Rosé ZERO skins time!

[Ajmassa]

AJ: have you added sulfite to that rose yet? In addition to the Lysozyme, check the sulfite levels. Even if the Lysozyme isn't working 100%, 50-60ppm of sulfite should at least slow MLF down.

ph at 3.2 and hit with so2 right before CS. chart says 20ppm. i dosed to 30. didn’t check just now tho. not willing to sacrifice 25ml of wine lol. Don’t wanna mess with my perfectly topped up carboy and growler.

Added the lysozyme to the carboy as is. but not too worried. for all i know a little malic acid eaten up could benefit this wine. my other rosé went thru it and is delish

 

[Ajmassa]

clearing well post lysozyme. Doubt i will need any clarifiers. Just gonna rack off the light lees/CS tartrate fallout/lysozyme sediment and leave it be.

 

[stickman]

Nice, I'll have a glass, hopefully it tastes as good as it looks!

 

[Jay A]

That looks great! Think I'm gonna be doing some next year.

 

[Ajmassa]

Nice, I'll have a glass, hopefully it tastes as good as it looks!

yes sir! will look perfect in a glass on the deck down the shore this summer!
haven’t actually given them a proper taste since CS. Will taste when i rack. Before CS the accidental residual sugar seemed to benefit the wine— and a nice contrast to my dry Malbec rosé.

The biggest surprise of the ‘20 wines is really my little experimental “family” red wine. The one i did with whole cluster. Field blend of:
zin 50%
syrah 25
petite sirah 12.5
muscat. 12.5

Tasting after pressing it was too much...just everything. Figured would end up a blender wine. Way high abv. tannic. high acid. The backend was like a punch in the face. Jet Fuel. Had a nip about a month ago and was pleasantly surprised to how much it has already transformed.
And muscat is one hella strong white grape. 2018’s **** red i did 30% muscat and it took over the wine for 2 years. So i bumped it to 12.5%. and beefed up the reds—- and was disappointed I couldn’t even taste any muscat at all after pressing.
But now i’m happy to see it shining through this otherwise big bold wine- adding a fun complexity. Hard to describe. it’s still very much a baby maker but the Muscat adds a subtle sweet/fruity baseline— which is a staple of our traditional “Family” red Alicante/muscat blend. Looking forward to this one alot.

——eh. i’m looking forward to all of em tbh. They’re like my kids. Each one with its own unique story (stories that nobody cares about but me lol— kinda like showing baby pictures to everyone in the office )

 

[Ajmassa]

That looks great! Think I'm gonna be doing some next year.

You should! After doing my 1st one in spring and another in the fall i’m certain i will be making saigneé rosé every year now. Nice to have something for the summer, while also improving the main wine. (and a perfect excuse to add another 100lbs of grapes to my order!)

 

[Jay A]

It's win win. Did you make must adjustments post crush, or roll dice?

 

[Ajmassa]

It's win win. Did you make must adjustments post crush, or roll dice?

i had to scroll back the thread till post #10 to refresh my memory lol.

These grapes came in with very ideal numbers. Rosé ph was 3.2. Brix was a tad high for rosé at 24.8% but i rolled the dice.
Just strained off the juice in the parking lot and a day later i racked off the sediment that dropped out and pitched yeast. No fancy stuff. Just juice & yeast.

rosé from spring however i did adjust acid. from 3.6 to 3.4 i think. Luckily the people on this forum steered me in the right direction with that. I was fine with 3.6 until i was reminded that a nice crisp rosé ideal ph is low 3’s.

 

[Jay A]

I posted @11 & missed that, shame on me. Great info on this site, Thanks. Can't wait to try this.

 

[CDrew]

These grapes came in with very ideal numbers. Rosé ph was 3.2. Brix was a tad high for rosé at 24.8% but i rolled the dice.
Just strained off the juice in the parking lot and a day later i racked off the sediment that dropped out and pitched yeast. No fancy stuff. Just juice & yeast.

rosé from spring however i did adjust acid. from 3.6 to 3.4 i think. Luckily the people on this forum steered me in the right direction with that. I was fine with 3.6 until i was reminded that a nice crisp rosé ideal ph is low 3’s.

Nice-good info re pH. My 2020 Rose is in Stainless so cant see how clear. I'm pretending it's as clear as @Ajmassa!

 

[Ajmassa]

Preparing to bottle these 2020 rosé’s finally. Just in time for the summer. I kept up on the sulphites but other then that I didn’t mess with them at all. No adjusting or racking or anything since cold stabilizing and lysozyme. Both are delicious. Malbec is bone dry. The cab got stuck at 1.003 but the residual sweetness still works very well. Nice to have 2 rosés that are very different from each other. As they say— variety is the spice of life!

