Saignee-Real time help

[CDrew]

Today was Mourvedre day and wouldn't you know it, there was an extra 100 pounds give or take that needed a home. So I got my usual 300 and an extra hundred for Rose.

So the grapes were very nice brix 25 off a hillside vineyard in Contra Costa County near Brentwood.

My plan is to let the grapes sit about 6 hours on the skins and press later today. Does that sound about right?

-Do I sulfite now?
-Yeast is limited to Avante and RP15 on hand. Can I just use the Avante? Hoping so since I have a lot of it.
-I plan to ferment in Carboys. I'm thinking 100 pounds in 2 6 gallon should given enough head space.
-When does it get racked off the lees? When fermentation is over or before to clean it up?
-Temp control is non-existent, but garage is pretty cold at night. Sound OK?
-Would really like to know how to sulfite it to keep it from browning too much.

Any help appreciated.

 

[NorCal]

I pull the juice off ASAP. You can always add red wine back in to add color. For my Rose, I’ll water back to 22-23, aciduate to 3.3-3.4 and ferment away.

 

[mainshipfred]

Just crushed my Grenache for a Rose. This is only my second try at it so thanks for the post @CDrew and thanks for the tip @NorCal

 

[CDrew]

I pull the juice off ASAP. You can always add red wine back in to add color. For my Rose, I’ll water back to 22-23, aciduate to 3.3-3.4 and ferment away.

Thanks for the reply. I have to say, I'm just going forward. The Brix was likely too high at 25 and the pH 3.7 ish but I'll adjust the acid later. I have about 8 gallons of pressed mouvedre juice with a bit of a nice pink color. It's already fermenting per the airlock just a few hours after pitching the yeast. There is also the 30 gallons or so of actual mourvedre wine. Yeast got pitched tonight so I hope to see some cap formation tomorrow. I put the pressed skins from the Rose back into the main ferment, so hoping that improves the overall wine.

 

[Johnd]

Thanks for the reply. I have to say, I'm just going forward. The Brix was likely too high at 25 and the pH 3.7 ish but I'll adjust the acid later. I have about 8 gallons of pressed mouvedre juice with a bit of a nice pink color. It's already fermenting per the airlock just a few hours after pitching the yeast. There is also the 30 gallons or so of actual mourvedre wine. Yeast got pitched tonight so I hope to see some cap formation tomorrow. I put the pressed skins from the Rose back into the main ferment, so hoping that improves the overall wine.

Always a better result when acid is adjusted prefermentation.......

 

[CDrew]

Always a better result when acid is adjusted prefermentation.......

I hear you. Time budget just didn't allow. We had 10 guests for dinner, and literally had just shut off the hose cleaning up the press, when the first one showed up. My wife was already unhappy I'd been gone most of the day and then busy dealing with grapes, sticky fermentors, pressing, measuring, pitching yeast, and clean up. Next time this happens it will be with more prep.

 

[NorCal]

I hear you. Time budget just didn't allow. We had 10 guests for dinner, and literally had just shut off the hose cleaning up the press, when the first one showed up. My wife was already unhappy I'd been gone most of the day and then busy dealing with grapes, sticky fermentors, pressing, measuring, pitching yeast, and clean up. Next time this happens it will be with more prep.

@4score and I have talked about how many winemaking decisions are made because of “logistics” reasons and in the end, it was quite frequent.

 

[mainshipfred]

@4score and I have talked about how many winemaking decisions are made because of “logistics” reasons and in the end, it was quite frequent.

I absolutely agree and not only for the home winemaker but for commercial as well.

 

[CDrew]

I racked the Rose into a 5 gallon carboy tonight plus 1/2 gallon growler., It's done fermenting already. It's cloudy but a bit pink. I'm hoping it clears but if not, it's an experiment. I do not like having only a small overage because that's all I have for topping after subsequent rackings.

I also did something I've never done. I broke a carboy. I was cleaning with Oxyclean which is slippery as heck and one got away from me and broke on the driveway. No harm done but a wake up that these things are dangerous.

