RJ Spagnols Dashwood New Zealand Pinot Noir

[TankCa]

We tasted the dashwood several week ago and it will be very good. Still green, but the flavors and spice are starting to come out.

George.....have you tasted yours lately? You are about 5 months ahead of me, I have one that has been bulk aging for about 3 months.


Tastedit last week and it is developing nicely. Very "big" for a pinot at this stage but with good pinot characteristics.Smoky over-tones thatare a little over powering. Deep color also, more so than most pinots.


Like others in this threat have mentioned, the instructions were not clear on when to add the oak cubes. I added during secondary which may have extracted more oak than needed which could have contributed to smoky nose and taste.


If it mellows with more time it will be a nice wine.


Steve

 

[Dean]

Ken,
 
Did the En Primeur kit have any kind of yeast nutrients or energizers provided or was it just the Lavlin pack?
 
- Jim

Hi Jim,

All RJS products come pre-innoculated with nutrients and energizer already in the juice. No need to add your own, unless you are dealing with a stuck fermentation.

 

[JimCook]

Thanks Dean & K&GB.

- Jim

 

[geocorn]

We tasted it several weeks ago at one of my Saturday afternoon tastings and it was a big hit. It still needs more time, but I could drink it now.

 

[K&GB]

Update- I never used clarifiers on this wine, but it cleared nicely on its own. However, I've thought it was too tart each time I've tasted it. Doesn't smell or taste like a Pinot Noir to me at this point. On 20 Mar I put the carboy into a refrigerator in my garage which was set at 30 degrees F. I racked it yesterday and found a think bed of crystals caked on the bottom of the carboy. Hardbut brittleand up to 3/4 inches think in places. After racking, the wine still tasted tart to me, so I checked TA with an Acccuvin kit and came up with about 8.0 g/L, which is high for a red. Question, does cold stabilization (and formation of tartrate crystals) really lower the acidity of a wine much? I'm considering more time in the frige for this one.


Ken

 

[K&GB]

Well, I did put this one back in the fridge, but it didn't drop any more significant crystals. That was sometime last month. Don't know for sure since my dogs ate my wine journal. But I went ahead and bottled this wine today. Filtered it through my new Buon Vino mini-jet. Had lots of fun playing with my latest new wine toy.

Bottled a CC Cab/Merlot kit this past week also, but it doesn't look like I ever started a thread on that one. Anyway, pics tofollow someday when I make some labels.


Ken

 

[Wild Duk]

I've got this one in secondary right now....I pitched the yeasr 30 days ago....I took at S.G. reading 1 week ago and it was at .998 at 74 degrees....I took one today and it was the same......Should I start to stabilize now. I know the directions say to wait until the S.G. is .998 or lower, so if you do the temp. conversion for mine, its closer to 1.00....