And Just Like That...

[Boatboy24]

...it was over. Crush happened today, a day ahead of schedule. Huge thank you to @mainshipfred who volunteered to help unload the truck from CA and was kind enough to get my grapes and bring them by on his way back. Had a few raisined clusters in the Pinot Noir, along with a slight touch of mold in a few spots, so I hit that with 50ppm. The Grenache and Pinot Noir looked pretty good. After the sulfite addition was done and I cleaned everything up, I ran my son off to baseball practice, then came back and added the Lallzyme. I'll measure (and adjust if necessary) ph and Brix in the morning. Then off to coach a game, after which I'll addd my Opti-Red or Noblesse and pitch the yeast. We are off and running!

First lug of Grenache in the C/D:



Everything cleaned and in the lab to add some sulfite. A little refreshment was needed after all that heavy lifting.

 

[Bossbaby]

sounds like a good day!!

 

[CDrew]

I'll be interested to hear your brix. But nice to be off and running.

 

[Cynewulf]

...it was over. Crush happened today, a day ahead of schedule. Huge thank you to @mainshipfred who volunteered to help unload the truck from CA and was kind enough to get my grapes and bring them by on his way back. Had a few raisined clusters in the Pinot Noir, along with a slight touch of mold in a few spots, so I hit that with 50ppm. The Grenache and Pinot Noir looked pretty good. After the sulfite addition was done and I cleaned everything up, I ran my son off to baseball practice, then came back and added the Lallzyme. I'll measure (and adjust if necessary) ph and Brix in the morning. Then off to coach a game, after which I'll addd my Opti-Red or Noblesse and pitch the yeast. We are off and running!

First lug of Grenache in the C/D:

View attachment 79374

Everything cleaned and in the lab to add some sulfite. A little refreshment was needed after all that heavy lifting.

View attachment 79375

Sounds like a good day, Jim! I’ll be interested in how the Grenache turns out. Yours looks a bit like mine from WW last year which I suspected was Grenache Gris rather than Noir as the grapes seemed awfully pink. I did a field blend with Syrah and Carignan so it was hard for me to say from the final product.

 

[Boatboy24]

I'll be interested to hear your brix. But nice to be off and running.

Me too - been hearing about crazy high brix and am anxious to see what my readings are. FWIW (and for what my limited palette can taste), the grapes were very sweet, but didn't seem to have much acidity. I'm just hoping I have enough tartaric acid on hand.

These are Lodi grapes, BTW.

 

[Boatboy24]

Sounds like a good day, Jim! I’ll be interested in how the Grenache turns out. Yours looks a bit like mine from WW last year which I suspected was Grenache Gris rather than Noir as the grapes seemed awfully pink. I did a field blend with Syrah and Carignan so it was hard for me to say from the final product.

Yep, they seemed very light - the Pinot Noir next to it looked pretty inky in comparison.

 

[NorCal]

Love it, yea in Nor Cal it was a year of early sugar accumulation and by the time the grapes were ripe, sugars were very high almost across all varieties.

 

[Boatboy24]

Sounds like a good day, Jim! I’ll be interested in how the Grenache turns out. Yours looks a bit like mine from WW last year which I suspected was Grenache Gris rather than Noir as the grapes seemed awfully pink. I did a field blend with Syrah and Carignan so it was hard for me to say from the final product.

I'm thinking more about this and wondering if I should say 'screw it', go for a Rose, and press today. If it is Gris (and I think you're right that it is), I'm not sure I'll get a drinkable red wine out of it.

 

[berrycrush]

It does look pink. Curious to see how the color turns out in the end

 

[mainshipfred]

Me too - been hearing about crazy high brix and am anxious to see what my readings are. FWIW (and for what my limited palette can taste), the grapes were very sweet, but didn't seem to have much acidity. I'm just hoping I have enough tartaric acid on hand.

These are Lodi grapes, BTW.

I have plenty of tartaric if you need some. How did you like the Malbec, the taste and smell was very nice and the grapes looked great. My son checked one Malbec berry and the brix was 23+. I'll take a reading on everything tomorrow.

 

[Boatboy24]

I have plenty of tartaric if you need some. How did you like the Malbec, the taste and smell was very nice and the grapes looked great. My son checked one Malbec berry and the brix was 23+. I'll take a reading on everything tomorrow.

Malbec looked pretty nice. Back from baseball and headed to the lab now.

Anyone have thoughts on what I should do w/ the Grenache? Let it ride? Make Rose?

 

[mainshipfred]

Malbec looked pretty nice. Back from baseball and headed to the lab now.

Anyone have thoughts on what I should do w/ the Grenache? Let it ride? Make Rose?

Last year I made a rose out of the Grenache. Can't remember how long I left it on the skins but it was closer to a white than a Rose. Here's a pic of the one left on the skins. I pulled a little from a 3 gallon carboy I still have.

