Summer is flying by! July certainly snuck up on me & got here quick! Which means it’s just about that time to get back to work on these spring wines. Been about 5 weeks now. I wanted to make sure I gave em all another good month for the malo to fully do its thing. Just performed the final chroma test yesterday. Looks good across the board. Time to rack, sulphite, test levels for the 1st time since before AF and give em a little taste.
Also finally got around to building a stand for the new 50L barrel. Not exactly fancy. I just repurposed some old shelving I had laying around collecting dust. Had to make due without a jigsaw which I forgot to bring home from work. Mimic’ed the 8gal stand
@mainshipfred built, slapped on some new casters and fiń. Made myself a better barrel-ring chisel too. Thicker flat end and bent to an offset. Worked great and now I’m all ready to swell it up and fill.
1st run with the Cab Franc/Cab Sauv/Petit Verdot blend. (Saved 3gal ea. Franc & Sauv for single varietals). Then Malbec to follow for a lengthy stay. I also have a neutral 8gal barrel I could use for the Malbec while waiting. (I will have 10gal Malbec leftover anyway once in the barrel)
The 8gal is currently filled with a Tuscan from ‘17 that needs some TLC. Still no clue what I’m gonna do to it tho. Been meaning to get some tasters bottled for second opinions. Same with a ‘18 Sauv Blanc. But these are discussions for another day. In the meantime they remain at the bottom of the priority list.
Rosé color looks great imo. I was also happy to see the lactic/malic spots remain unchanged from previous chroma 5/29 since I haven’t stabilized at all yet and it’s still bubbling away. Even now 2 months post AF it’s still consistently showing co2 bubbles rising and sitting at surface. Glad to confirm its not caused from mlf.
Fingers crossed my acid levels fell into place!
been super busy lately but hoping to make some time over the next few days to get all these wines safely tucked in till fall.
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