2019 Lodi Meritage

[Johnd]

Well done, John. I can see you guys are slightly into good coffee as well as wine.

LOL! I knew when I posted that pic that somebody would hone in on that coffee maker! Got that for the Mrs. a few months back, I’m not much of a coffee fanatic, but she is. Admittedly, I like the darn thing, and it makes a wide array of styles. Grinds the beans to your liking, makes coffee, Americano, espresso, etc., and even has the milk / steam frothing function. We’ve gotten pretty attached and don’t use the Keurig very much any more.

 

[mainshipfred]

Quite an impressive piece of equipment. Does it do single servings without using the espresso like the Keurig?

 

[Johnd]

Quite an impressive piece of equipment. Does it do single servings without using the espresso like the Keurig?

Pretty much everything it does is single serving, you just tell it what you want and how big of a serving, and how strong. It grinds the appropriate amount of beans into a container, you pack the grinds with a lever, then push the button to start the process.

 

[Johnd]

Had quite the productive wine day. @Keith5 came over and we tasted all of the wine varietals / yeast variations, and did some blending trials. As expected, the wines were green, very fruity, rather tannic, a little astringent, lots of promise. After settling on our blend ratio for the 60 gallon barrel, we took a short recess to cook and eat some venison sausage and cheese before tackling the big work. It helped knock the buzz back a bit.....

The blend was decided to be 50% Cabernet Sauvignon (some press, some free run, with both BM 4x4 and D254), 30% Merlot (BM 4x4 & D254), 10% Cabernet Franc & 10% Petit Verdot. Just a little manual labor from there.


10 carboys and lots more tasting later, it was nice to be done!

 

[Johnd]

After the 60 gallon barrel was loaded, we unloaded the 2017’s from the 30 gallon barrel using my brand new AIO, worked like a champ @vacuumpumpman !!! We went with a blend a little heavier on the CF and PV side, with them each at 20%, and Merlot / Cabernet Sauvignon making up the other 60%.

now to figure out the leftovers........one carboy each of cab, merlot, and petit verdot.

 

[CDrew]

now to figure out the leftovers........one carboy each of cab, merlot, and petit verdot.

Looks like a good day.

MAybe blend them together in a 15 gallon keg, and dispense with argon to top your barrel. Whatever is left at the end is your "field blend" .

Just out of curiosity, what do you use to top off?

 

[Johnd]

Looks like a good day.

MAybe blend them together in a 15 gallon keg, and dispense with argon to top your barrel. Whatever is left at the end is your "field blend" .

Just out of curiosity, what do you use to top off?

Normally, I just bottle a carboy and use the bottles to top off. Bottled 8 today with leftovers, bringing my topping reserves to just 16 bottles, not enough for a 60 for a year and a 60 & 30 for 2 years. One of those carboys will be bottled for topping, prolly the the cab.

 

[mainshipfred]

Had quite the productive wine day. @Keith5 came over and we tasted all of the wine varietals / yeast variations, and did some blending trials. As expected, the wines were green, very fruity, rather tannic, a little astringent, lots of promise. After settling on our blend ratio for the 60 gallon barrel, we took a short recess to cook and eat some venison sausage and cheese before tackling the big work. It helped knock the buzz back a bit.....

The blend was decided to be 50% Cabernet Sauvignon (some press, some free run, with both BM 4x4 and D254), 30% Merlot (BM 4x4 & D254), 10% Cabernet Franc & 10% Petit Verdot. Just a little manual labor from there.
View attachment 58240

10 carboys and lots more tasting later, it was nice to be done!
View attachment 58241

Why don't you use the AIO to fill the barrel. Could it be you don't have a large enough drilled bung?

 

[Johnd]

Why don't you use the AIO to fill the barrel. Could it be you don't have a large enough drilled bung?

Got all the right stuff, just didn't feel the need to draw a vacuum on the barrel, mostly didn't want to let the wine fall two feet to the bottom. We rolled the barrel into the wine room and had to carry the carboys in as well, just as easy to set them on the counter, and with the head distance, they siphon over as fast as or faster than they vacuum over. Dropping the racking hose down into the barrel provides a nice, smooth, agitation free transfer.

Used the AIO to siphon the wine out of the 30, it was on the ground and I had no desire to pick it up, worked like a charm. I've been using vacuum pumps to move wine for years, so it's not new hat for me, I'm mostly looking forward to bottling with it, as I don't use my old vacuum pump for bottling.

It's a gentler vacuum, easier to control, and a bit quieter than my big pump.

 

[Johnd]

As we racked & sulfited our way through the barrel loadings last Sunday, wasn’t sure if ny supply os SO2 would last, it was down to the wire with a couple grams to spare. Ordered some regular old KMeta powder, plus a box of Inodose Granule packets in the 2g and 5g size. Not a lot of instructions, so I’m assuming that after determining the desired dosage, you just dump the appropriate number of packets into the barrel. Any other “best practices” would be welcome.

