Crushed it yesterday!

[JohnT]

After bottling on Saturday, my brother and I decided to taste the new Chilean wine...

OMG!!! H2S

So, after a quick splash racking, we did a bench trial and decided that a 75 ml treatment of .1% cuso4 was in order. I sampled it last night and all is good. Smells and tastes great!

 

[Boatboy24]

After bottling on Saturday, my brother and I decided to taste the new Chilean wine...

OMG!!! H2S

So, after a quick splash racking, we did a bench trial and decided that a 75 ml treatment of .1% cuso4 was in order. I sampled it last night and all is good. Smells and tastes great!

I sampled my chileans last night, and they are all cr@p. Sour, bitter, dirty dishwater.

 

[Kraffty]

Come on Boatboy, don't sugar coat it, say what you mean....
Mike

 

[JohnT]

I sampled my chileans last night, and they are all cr@p. Sour, bitter, dirty dishwater.

Oh man.. sorry to hear that BB! What do you think went wrong??

 

[Boatboy24]

Oh man.. sorry to hear that BB! What do you think went wrong??

No clue at this point. They were harsh at press, but I attributed that to them just being green. MLF has been going on about 4 weeks now and I'm not seeing any improvement. I'm not giving up this early, but I actually thought to myself last night "I might have to dump 28 gallons of wine.".

 

[ceeaton]

No clue at this point. They were harsh at press, but I attributed that to them just being green. MLF has been going on about 4 weeks now and I'm not seeing any improvement. I'm not giving up this early, but I actually thought to myself last night "I might have to dump 28 gallons of wine.".

I forgot what you ordered? Have you ever had this experience from the grapes you got from Harford? My Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio(s) seem very much like last years wines, but then that is all the history I have to go on.

Aging tannins will help those "green" flavors, just make sure you let us know what you try (I need to further my education, sorry it is on your mishap).

 

[Boatboy24]

I forgot what you ordered? Have you ever had this experience from the grapes you got from Harford? My Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio(s) seem very much like last years wines, but then that is all the history I have to go on.

Aging tannins will help those "green" flavors, just make sure you let us know what you try (I need to further my education, sorry it is on your mishap).

Syrah, Merlot, Cab Sauv, and Carmenere.

 

[jswordy]

No clue at this point. They were harsh at press, but I attributed that to them just being green. MLF has been going on about 4 weeks now and I'm not seeing any improvement. I'm not giving up this early, but I actually thought to myself last night "I might have to dump 28 gallons of wine.".

EEEW!



^^^^^ Did you make this face? I mean, before you cussed?

That sucks. Hope something good happens instead of dumping it.

 

[Johnd]

Syrah, Merlot, Cab Sauv, and Carmenere.

Well that's really disappointing, my frozen must buckets (2 cab and 2 malbec) shipped out yesterday and will be here tomorrow.

 

[JohnT]

I did a 90/10 field blend of Cab/Merlot and feel that the grapes were spectacular. I did pick them up later in the season, so this might explain why your grapes were under ripe.

Man, that sucks especially considering that Chilean grapes are so expensive.

Here is a question.. Was the sugar levels of the grapes rather low? One thing I do is take a sampling and check the brix using a light refractometer before I purchase them.

 

[Boatboy24]

I did a 90/10 field blend of Cab/Merlot and feel that the grapes were spectacular. I did pick them up later in the season, so this might explain why your grapes were under ripe.

Man, that sucks especially considering that Chilean grapes are so expensive.

Here is a question.. Was the sugar levels of the grapes rather low? One thing I do is take a sampling and check the brix using a light refractometer before I purchase them.

All 4 were between SG 1.084 and 1.088 - a little low, IMHO, but I wouldn't say under ripe. Those values were converted from Brix, which for some reason, I don't have saved. They were a little early this year, by a week or two. But I think that was the case across the board.

pH values were:

Merlot: 3.45
Syrah: 3.68
Carm: 3.7
Cab: 3.44

Nothing alarming in any of the numbers that I saw.

 

[ceeaton]

Syrah, Merlot, Cab Sauv, and Carmenere.

Any chance prolonged aging (I'm thinking barrel time here) would help them out? Just taking a stab at it. Maybe you don't want that dirty dish water flavor getting into the wood of your barrels...

I feel bad and it's not even my wine.

 

[Boatboy24]

Any chance prolonged aging (I'm thinking barrel time here) would help them out? Just taking a stab at it. Maybe you don't want that dirty dish water flavor getting into the wood of your barrels...

I feel bad and it's not even my wine.

Like I said: I'm not giving up yet. Wine can go through certain 'funks'. It could be I was just down there with my thief on a bad day/week. They were tasting fine during primary.

 

[derekjames100]

It's really important to have a sophisticated nutrient schedule and to choose your yeast wisely when using Chilean

 

[JohnT]

Just tasted the Chilean over the weekend.

Happy to say that I nipped that H2S issue in the Bud! We are back to being simply delicious!

Next weekend, I am planning to rack it and apply my first oak treatment (XOV med toast mini-staves)

This one turned out great.

 

[derekjames100]

What are your copper levels?

 

[JohnT]

What are your copper levels?

I did some bench trials and found that a 3ppm dose of copper was needed.
I settled on adding 75 ml of 1% copper sulfate solution which (if my math is correct) should give me a 2.4ppm dose of copper over my 300 liters.

 

[derekjames100]

I did some bench trials and found that a 3ppm dose of copper was needed.
I settled on adding 75 ml of 1% copper sulfate solution which (if my math is correct) should give me a 2.4ppm dose of copper over my 300 liters.

Nice. That's a very advanced technique. Just curious, why would you try this before reduless?

 

[JohnT]

Nice. That's a very advanced technique. Just curious, why would you try this before reduless?

I had the copper sulfate on hand and wanted to treat the problem immediately.

Redueless would have been my preference. I really should have some in stock.

 

[Tnuscan]

This may be a silly question... have you had any difficulty with MLF on your Chilean grapes.