The 6gal malbec was noticeably clearer than the 3gal cab rosé back then, but I attributed that to the malbec being 6 months older and the cab being just a few months old. Fast forward to now and the 3gal seems to have surpassed the 6 in clarity. Makes me wonder- is the 6 as clear as it should be? Should I use a fining agent or something? Or is it just that a 3gal carboy has a smaller circumference making the clarity appear better than it really is?

I stuck a picture behind the carboys to see how well you could see thru. The difference is substantial—- but then again, does it really matter? Would you attempt to clear this up more or do you think it’s ready for the bottle? I’m torn. I do have multiple types of clarifies on hand. On its own the malbec looks perfectly clear ...standing next to the cab, not as much.

Speaking of the bottle— I sprung for some fun styles for these instead of the boring old Bordeaux type I always use. Got clear burgundy style for the cab and taller “hock style” for the malbec.

 

[CDrew]

Great clarity. Congratulations.

 

[sour_grapes]

I agree that one is clearer than the other. I doubt anyone will care! The Malbec is certainly "clear enough."

 

[user 38734]

The color is fantastic on both of those Rose’s.

I only ever fine grape wine with egg white, and only then to tame a tannic beast. Don’t know what fining products you have, but I wouldn’t trade losing tannins (precious little in Rose’s) for a slightly more clear wine.

That wine looks awesome.

GREAT choice on the bottles.

 

[Ajmassa]

The color is fantastic on both of those Rose’s.

I only ever fine grape wine with egg white, and only then to tame a tannic beast. Don’t know what fining products you have, but I wouldn’t trade losing tannins (precious little in Rose’s) for a slightly more clear wine.

That wine looks awesome.

GREAT choice on the bottles.

I’ve got a bunch on the shelf actually.
bentonite
dual fine (keilosol/chitosan) never used
pectin enzyme
polyclar10 also never used

all collecting dust. Never really had to bother tho since i’ve been exclusively making red wine. Clarity hasn’t ever been an issue. After so long the wine has always just been good, never appearing like it lacked clarity.

but i had some tunnel vision and totally forgot about potential byproducts. sometimes a fresh set of eyes is needed when venturing out of normal lane.

Only reason it’s even a thought is because how surprisingly crystal clear the cab ended up.

I agree that one is clearer than the other. I doubt anyone will care! The Malbec is certainly "clear enough."

lol. this is a fact. they will most definitely not care!

Great clarity. Congratulations.

the rosé seed really took root in that “closing the commercial/homemade gap”
thread by @NorCal. And as i was cutting my teeth on rosé wine last year you and many others were there with me every step of the way offering advice & support. much appreciated. i lean on this forum a lot. probably too much lol.

 

[CDrew]

I hear you. Rosé is pretty great for a home wine maker. It's a great biproduct, simple, ready early, wives like it, and it tastes great even to your "non-wine" drinking friends(though who has those?-LOL). I mean, how cool is it to have 2020 wine that is great to drink right now? I'm going to double production this year!

@Ajmassa looking forward to our long distance swap!

 

[Ajmassa]

I hear you. Rosé is pretty great for a home wine maker. It's a great biproduct, simple, ready early, wives like it, and it tastes great even to your "non-wine" drinking friends(though who has those?-LOL). I mean, how cool is it to have 2020 wine that is great to drink right now? I'm going to double production this year!

@Ajmassa looking forward to our long distance swap!

a small byproduct of improving the base wine but i end up dedicating all my focus on 3gal lol. while the other 20+gal gets some age. which i Got some oak for when i picked up bottles. french med+ and american med. for the fall wines- a Red mt cab and the **** red. Just gotta decide which gets which and drop ‘em in.

Def looking forward to a swap. Always prefer sharing with fellow winemakers than my typical peanut gallery.

 

[NorCal]

Awesome clarity! Rose is an excellent byproduct of making a better red. Congrats!

 

[Ajmassa]

‘20 Dry Rosé & ‘20 Sweet Rosé
in the bottle

Now headed to great adventure with the fam. Holiday crowd, long lines and roller coasters with a pinched nerve in my back. Can’t wait

 

[Ajmassa]

Six Flags was a horrible idea. just like i said it would be. I voiced my opinion, was disregarded....but i digress.

I think the entire state had the same idea as us. We couldn’t even get near the parking lot! So we called an audible, hung a U-turn and hit up America’s 1st zoo for the day. Had a blast and was gorgeous weather. Been a long long time since we were there.

And no zoo visit is complete without stopping by the infamous Massa the gorilla. He was the worlds oldest gorilla & known for being quite animated. A famous gorilla with our name who threw his poop at people? yeah he was basically a legend to my brothers and I growing up. lol. And I was happy to retell the stories i was told so the legend may continue.
Was a Great day. And ending it with a fine glass of rosé and Sixers playoffs. Couldn’t even make it 24 hours after bottling before diving in lol.