Chile - Spring 2018 - Malbec - Petit Verdot - Syrah

[jburtner]

Racked off the gross lee’s this weekend. The Syrah (on the left) gave the least amount at just about 5,5 gallons. Malbec and PV both yield a bit more than six gallons. I threw a couple heavy toast oak fingers into each carboy. Will probably add more in three months. No sulfite yet. I’ll run a paper chromatogram this week to see where mlf is but the syrah and malbec still have some airlock activity. I’ve got a barrel (just about neutral) I can put these through over the next year.

A small tester glass of each and I’m happy with them at this point.

Almost ready to put them under vacuum for a nice summer rest.

Cheers!

 

[jburtner]

Looks like the PV is done and the Syrah and Malbec are both still MLF’ing.

 

[Johnd]

Looks like the PV is done and the Syrah and Malbec are both still MLF’ing.

Yup, the Syrah and Malbec are looking good as well, won’t be much longer. Always a good feeling when they finish up and can get a little protective sulfite addition.

 

[jburtner]

The delineation between malic and lactic can appear quite blurred. This is with some fairly extreme filtering to highlight. I’m a bit nervous about holding off on kmeta. I’ll test again this weekend and maybe rack and sulfite depending. I could probaby bump the temp a little. It’s about 65*F ambient in the cellar.

Cheers,
Johann

 

[cmason1957]

Not to worry. Hold off for at least another month. You still have some malic acid showing.

 

[Johnd]

You're almost there!!! I agree with @cmason1957 , give it another few weeks, the syrah, it appears, still has a couple weeks to go. It's a bit unnerving to let em sit without sulfite, just keep them closed up and the month will pass and you can get them protected. Doing just fine, it's only been 6 weeks since pitching yeast, had a batch of Chileans from 2 years ago went 4 months with no sulfite and never did finish up, you got it all going your way!

 

[Ajmassa]

The delineation between malic and lactic can appear quite blurred. This is with some fairly extreme filtering to highlight. I’m a bit nervous about holding off on kmeta. I’ll test again this weekend and maybe rack and sulfite depending. I could probaby bump the temp a little. It’s about 65*F ambient in the cellar.

Cheers,
Johann

View attachment 49648

The heads have spoken Johann! I think your about a month behind my batch- and I I’m still k-meta free.
After having back-checked a seemingly complete chroma test with the MLF strips last year I was able to see 1st hand how misleading “complete” chroma tests can really be. And ~100 g/L remained in one.
I’ve seen with my own eyes how far you can truly push it w/o sulphite too. Keeping vessels topped is all the protection you need—so no rush! Not fearing a lack of sulphites and confident I’m allowing MLF to fully finish!
You should make a sulphite-free batch one day. Would help any uneasiness feelings from unprotected MLF. Extra high pH might be the only factor to rush it

 

[jburtner]

Thanks! I'll check again in a couple weeks and update maybe with TA measurements then too if complete. Can see the MLF progressing so that's good.

Cheers and hope everyone had a good 4th
-johann

 

[jburtner]

That Syrah is stalling mlf. I have my heating pad in use till this weekend but it’s moving to the syrah to bump the temp a little this weekend.

Cheers!
-johann

 

[jburtner]

I'll have to take another chromatogram to check but I racked all three off sediment this weekend, sulphited, and degassed a bit by splash racking multiple times (four times back and forth).

I moved the Syrah into my neutral barrel where I'll keep it till next racking and was able to degas the PV enough to take a headspace eliminator but I'll be monitoring and topping up that vacuum because it's not fully degassed yet.

I'm using "oak fingers" that I make out of some JD barrel staves that I cut up and toast. All three of these wines took two fingers of medium+ toast (400F@4hr) for the past ~three months. I have left that 400F oak in and now added two more slightly longer fingers of medium- toast (300F@6hr).

These are coming along and I'm getting in some Pinot Noir frozen must for the fall. Also bottled a Cab/Merlot blend (20+ bottles) from last summer now @ ~14mos and have probably 4.5gallons of each cab and merlot still in bulk for bottles or blends.

Cheers!
-johann

 

[jburtner]

Just a quick update on these since they've been sitting in the basement bulk aging for a while.

Malbec
- Bottled a couple weeks ago and it spent almost a good year in a neutral barrel. This was pretty good at bottling time and I got about 25 bottles out of it. Looking forward to letting it rest for a couple months and enjoying it.
- The over extraction on this one was not as pronounced. Has a little bite.

Syrah
- This is a little bit tannic with the over-extraction and it spent maybe three-4 months in the barrel. Might top up with some smerlot to tame it a bit.

Petite Verdot
- This one has not seen barrel time yet and is a little lighter than I expected.
- Tastes good though so waiting for some barrel time to concentrate a little then bottle.
- This one was not over extracted as I used a different enzyme which I measured correctly.

Will update more later.
Cheers,
johann