Perpetual blending new vintage with prior years

[NorCal]

I have a vineyard that produces 30 gallons worth of Cab Sauv. I have 30 gallons of Cab from 2023 in two 15 gallon spiedels. My plans is to co-ferment (alcohol & mlf) the 2024 crop then combine the 2023 and 2024 into a 60 gallon barrel. I will then let in age until 2025, where I will bottle 30 gallons from the barrel and add 30 new gallons from the 2025 crop. I know this perpetual blend / solera system is nothing new, but I am trying to think through what I need to be cognizant of. The goal is to get the benefits of a barrel and have 18+ months equivalent of aging prior to bottling.

Over time, does the wine take on an older taste? How will cutting mlf short by combining with wine with SO2 effect the taste? How different will it taste year to year? Does anyone have experience doing this?

 

[winemaker81]

Hmmmm ... I have absolutely no experience in this, but logically speaking ...

Cutting MLF short will leave malic acid in the wine. Your timing of the bottling/adding new wine will be a deciding factor.

You can make the cutover whenever you want. Assuming you get CS in October, you can wait 3 months until January to bottle half the barrel and add new wine. If all goes well, that removes MLF from consideration.

This fall you'll have 50/50 2023 and 2024 wine. By year 5 of your progression, you'll be down to 2% of the 2023 wine, so aging out of the oldest wine in the mix won't be a real problem. One of my first thoughts was the 2023 in decline but it will be such a small proportion that it's unlikely to matter.

My guess is that by year 4 you'll have a wine that changes very little from year to year, unless you have a really good or bad year.

Yeah, this is total conjecture on my part, but IMO you have a great experiment. Record tasting notes every 3 months, and put them away. Don't look at those notes for at least 3 years.

 

[BarrelMonkey]

My plans is to co-ferment (alcohol & mlf) the 2024 crop then combine the 2023 and 2024 into a 60 gallon barrel. I will then let in age until 2025, where I will bottle 30 gallons from the barrel and add 30 new gallons from the 2025 crop.

Rather than add your solera wine immediately after fermenting the new vintage, I would hold it over for another year and blend at your next bottling. So keep your 2023 (30 gal) until late summer/fall 2025, then blend "Solera #1" (2023 (30 gal) + 2024 (30 gal)). You could then bottle 30 gal Solera #1 and save 30 gal. Then in 2026, blend "Solera #2" (Solera#1 30 gal + 2025 (30 gal)) and hold over 30 gal of Solera #2. Of course, this changes the logistics in that you're keeping back a 30 gal barrel instead of 60. I'm sure there's a way to do it with holding back a whole 60 gal, just depends how much wine you want to make...

 

[NorCal]

The yield from the Cab rows in the vineyard this year fell short of expectations. I have 36 gallon from last year and only 13 from this year. I have 2 1/2 gallons of Petit Verdot I plan on adding as well.

Fortunately I got a call from a buddy and asked if I wanted any Cab Franc. I picked a few hundred pounds and it is fermenting now. I’ll use the Cab Franc to complete the barrel. I’m co-inoculating and I should have enough containers to keep separate, but even if I don’t, I’m fine adding with a partial mlf completion. The wine here tends to be higher pH and SO2 levels, so a little more stronger acidity with little chance to go through mlf later, is ok with me.

 

[NorCal]

The experiment is a go.
32g '23 Cab
12g '24 Cab
11.5g ‘24 Cab Franc
2.5g '23 Petit Verdot

I co-inoculated the ‘24’s, so they are partially completed, something I’m willing to live with. I’ll be adding medium toast French oak spirals and letting it barrel age for a year.