New Wine Maker Question: Sangiovese Grapes low brix measurement?

[SonomaPat]

Looking for some advice/feedback on my harvest this week. I have 3-4 year old Sangiovese vines. Yield I felt was pretty good: around 18lbs of grapes per vine for a total of 179 lbs.

The advice/feedback I am looking for is on the Brix readout. For the past 7-10 days the Brix reading has held study at about 1.072/17. From what I have seen this is low of the target of 1.095/22.6.

How will this low Brix measurement affect the wine? Are there any corrective measures I should consider now that they have been crushed and fermentation has begun?

Thanks!

 

[cmason1957]

With a starting SG of 1.072, you might get 10% ABV, just barely enough to be called wine. If you were to add sugar and assuming that your 179 lbs of grapes gave you about 10 gallons of must, about 5 pounds will get you to that 1.090 or close, and raise your ABV up to about 12.5%.

I am also going to guess that your acidity is way off due to being harvested early, probably the ph is a bit lower than normally expected, and the Titratable Acid is a bit higher. Without knowing the numbers it is hard to suggest what you should do. to fix that. Probably nothing until after fermentation completes, since if you try to determine the values now CO2 throws off the readings.

 

[sour_grapes]

Looking for some advice/feedback on my harvest this week. I have 3-4 year old Sangiovese vines. Yield I felt was pretty good: around 18lbs of grapes per vine for a total of 179 lbs.

The advice/feedback I am looking for is on the Brix readout. For the past 7-10 days the Brix reading has held study at about 1.072/17. From what I have seen this is low of the target of 1.095/22.6.

How will this low Brix measurement affect the wine? Are there any corrective measures I should consider now that they have been crushed and fermentation has begun?

Thanks!

Can you clarify something regarding the part that I bolded? Are you saying that you tested the Brix while the fruit was still hanging, but that it didn't change for a week+? Or are you saying that you harvested, but waited a week+ before crushing and fermenting?

(Grapes are not climacteric.)

 

[SonomaPat]

@sour_grapes, I tested 7-10 days ago while the grapes were on still growing on the vine. The rating then was 1.072/17. Harvested 2 days ago and crushed and the reading was the same. Lessons learned for next year: thin the vines to get fewer bunches per vine and wait another couple of weeks prior to harvesting.

@cmason1957, thanks for the advice. I added 4lbs of cane sugar, dissolved first in juice from the must before adding. This link was also helpful: www.winemakersdepot.com/Brix-Chart-W72.aspx.

Thank you all for the help on this journey!