Cab Sav Colombia Valley, Frozen Grape Must, Rate My Process

[MoldyGrapes]

All,

I would love some feed back on my process. We (myself and SO) just finished making a wine from frozen grape must. I've been having some problems with shelf stability in my wines so tried to be extra careful with sanitation and testing sulfites but would love any tips that might help.

Also best practices for testing sulfites? I struggle with the color change strips and fluids since the wine is already so colorful. I looked at sending out some to be tested at a lab but they wanted a relatively large quantity and I'm only making 3 gal to start with.


Grapes: 5gal Frozen grapes from Brehm Vineyards, Cab Sav Colombian Valley 2022




Day 1: Grapes arrive, temp 43F

Day 2: Heater applied at noon, 73F by 7:30 PM
Transferred to 6gal fermenter
S.G. 1.100
Yeast: Clos Dry Wine Yeast (DYW45)
Added 6.25g GoFirm to 3oz water, then added 5g yeast, added to wine after fifteen minutes
Added 11g tartaric acid
Didn’t record PH, unsure if measured
Heater set to 80F



Day 3: Heater set to 81F, food probe reads 85F, heater adjusted to 76F
Added 5g DAP

Day 4: 75F, SG 1.086

Day 5: 78F, SG 1.070
Added 5g Fermaid k rehydrated in ~2oz distilled water
Heater adjusted to 82F

Day 6: 80F, SG 1.044
Day 7: 76F, SG 1.022
Day 9: 75F, SG 1.010
Day 10: 77F, SG 1.004

Day 11: 77F, SG 0.998
Pressed grapes with small grape press, estimated 3.3gal wine
Heater set to 72F in 5gal carboy



Day 12: Racked off gross lees into 3gal carboy
Malic acid test strip: 75
Added 3g Opti Malo Plus (dissolved into ~ 2 spoonful’s of water)
Added 0.14g Vinflora CH16 (Malolactic Cultures) added directly to wine
Added 2g Acti-ML dissolved in 10ml water after sitting for 15 minutes
Added 28g French oak cubes, medium plus toast



Day 18 – Day 28: ~71F, stirred wine, no off smells, still bubbling
Malic acid test strip: 30
Day 31: 72F, stirred wine, no off smells, still bubbling
Malic acid test strip: 15

Day 37: 70F, MA done
PH 3.72
Added 11g TA, targeting 3.6
Wracked off lees
Rinsed oak and added back in

Day 38: PH 3.54
Added 0.91g sulfite, target 45 PPM
Bulk aging starts!

Day 80: ~10 PPM SO2
Wracked into 3gal plastic carboy
Removed Oak
Added 0.83g SO2, targeting 40 PPM
Topped off with Dark Horse Cab Sav 2017
Tastes good, high acid and tannins

Day 121: ~8 PPM SO2 (not confident in my testing)
Topped up
Tasted oaky, still young

Day 137: Tasted a bit young, but probably about time to bottle

Day 165: ~30 PPM SO2
Tasted good, a bit young,
13.8% ABV

Day 186: Bottled!
Yielded 15 ½ bottles
Decent amount of lees left, may have wanted to wrack one more time


Wine makers first tasting notes
Color: Very deep, dark fuchsia
Nose: Jammy + spicy with prominent oak, nice but young
Taste: Muted, soft fruit up front - plum and currant. Baking spices like allspice + clove in the middle.
Robust tannins and a long dry finish. Medium mouth feel overall.


Equipment:

pH Meter: Beverage Doctor KL04169





SO2 Testing:

 

[BarrelMonkey]

It sounds like you're keeping good records which is a good thing! And it sounds like you're pretty happy with the wine so far? - at least your description sounds tasty...

The main thing that sticks out to me is that you're bottling a cabernet sauvignon - a big, robust red wine - a mere 6 months from starting fermentation. That's really early. I don't think you can get a real sense of how a red wine is shaping up until the 6 month point (although clear flaws will show up sooner), and I wouldn't bottle until ~10 months at the earliest. I've never made a cabernet sauvignon (might do so this year?) - if I do, I would seriously consider keeping it at least 18 months to 2 years in bulk so that those big flavors get a chance to integrate more. You'll also drop out some more of that sediment over time. I would also expect your wine to evolve in the bottle (hopefully for the better) over the next few years.

For SO2 testing, I have no experience with your test kit - I use either aeration/oxidation (AO) or Ripper methods. AO is more involved and time consuming but is generally regarded as more accurate. Ripper (at least the way I run it) has a colorimetric endpoint so it's a bit harder to read out with red wines, but definitely doable with a little practice. It's also a bit less accurate, but I think perfectly serviceable for periodic (monthly/bimonthly/quarterly) SO2 testing. The difference between 35 and 40ppm is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I do want to know if it's 10ppm instead of 40ppm...

 

[ChuckD]

The main thing that sticks out to me is that you're bottling a cabernet sauvignon - a big, robust red wine - a mere 6 months from starting fermentation

Same. I have developed a habit of aging all wines in bulk for at least 8 months. Partly because I’m lazy and don’t want to mess with clearing agents or filtering. Also, my famed purple volcano screw-up resulted in my 2023 northern red blend being bulk aged for two years… with excellent results.