2017 Port Plans?

[NorCal]

I'm planning on doing 5 gallons of port this year. 3 handles (1.75l) and 3.6 gallons of petite sirah. Planning on arresting fermentation at 6 brix.

These are the petite sirah grapes from the vineyard I'll be pulling the fruit from.

 

[ColemanM]

Wow those look great. I made another 5 gallons of old vine zin port and will be making 3 gallons of Tempranillo port to help with topping and change the profile of this port. Trying to make a vintage port instead of a tawny this time around.

 

[marino]

I have 6 gal Tempranillo port from 2016. First time. So promising

 

[sour_grapes]

I'm planning on doing 5 gallons of port this year. 3 handles (1.75l) and 3.6 gallons of petite sirah. Planning on arresting fermentation at 6 brix.

NorCal, it seems like you already have your plan. However, you may be interested in this nonetheless. A few years ago, I "solved the math" and came up with a calculator to assist with when to do the fortification. You put in the density (or brix) of the must, and the ABV of the brandy, as well as the desired ABV and Brix of the resultant port, and the formula tells you when to pull the trigger and how much brandy to add.

Here is the relevant post from a thread regarding this exercise:

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=503265&postcount=52

Well, I put this into an Excel sheet, which you are welcome to (if I can figure out how to attach it). There are two sheets: one you input the sugar in g/l, the other you input the SG of the must instead. In both sheets, you input parameters in the yellow boxes, and the answers come out in the blue boxes.

It is currently set up to do SG or g/L, but it would be trivial for me to adapt it to Brix if you are interested. (I think for this purpose, you can just take Brix ~= (g/l)/10, but I could make the small correction to get it more exact than that if you are interested.)

 

[Johnd]

I tasted and purchased a Pinot Noir port from Del Dotto. They first made the Pinot wine, and then reused the skins to make a second wine. When the second wine was finished, it was distilled to make Pinot brandy, which was then used to fortify the original wine. It tasted great and I thought the process was so cool, I had to have a bottle.

 

[NorCal]

Thanks Sour, I made this a few years ago and for the convenience of buying 3 handles of Brandy and getting the level of sweetness that I like.

25 brix (15.1 abv) - 6 brix (3.0 abv) =12.1 abv

(3 x 1.75 liters of Brandy = 1.4 gallons @ 40%
Sweet wine = 3.6 gallons @ 12.1%

5 gallons of port @19.9% abv

 

[JohnT]

Nor cal:

So, If my math is right, your port is at 4.32 brix (after fortification)?
Seems to be a really nice level of sweetness for port.. Yummy!.

What is your all over plan? Do you ferment on the skins until 6 brix, then immediately press or are you planning to macerate the after fortification?

What about oak?

Hope you do not mind all of the questions. I have made a number of ports and was just wondering what others are doing.

 

[NorCal]

Nor cal:

So, If my math is right, your port is at 4.32 brix (after fortification)?
Seems to be a really nice level of sweetness for port.. Yummy!.

What is your all over plan? Do you ferment on the skins until 6 brix, then immediately press or are you planning to macerate the after fortification?

What about oak?

Hope you do not mind all of the questions. I have made a number of ports and was just wondering what others are doing.

Two years ago I made some with 7 brix juice and some with 5 brix juice, fortified with Brandy to 20% abv. I think 6 brix will be just right, but you are right, the over port brix will be less with the Brandy dilution.

I have 1,000 pounds of Petite Sirah reserved (to be used as a blender with the big Cab Franc plan this year). My plan is to pull 3.6 gallons of the free run juice out of the active ferment when the brix drop to 6. I will definitely add an oak spiral to the carboy to taste. I've found it likes the oak and it adds a lot.

The Petite Sirah is really big, dark and inky up here. It typically ferments hot and fast and gets a lot of extraction. I think it will have plenty of flavor, color and tannin when it is pulled at 6 brix.

 

[ColemanM]

Well, not sure what happened. Last night I pressed the Tempranillo at 1.070 so I could add the brandy to juice not must. This am it was at 1.030 wow! Took two hours to get my fortifier and tossed half gallon in and rechecked the numbers. 1.010 but I fortified with a 77% brandy. Would that change the sg much? Ive had it in the freezer since this am. Added the other .3 gallons and fermentation has definitely stopped. Bummed I missed 1.030 so drastically. My OVZ port I just made went dry AFTER I fortified it. Need something with higher brix to sweeten it. [emoji24]

 

[NorCal]

Super Yeast!

 

[ColemanM]

Note to port makers and to self. BM 4x4 is not an easy yeast to kill. Tempranillo went dry too. May have to back sweeten later on after aging a year in the barrel.

 

[sour_grapes]

Well, not sure what happened. Last night I pressed the Tempranillo at 1.070 so I could add the brandy to juice not must. This am it was at 1.030 wow! Took two hours to get my fortifier and tossed half gallon in and rechecked the numbers. 1.010 but I fortified with a 77% brandy. Would that change the sg much? Ive had it in the freezer since this am. Added the other .3 gallons and fermentation has definitely stopped. Bummed I missed 1.030 so drastically. My OVZ port I just made went dry AFTER I fortified it. Need something with higher brix to sweeten it. [emoji24]

Sorry I missed this post. Yes, adding brandy will dramatically change the SG. The post I am linking to below has a calculator I wrote in Excel to calculate the SG and ABV after fortifying.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=503265#post503265

Well, I put this into an Excel sheet, which you are welcome to (if I can figure out how to attach it). There are two sheets: one you input the sugar in g/l, the other you input the SG of the must instead. In both sheets, you input parameters in the yellow boxes, and the answers come out in the blue boxes.

Very interesting that your fortified port continued to ferment! Sorry about that, for you.