Determining why the wine I made is below expectations

[Busabill]

It looks like you will have the opportunity on Friday! I think you are right on separating the wine leaves the pressed partition in a bad position. My goal has always been to make the best barrel regardless of readonable cost or effort. The surrounding wine outside the barrel is the fallout, which I’m ok with, if the wine in the barrel is outstanding. You can be the judge.

Looking forward to it!

 

[NorCal]

We had our tasting @4score, @Busabill, @crushday and I have to admit that I did some "doctoring" of the sub par cab franc bottle that I put out to sample, which I disclosed after we tasted. As a recap, the cab franc was stuck at .5 brix for 11 months, before I decided to put it in the bottle. Sure enough it fermented dry and now I have a spritzy wine. I have to admit that once I doctored the sample, by degassing (poured 1/2 in another bottle, shook both bottles a few times, then rebottled) the wine was much better.
I've decided to do a winter project on the 10 cases of this wine; empty a case at a time into a carboy, degas, then immediately refill and cork the bottle. This should result in fixing the biggest problem child of last year.

 

[crushday]

We had our tasting @4score, @Busabill, @crushday and I have to admit that I did some "doctoring" of the sub par cab franc bottle that I put out to sample, which I disclosed after we tasted. As a recap, the cab franc was stuck at .5 brix for 11 months, before I decided to put it in the bottle. Sure enough it fermented dry and now I have a spritzy wine. I have to admit that once I doctored the sample, by degassing (poured 1/2 in another bottle, shook both bottles a few times, then rebottled) the wine was much better.
I've decided to do a winter project on the 10 cases of this wine; empty a case at a time into a carboy, degas, then immediately refill and cork the bottle. This should result in fixing the biggest problem child of last year.
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Congratulations Ken on another terrific wine out of the KK Winery. If your winter project turns out as good as the ad hoc fix last Friday, you're in great shape!

 

[VinesnBines]

We had our tasting @4score, @Busabill, @crushday and I have to admit that I did some "doctoring" of the sub par cab franc bottle that I put out to sample, which I disclosed after we tasted. As a recap, the cab franc was stuck at .5 brix for 11 months, before I decided to put it in the bottle. Sure enough it fermented dry and now I have a spritzy wine. I have to admit that once I doctored the sample, by degassing (poured 1/2 in another bottle, shook both bottles a few times, then rebottled) the wine was much better.
I've decided to do a winter project on the 10 cases of this wine; empty a case at a time into a carboy, degas, then immediately refill and cork the bottle. This should result in fixing the biggest problem child of last year.
View attachment 92309

Don’t wait too long. I had a “spritzy” wine that re- fermented in the bottle. No corks pushed and I thought all the bottles were consumed- that is until one night a cork blew. I only lost half as bottle but it was a mess.

 

[NorCal]

I thought this was worthy of a follow-up in this hodgepodge of 2021 wine I wasn’t really happy with.

5 gallons Petite Sirah - Dark, astringent and unapproachable. This was left over, 100% pressed wine. This wine mellowed with time and was blended with the sweet Cab Franc..

20 gallons Cab Franc - Sweet (.6 brix), free grapes, fermented from the pressings of other wines, never finished. This wine has bottled sweet and then after being stuck for 11 months, refermented in the bottle. It has been removed from the bottle, degassed and immediately rebottled. A lot of extra work, but ended up being a decent wine.

10 gallons Mourvedre - Decent nose, but flavor profile way off from expectation. This too was left over, 100% pressed wine. Still in carboy, going into a GSM blend (more below).

13 gallon estate blend (Syrah, Zin, Cab Sauv) - Fruity, dark, weird taste from the blend or grapes. Mildew in the vineyard. Bottled, partial will be going into a GSM blend (more below)
———————-

GSM Blend - I was gifted 32 gallons of lovely Grenache from a local winery, who I’ve helped with their vineyard the past two seasons and once with their winemaking. The owner called and said he was going into barrel and had and around 30 gallons extra. I will be putting the 32 gallons of gifted ‘22 Grenache, 10 gallons of ‘21 Mourvedre (still in carboy), 10 gallons of ‘22 Syrah (in carboy) and then unbottling as much of the 13 gallons of estate blend, mostly Syrah, (in bottle) to fill the barrel.

I did a bench trial and was happy with the results. I’ll put it into a 60 gallon French oak barrel and let it age. All in all, in took a year or so, but I think I found the best and highest use for wines that were below expectations.

 

[crushday]

I did a bench trial and was happy with the results. I’ll put it into a 60 gallon French oak barrel and let it age. All in all, in took a year or so, but I think I found the best and highest use for wines that were below expectations.

NorCal, this is a fun resolve to what I know was gut wrenching confusion, second guessing and otherwise towering disappointment. I'm happy for you!

 

[cabl3t3ch]

My goal is to make one 60 gallon barrel of wine each year that is the best I can possibly make. It is getting close to bottling time, so I did a tasting of this years wines. The 67% Petite Sirah / 33% Mourvedre free run barrel has really come around and in another 6 months, I think it will be a really nice wine. I also have smaller containers of other wine, usually from two sources; left over wine that was not chosen for the barrel or grapes that found me.

5 gallons Petite Sirah - Dark, astringent and unapproachable. This was left over, 100% pressed wine.
10 gallons Mourvedre - Decent nose, but flavor profile way off from expectation. This too was left over, 100% pressed wine.
13 gallon estate blend (Syrah, Zin, Cab Sauv) - Fruity, dark, weird taste from the blend or grapes. Mildew in the vineyard.
20 gallons Cab Franc - Sweet (.6 brix), free grapes, fermented from the pressings of other wines, never finished.

With the exception of the barrel, these wines are disappointing. Seeing what they are and where they came from, I guess there should be no surprise. I need to make room for this year's grapes, so I need to make some decisions. Options considered ranged from dumping it all, to blending it all. What the Mrs. was comfortable with is bottling it all individually, but not labeling it. We can then give it time to see if the wine comes around and then label it, relegate it to unlabeled cooking wine or we dump it later.

Lessons learned? I like using free run, especially with astringent wines like Petite Sirah, but won't do the same thing with this year's cab franc. This will avoid the left over marginal 100% pressed wine. The estate grapes have been cared for the best I can and there is mildew pressure, but so far I've kept the mildew off the clusters and won't be blending, so should be good there. On any free grapes, I have a full plate of close to 200 gallons this year, so there is no room for any more wine making in 2022.
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Too late now but could you have distilled it?