 

[CDrew]

Your dosing numbers look right. I just dump them in-they dissolve themselves.

Most recently, I let the bubbles as they dissolve fill the headspace in the neck of the tank, and then placed the seal. So pretty sure all the oxygen was eliminated. Whether this is good or bad, I don't know, but it's an experiment. Other than that 1 15 gallon Intellitank, everything else is sealed with one of those silicone flapper stoppers.

 

[stickman]

I've used the granules and the tablets, even though the bubbles provide some mixing, I always do a light stirring, mainly because I'm never completely off of lees and I want to be sure everything is exposed to the sulfite.

 

[Johnd]

Your dosing numbers look right. I just dump them in-they dissolve themselves.

Most recently, I let the bubbles as they dissolve fill the headspace in the neck of the tank, and then placed the seal. So pretty sure all the oxygen was eliminated. Whether this is good or bad, I don't know, but it's an experiment. Other than that 1 15 gallon Intellitank, everything else is sealed with one of those silicone flapper stoppers.

I've used the granules and the tablets, even though the bubbles provide some mixing, I always do a light stirring, mainly because I'm never completely off of lees and I want to be sure everything is exposed to the sulfite.

Everything I'll be dosing is in barrels. Previously, when using sulfite powder, I'd pull 100ml out of the barrel and into a beaker, add sulfite and a mixing bean, and put it on my auto mixer until it was dissolved, and pour it back into the barrels. Sounds like you both do it differently, one mixes the other doesn't. Never thought about pressures created from the bubbles released, and I'm using solid stoppers on the barrels, sounds like I might need to give the gas a few minutes to escape before replacing the bung................

 

[stickman]

@Johnd I don't do any pre-dissolving, I just add directly to the tank and leave the bung loose until the bubbling stops, I'll then mix the tank lightly before tightening the bung.

 

[Johnd]

Loaded the 60 gallon barrel last Sunday, so it’s been 6 days, no signs of wine on the exterior, nice!! I normally top up weekly for the first month with a new barrel, so I checked the levels today. It took an entire 750 and wasn’t quite full, standard fare for a new 60, probably continue at that rate for a few weeks before settling into a more reasonable routine.

My two babies......

 

[jburtner]

Whoa! That barrel drinks almost as much as I do

Cheers!
-johann

 

[Keith5]

Identical twins

 

[Ajmassa]

Hey @Johnd got a question for ya been meaning to ask. Couldn’t find the answer googling. After looking up more info about chateau ferre style barrels I noticed many of them show the mid section wine stained purple. Some darker than others. But always just the mid section. And outside the hoops it’s bare wood. Almost like theyve done it intentionally. Or it’s the result of some specific practice.
It’s clearly from wine. But what’s the story there?

*edit- As I asked I think I kinda got my answer. Common sense tells me it’s from topping up on a large scale. And they fill until overflowing, plug it and let the wine stain- not concerned with cleaning when ya got 100’s of barrels. Ending up with a multicolored barrel as a byproduct, which havent noticed until after looking up chateau ferre barrels. Just a guess though.

 

[stickman]

I believe the staining is intentional, can sometimes be done by the cooper on request, this way minor spills and drips from filling and topping are less obvious.

 

[Johnd]

Even better, they’re stained on purpose, typically painted with a concoction. I read an article that I can’t find now, but it even had a recipe for the midsection staining, it had red wine, coffee, and some other interesting ingredients.

@stickman @Ajmassa , here’s a clip from the article I referred to earlier:


Although there might be other explanations, there are two most common and simple sets of answers. First off, in wineries, to keep the wine sorted between red and white, companies paint the red wine barrels with the red stripe to merely designate red from white wines. The second belief is the barrels are painted red because of aesthetics – and maybe some pride – because the wine is tested by the winemaker occasionally while aging to keep tabs on when the wine is ready. It’s not necessarily a sloppy job but accidents are common.

The casks all come from the cooperage as white oak barrels so the accompanying accoutre mon and painting is usually done at the wineries. The red ‘paint’ is usually a mix of red food dye and/or wine like a Petit Verdot, which is frequently used for blending or adding color to other varietals, especially here in California. Some wineries will add to the paint the actual vintage for that particular wine either from the prior year’s crush, and also note wood stain is also used. Still others use beet, pomegranate or other assorted juices that stain easily.

Occasionally the question is asked, is it healthy that wine is spilled? Couldn’t that create microbial problems? The simple answer is no. We may talk about this at another time.

So, whether the answer is vanity or uniformity, these rationales are the best explanations for why some wine barrels have a red stripe down the middle.