Replicating a 100 point wine...this season’s plan

[wxtrendsguy]

Make sure you wine is clean or you have an filter in line...diaphragm pumps are notorious for getting gummed up with the littlest amount of debris...

 

[NorCal]

MLF is done, so today was racking day and took the opportunity to grab a generous sample. So far it is showing excellent promise. The jammy Cab Franc (Saignee, high % free run) is really coming through as a very fruit forward wine.

 

[sour_grapes]

That picture seems to indicate that it is ALREADY a 100-point wine! I guess you can stop now!

 

[NorCal]

That picture seems to indicate that it is ALREADY a 100-point wine! I guess you can stop now!

I sampled the Merlot, Cab Franc free run, Cab Franc press, 50/50 cab franc/merlot blend and the 100 point blend, so had the glasses labeled.
I copied the 100 point blend, not expecting the wine will ever hold a candle to the wine that won the 100 point score.

 

[stickman]

@NorCal Did you find that the press wine was overly tannic? Just curious, I do a fairly soft basket press and the wine is always more tannic than the free run, but not that much different, I've always combined them. I can understand keeping them separate if you're going for more fruit, I think I end up with something more rustic.

 

[NorCal]

@NorCal Did you find that the press wine was overly tannic? Just curious, I do a fairly soft basket press and the wine is always more tannic than the free run, but not that much different, I've always combined them. I can understand keeping them separate if you're going for more fruit, I think I end up with something more rustic.

The pressed juice was significantly different than the free run, jammy full of flavor, drinkable now with no structure. The pressed juice was on the tannic side, not as much flavor and would need time for it to come into its own. I’ve kept free run separated before and always felt the best wine was the blending of the free and pressed.

This year I vowed to do things different and used a much higher % of free run in the barrel. This is consistent with my goal to get the concentrated flavors in this year’s wine.

 

[NorCal]

Time for a barrel update.

I’ve been keeping the barrel topped and tracking the SO2. It is in a neutral French oak barrel, so determining which oak and how much to add is the next to-do on the list. I’ve been a fan of the oak spirals, so I purchased some medium toast French oak spirals. I have a carboy that is close to the wine blend composition of the barrel, so I put a couple in there. It takes 6 weeks for oak to integrate with the wine, so I’ll wait and see how that tastes before committing the $$ for 60 gallons worth.

I had a Cab Franc made by @Busabill that was outstanding. He used French oak wine stix for the oaking. I may need to try that as well.

 

[Johnd]

Time for a barrel update.

I’ve been keeping the barrel topped and tracking the SO2. It is in a neutral French oak barrel, so determining which oak and how much to add is the next to-do on the list. I’ve been a fan of the oak spirals, so I purchased some medium toast French oak spirals. I have a carboy that is close to the wine blend composition of the barrel, so I put a couple in there. It takes 6 weeks for oak to integrate with the wine, so I’ll wait and see how that tastes before committing the $$ for 60 gallons worth.

I had a Cab Franc made by @Busabill that was outstanding. He used French oak wine stix for the oaking. I may need to try that as well.
View attachment 58557

I second the notion of testing the Wine Stix. After using both spirals and Stix of the same toast / origin on separate but equal batches, the WS were much better IMHO. They are now my auto-go-to for oaking in neutral barrels.

 

[mainshipfred]

I've also used both spirals and sticks but never compared them side to side and currently debating something similar. Spirals definitely have have a greater surface area but what I've been buying are the wine sticks. The literature states one wine stick is good for 5 gallons of wine and gives similar results to a second use barrel which I would imagine is referring the oak extraction. Since the bulk of my wines are aging in 6-8 gallon vessels and depending on the varietal I'm dealing with I was probably going to start with 2 sticks each for the bigger wines.

 

[Johnd]

I've also used both spirals and sticks but never compared them side to side and currently debating something similar. Spirals definitely have have a greater surface area but what I've been buying are the wine sticks. The literature states one wine stick is good for 5 gallons of wine and gives similar results to a second use barrel which I would imagine is referring the oak extraction. Since the bulk of my wines are aging in 6-8 gallon vessels and depending on the varietal I'm dealing with I was probably going to start with 2 sticks each for the bigger wines.

Fred, I was using 2 Stix in my neutral 6’s on a regular basis, it was a very nice level of oak after 2 - 3 months, which I believe is the recommended soak time. They rock on the pit afterwards....

 

[NorCal]

I got what I thought was a great deal on the French oak spirals, $8.80 for a bag of two. In the past, I’d drop 1 spiral in a carboy, 6 weeks later it was done. When I got the bag, they looked shorter and the bag said each spiral was good for 3 gallons...arg. I will need to make another oak purchase anyway, so maybe I’ll make the jump to wine stix, unless my test carboy blows me away.

 

[NorCal]

It’s been a month. I ended up buying medium toast French oak wine spirals for a barrel. I have a 2nd year barrel equivalent worth of oak in the barrel. I have done everything I can do, with the equipment I have, to make the best wine I can make. I could drink this wine right now. I think this is the best wine I’ve ever made.

