2019 Grapes and Blends

[Donz]

Just got back from my fruit supplier and their is a lot to chose from! This year we are planning to do 2 wines:

Cab/Sangiovese/Merlot 30 lugs
Maggio Old vine Zin with a touch of Petit Syrah and Carignan 30 lugs

After seeing the fruit it gets much harder to decide. The Cab Franc looks beauty this year! Here are some pics:

 

[Johnd]

Wow!! I’d go ape sh*t in there, and make way too much wine!!!

 

[Donz]

My feelings exactly! 60 lugs might become 80!!!

 

[Boatboy24]

Wow!! I’d go ape sh*t in there, and make way too much wine!!!

Yeah, there's no way I could walk in there and walk out only making two wines.

 

[CDrew]

My feelings exactly! 60 lugs might become 80!!!

Ya-like too much wine is a problem!

 

[Donz]

Never a problem! I’m still loaded with a ton from previous years.

Maybe I’ll throw a Malbec/Merlot in the mix.

 

[CDrew]

Very impressive. While I don't deal in lugs, I know from WMT that 30 lugs is 1000 pounds and 2 of those is literally a TON of grapes. I hope you have a lot of friends to help you drink the results.

What's the rest of the story? How do you crush/ferment/rack that much and what's the racking plan and storage plan for the next year?

 

[buzi]

Where are you shopping? That is a great layout with pretty looking produce!

 

[Chuck E]

Not sure if this is the right place for this.

My Chardonnay grapes came in at 26 Brix. Assuming it goes dry, that will give me around 15% ABV. That seems too "hot" to me. If I use a yeast with lower alcohol tolerance, will I get the wine closer to 13% ABV?

 

[Donz]

The fruit provider is Marche Piazza here in Montreal. They have a great set up - all refrigerated.

I do have some friends help out with crush and press of course. I am pretty well equipped at home - crusher destemmer that is a real workhorse and 2 presses that we run at the same time. Plenty of storage as well. Here are some pics of my set-up:​

 

[cmason1957]

Not sure if this is the right place for this.

My Chardonnay grapes came in at 26 Brix. Assuming it goes dry, that will give me around 15% ABV. That seems too "hot" to me. If I use a yeast with lower alcohol tolerance, will I get the wine closer to 13% ABV?

It might, those alcohol tolerances are not absolute numbers. They are general guidelines. You might get (in your case) unlucky and get some rouge 13% yeast that can ferment up to 15 or 16%. And I am sure you realize this, if it does stop early, you end up with sweeter wine to drink. I think I might add some water with about the same PH (with tartaric added) as your grapes. If you have 6 gallons of must, about .75 gallon of water will get you down much closer to the 13%ABV. I used Fermcalc to come up with values.

 

[Chuck E]

I think I might add some water with about the same PH (with tartaric added) as your grapes. If you have 6 gallons of must, about .75 gallon of water will get you down much closer to the 13%ABV. I used Fermcalc to come up with values.

Thanks Craig.
So often we are advising people not to dilute their batches, I totally left that out of my thinking. This will also give me an extra gallon to top off with.

 

[mainshipfred]

It might, those alcohol tolerances are not absolute numbers. They are general guidelines. You might get (in your case) unlucky and get some rouge 13% yeast that can ferment up to 15 or 16%. And I am sure you realize this, if it does stop early, you end up with sweeter wine to drink. I think I might add some water with about the same PH (with tartaric added) as your grapes. If you have 6 gallons of must, about .75 gallon of water will get you down much closer to the 13%ABV. I used Fermcalc to come up with values.

Yep, every yeast will have their olympians that just don't know when to quit.

 

[stickman]

Just to pile on, remember that your wine is not a sterile environment, fresh grapes come in with all sorts of yeasts and microbes and sulfite does not clear the slate like many people think, even if your selected yeast begins to die, there's no guarantee that other yeasts won't sluggishly finish the job.

 

[Spudwrench12]

Very nice setup Donz .

 

[VillaVino]

Your life will change with a bladder press. Pressing 30 gals of Marquette this afternoon.
Thinking about an oak keg. I have a 5L keg I use for whiskey, brandy and now wines.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Not sure if this is the right place for this.

My Chardonnay grapes came in at 26 Brix. Assuming it goes dry, that will give me around 15% ABV. That seems too "hot" to me. If I use a yeast with lower alcohol tolerance, will I get the wine closer to 13% ABV?

The only way to really do this is to remove/ kill the yeast. As cmason says yeast is not always a pure culture and it seems to go dry, , always. At work I would have chilled the tank, settled and then sterile filtered.
With the tools at home I have run the carboy temp up to max on the label for a day or if it is a contest sample heat a bottle at 120F for 50 min. Yeast is easy to kill.
I have some 8% ale yeast for concept testing sweet wine, it was a dirty foam ferment so I haven’t reproduced the test.

 

[Donz]

Was a great crush weekend, we did:

940lbs of Cab/Sangiovese/Merlot - Brix 25 PH 3.9 brought it down to 3.6 range and pitched D254/D80 combo in separate vats with VP41 24 hours later
940lbs of Old vine Zin/Carignan/Petit Syrah - Brix 23 PH 3.65 pitched Avante Renaissance yesterday evening and VP41 will follow tonight.

Fruit was beautiful.
​

 

[Mac60]

Looking good, What do you use to press?

Mike

 

[Donz]

We have a 50 gallon and 35 gallon ratchet presses that we use together. Run like a charm.