvingon...late '80's vintages, I believe (http://www.quilcedacreek.com/). We enjoyed the meal on the Piazza Bitsini
The syrah arrived on September 16 from WWAWA. We got the call on Wednesday evening, and had to make sure we had everything we needed. We decided, based on previous years to use Wyeast yeast (http://www.wyeastlab.com/winery/wineryprod.htm) and in particular, the Bordeaux strain. Had some fun getting it: we went to the Cellar to get it Thursday evening. They didn't have any, but Brian, the owner, called Mountain Homebrew (http://www.mountainhomebrew.com/) to see if they had any, and he would pick it up that evening on his way home, and he would bring into work the next day and we would pick it up Friday evening. Because we didn't need to add the yeast until Sunday, it would have ample time to grow up. So Charlie road his motorcycle out there Friday afternoon after work, and Brian wasn't there and there was no yeast....Charlie let them know that we needed it, (we had already paid for it) and lo and behold the Wyeast delivery came in with 8 packages of Bordeaux, but all going to one customer. Well, one of Brian's customers only got 7 packages. It was time for that customer to learn how to grow the yeast up.
So the grapes: the Brix was quite high: 27, and Jerry Warren gave instructions on how to modify by adding water, and then adding acid blend back to bring up the acid. More on that later. Total acid came in at .62, and pH was 3.56. Optimum for reds is 22.5-24.5 Brix, 6-8 TA and 3.3-3.5 pH (http://wineserver.ucdavis.edu/content.php?category=Winemaking ) But for the 16th we were most concerned with steaming and crushing. Dr Z, Miss Elaine, Charles and I got them babies crushed in less than 2 hours. Then we had breakfast at Rudy's here in Magnolia, and it was quite delightful. Headed to the farmer's market and picked up some things then back to work.
By this time it was afternoon, and it was time to bottle last year's red blend. The Zobersts were able come and join the fun.
We had done three blends in each of the stainless steel kegs:
#1: 4:1 2005 Syrah to 2004 Cabernet Sauvingnon with French Oak
#2 3:1:1:1 2005 Syrah, 2005 Grenache, 2004 Cabernet Franc, 2004 Cabernet Sauvingnon with French Oak
#3 3:1:1:1 same as above, but with American Oak.
The oak was from Stavin (http://www.stavin.com/homewines/products.htm), and worked well.
We bottled over 18 cases (just over 6 cases for each blend), so each couple got 2 cases plus a few bottles of each blend.
By this time we were hungry, and we had Creamy Sausuage Pasta, using the Faure/Mahan homemade Italian Sausage. Rounded it out with a salad and bread, and the Ziegler/Zedella's brought a couple of excellent bottles of Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvingon...late '80's vintages, I believe (http://www.quilcedacreek.com/). We enjoyed the meal on the Piazza Bitsini
posted by Bitsy at
1:11 PM
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