I’ll enter it in the CA State fair this year in the competitive Bordeaux category and we’ll see how we do in the blind tasting/judging.

 

[ibglowin]

Interesting article that landed just today.

https://www.winemag.com/2020/02/27/...dsource=EMAIL1&dm_i=219S,1JYT1,5DXYUO,595KV,1

 

[NorCal]

Thanks for posting. That winery is 40 min from me!

“It wasn’t magic. What made the 2016 Ascent a 100-point wine was a near-perfect growing season, an exceptional wine region and a winemaker at the top of his game.”

I’m blessed with the region and a pretty consistent growing season, I just need to continue to work on that third element.

 

[NorCal]

I had the opportunity to enjoy two very nice glasses of wine last night that people brought to a small gathering, one was a Somm.

- 2016 Duckhorn Vineyard Napa Cab Franc ($78 @ winery)
- 2012 Dunn Vineyard Napa Cabernet Sauvignon ($100 all day)

Both were excellent wines and what made them excellent to me was the depth of fruit. The flavor was deep and long lasting, with many different flavors, followed by a finish that stayed with you for days.

It is still real early, but I am tasting this depth of fruit that really makes these wines stand out in this Cab Franc barrel. I really feel that depth comes from the things we have been discussing in another thread; the ability to cold soak, control ferm temps and perhaps post ferm maceration. However, I really feel that us home winemakers from grapes can take steps to make really excellent wine. If I had to choose one thing that was done on this wine that I feel is making the biggest difference, if would be the saignee, where I removed 17% of the juice, before fermenting the Cab Franc, which is 64% of the overall volume. Too bad I have to wait an entire year to try something similar (thinking a Merlot based blend) again to see if I hit on something or the stars just luckily lined up this time.

 

[stickman]

Here's the 2012 Dunn Napa Cab information.

 

[Chuck E]

I had the opportunity to enjoy two very nice glasses of wine last night that people brought to a small gathering, one was a Somm.

- 2016 Duckhorn Vineyard Napa Cab Franc ($78 @ winery)
- 2012 Dunn Vineyard Napa Cabernet Sauvignon ($100 all day)

Both were excellent wines and what made them excellent to me was the depth of fruit. The flavor was deep and long lasting, with many different flavors, followed by a finish that stayed with you for days..

I've tasted the Duckhorn, and I get what you are talking about.

 

[cmason1957]

Here's the 2012 Dunn Napa Cab information.

View attachment 59169

Thanks for posting this, I see some very interesting things in the words of this short article, yeast choice D-254 and only one. Free and press are mixed together, but they don't press above 1 bar. Malolactic bacteria is added after press and they wait until it shows signs of starting before going to barrels. Barrels are kept at 57 F. 32 months in the barrel, sterile filtered and then 6 months in the bottle, so that means that wine is something like 3.5 years old before being commercially available (and then probably can age for a nice long time). And with 90% new French Oak, they have to sell at that price point ($100) to cover oak cost, almost.

I am almost certain that with my little, hand-cranked, fruit press, I can't get anywhere near 1 bar of pressure, so no reason not to mix free and press together. Amazing how chilled they keep the barrels, so you know malolactic fermentation takes a LONGGGG time. The racking every six months. all things to consider, for sure.

 

[ibglowin]

Pretty sure you can go higher than 1 bar with a basket press. The whole selling point of the membrane press over the basket press was the basket press was capable of such high pressures you had to go easy or you risk pressing too hard and extracting too many tannins making for a really harsh wine.

This article claims you can achieve 6 bar with a basket press although it sounds like it is hydraulic. You keep yanking on a ratchet you can crank up the force. Be neat if they make some type of sensor that you could place in the basket press and actually measure the pressure in real time. I am thinking bluetooth app to smartphone. Then you could look at a graph in realtime of your pressure and make notes for future years depending on how the wines turned out you shoot to not go over a certain pressure. You take an "analog press" and convert it to digital in essence.

https://winesvinesanalytics.com/features/article/106967/Basket-Presses-Are-Big-For-Reds

I am almost certain that with my little, hand-cranked, fruit press, I can't get anywhere near 1 bar of pressure, so no reason not to mix free and press together.

 

[mainshipfred]

I've developed a procedure that I think helps reduce extracting seed tannins. Toward the end of fermentation I will stir the wine after punching down. It appears to allow a majority of the seeds to sink to the bottom of the fermenter. So when I dump the last of the must in the press it is full of seeds at the bottom which I just discard. I press 3 times removing and fluffing the cake between presses. It's amazing how lightly you have to press the second and third time to get juice to flow and the skins are very dry. I started this by watching a commercial horizontal bladder press in action. They will press, rotate the drum several times and press again and their standard is three presses. I also find this especially helpful when the skins are very soft and would normally squirt out of the side of the press. The first press is very light, once you see it starting to squirt you remove and fluff them and pres again and it usually prevents it on the second pressing.