 

[Boatboy24]

I have plenty of tartaric if you need some. How did you like the Malbec, the taste and smell was very nice and the grapes looked great. My son checked one Malbec berry and the brix was 23+. I'll take a reading on everything tomorrow.

I split my Malbec into two batches - both are measuring just over 23 brix.

 

[Boatboy24]

OK, so after initial measurements and adjustments, here's where we stand (all were dosed with Lallzyme EX yesterday):

Pinot Noir: Brix 23 - left it alone. pH was at 4.00 - adjusted down to 3.61 (I'm tempted to go a little lower, but don't want to overdo it). Added OptiRed. Yeast: RP15.

Grenache (Gris?): Brix 25.6 - watered back to 23. pH 3.67. I decided I'm going to press tomorrow morning and pitch, making a Rose. Lowered pH to 3.35. I plan on adding Lysozyme to prevent MLF. Yeast: GRE.

Malbec I'm doing a 'double' (6 lugs) batch and am splitting until barreling. I'm keeping everything the same except using OptiRed in one and Noblesse in the other. I've always used OptiRed, but am interested to see if there's a discernible difference between the two. Anyway, Brix just over 23 (I'll call it 23.2) - left it alone. pH was 3.76, adjusted down to 3.59. Yeast: D254. Brix was a little disappointing on this one, but I'm not going to mess with it.

 

[Boatboy24]

OK, the Grenache has been pressed and the skins discarded. No turning back now. I was surprised by how much color extraction I got in about 40 hours. Anxious to see what the color is like after everything settles. I had some FT Blanc Soft and decided to add that - a day and a half of soaking with no added sulfites, so I figured a little oxidation insurance wouldn't hurt even though it's typically a white wine additive. The Pinot Noir and Malbec are fizzing away and I expect I'll have caps forming by tonight.

 

[Boatboy24]

Holy fast ferment, Batman! The Rose is at 1.000 tonight. Looks like I may have to rack tomorrow.

 

[Boatboy24]

Pinot Noir was at 0.996 and both Malbecs were at 0.994 so I pressed this morning. Things are looking good.

For those keeping track, I did 6 lugs of Malbec split into two batches. Everything was identical except in one I used OptiRed and used Noblesse in the other. There is currently no discernible difference in color, nose or taste. Interestingly, both yielded 7.5 gallons, in total. However, I got about a quarter gallon more free run out of the Noblesse batch, but more press run from the OptiRed batch. In the end, probably not a material difference, as it could've just been a difference in the positioning of the GHT and racking cane. For now, I'm going to call the results identical. I'll keep an eye out for any differences until I have to combine them a bit for barrel aging in a couple months.

 

[Nebbiolo020]

OK, the Grenache has been pressed and the skins discarded. No turning back now. I was surprised by how much color extraction I got in about 40 hours. Anxious to see what the color is like after everything settles. I had some FT Blanc Soft and decided to add that - a day and a half of soaking with no added sulfites, so I figured a little oxidation insurance wouldn't hurt even though it's typically a white wine additive. The Pinot Noir and Malbec are fizzing away and I expect I'll have caps forming by tonight.

View attachment 79417

Grenache always looks weird, we are still waiting for our Grenache at the winery I work at and when we sample the grapes for lab tests the juice is always orange/pink in color and it’s difficult to get color in Grenache based wines.

 

[Nebbiolo020]

Pinot Noir was at 0.996 and both Malbecs were at 0.994 so I pressed this morning. Things are looking good.

For those keeping track, I did 6 lugs of Malbec split into two batches. Everything was identical except in one I used OptiRed and used Noblesse in the other. There is currently no discernible difference in color, nose or taste. Interestingly, both yielded 7.5 gallons, in total. However, I got about a quarter gallon more free run out of the Noblesse batch, but more press run from the OptiRed batch. In the end, probably not a material difference, as it could've just been a difference in the positioning of the GHT and racking cane. For now, I'm going to call the results identical. I'll keep an eye out for any differences until I have to combine them a bit for barrel aging in a couple months.

I am a fan of opti red personally and we use it at work for our reds though we also use similar laffort products. I’ve started using nutristart which is lafforts fermaid for nutrients as it works better and is less expensive. I’m a fan of cold soaking and using either laffort he grand cru or scottzyme color pro to get better extraction and color and softer tannins cold soaking does make a significant difference especially with varietals that struggle with color.

 

[mainshipfred]

Grenache always looks weird, we are still waiting for our Grenache at the winery I work at and when we sample the grapes for lab tests the juice is always orange/pink in color and it’s difficult to get color in Grenache based wines.

@Cynewulf often referred Grenache to Grenache Gris which I had to look up. It appears there are 4 Grenache varietals and what we seem to be getting from the west coast is Grenache Gris. The others are Blanc, Noir and Lledoner Pelut.

Edition 2019 - Grenaches du Monde