 

[mainshipfred]

I also did something I've never done. I broke a carboy. [/QUOTE]

Congrats, you are now in the club!

 

[CDrew]

Racked this again today off the yeast sediment. The wine is the slightest pale pink and I may in the end darken it with some of the Mourvedre that was made at the same time.

It's really good, despite being 9 days from the vine. Clean taste, nice acid balance, prob too much alcohol for the style but I'm quite happy for an ad-hoc effort. I'll bottle in 6 months or so and save for another 6 months or year. Even the wife thought it was good.

Anyway, I'll definitely do this again next year. It's easy to divert 100 pounds of grapes and that nets about 6 gallons so maybe 2-2.5 cases of bottled wine.

 

[mainshipfred]

How is the red Mourvedre with the additional skins? Also and this may be a style thing but do you put your Rose's through MLF?

 

[CDrew]

How is the red Mourvedre with the additional skins? Also and this may be a style thing but do you put your Rose's through MLF?

I wrestled with this too. Likely no, based on tasting today. I think I'm going to sulfite again to preserve the color in the next day or two and just see what happens. There must be CH16 floating around in my garage since both open fermentations of the Mourvedre got it dosed early on.

Like I said, I'm winging this, and basically making a Rose the way I'd normally make a red wine. Even used Avante (red wine) yeast.

See my other thread regarding the rest of the Mourvedre. There is both good and bad news.

 

[CDrew]

Something odd happening here. Wine is stored in the wine closet at 62F roughly. The wine has been still since Mid October. Out of the blue, it's bubbling again. Very odd and the wine otherwise looks and tastes fine. Anyone think this could be a spontaneous MLF? I added no MLF bacteria. And there is just a dusting of sediment. Anyway, I'm going to ride it out and see what happens. Tempted to bottle and have a petnat.

And hard to get a picture of this. This is a flashight behind the neck of the carboy and changes the color a bit.

 

[NorCal]

Something odd happening here. Wine is stored in the wine closet at 62F roughly. The wine has been still since Mid October. Out of the blue, it's bubbling again. Very odd and the wine otherwise looks and tastes fine. Anyone think this could be a spontaneous MLF? I added no MLF bacteria. And there is just a dusting of sediment. Anyway, I'm going to ride it out and see what happens. Tempted to bottle and have a petnat.

And hard to get a picture of this. This is a flashight behind the neck of the carboy and changes the color a bit.


View attachment 57754

My mlf in carboys looks similar, tiny bubbles. Could take a while to complete at these temps.

 

[CDrew]

The new fermentation whatever it is, is already slowing. Temp has warmed 2 degrees to 64F. Still lots of bubbles coming up though. It almost has to be MLF. Wine still looking good with no funny smells or taste. It's odd for sure, but interesting. I don't really have enough (5 gallons) to be worth doing much testing.

Any thoughts on oak for Rose? Thinking just a tiny hint of it.

I plan to bottle in the spring.

 

[stickman]

As they say, make it to your taste, it's your wine, though with a light wine for myself I would probably leave the oak out.

 

[CDrew]

Thanks. I've never made a Rose before so it's all new territory. I don't like sweet wines so it's going to be a dry Rose regardless.

 

[mainshipfred]

Thanks. I've never made a Rose before so it's all new territory. I don't like sweet wines so it's going to be a dry Rose regardless.

I made 2 Rose's this year for the first time, both three gallon batches. Never thought about oaking them but I did slightly oak 2 whites, a Voignier and a Petit Manseng. Both so far are kind of nice.

 

[CDrew]

Going to update this with a question. The spontaneous ferment whatever it was is over. But the wine, though clear still is just slightly hazy, as in you can see through it but couldn't read a newspaper through it. Tastes pretty good though. I actually thought about adding EX-V to it as a pectinase and see if that cleared it.

What's the most expedient way to deal with that? Filtration? Bentonite? Sparkolloid? This is all new territory for me. I've been meaning to buy a filter set up from @allinonewinepump and may do that to facilitate bottling this Rose.

I want to keep interventions to a minimum and I have exactly 5 gallons so no chance to make up losses. I want to bottle around April.

Any comments appreciated.