The Spaniards

[Tnuscan]

Did some lab work on the Spaniards, here's how they sit today, not yet sulfited or moved to the wine room, but finished MLF:

Montsant Tempranillo
Initial BRIX at 23, adjusted to 24, dry now
pH 3.95, adjusted to 3.56, 3.70 today
TA 4.8 g/l, adjusted to 6.4 g/l, 7.0 g/l today

Montsant Merlot
Initial BRIX 27.3, adjusted to 25, dry today
pH 3.40, adjusted to 3.50, 3.47 today
TA 8.8 g/l, adjusted to 7.8 g/l, 7.8 g/l today

I'll probably ride the numbers above for a while and evaluate again before they hit the barrels.

Also did a 50/50 Temp/Merlot Blend at pressing / racking, it is currently at pH 3.59, TA 6.6 g/l
The blend has the best numbers of the whole lot! Something to consider down the road.....

Seeing the numbers really help me get the whole picture. I am intrigued at how the TA lowered with blending. I really like those numbers, and seeing them all togeather I now understand how the blending can change things.

Thanks!!!

 

[Johnd]

Seeing the numbers really help me get the whole picture. I am intrigued at how the TA lowered with blending. I really like those numbers, and seeing them all togeather I now understand how the blending can change things.

Thanks!!!

You said you liked to see it all together, so I posted it that way, good exercise for me too. What's a little freaky are the merlots. Look at the Spanish Merlot and pop over to the Lanza Merlot on the southern crush day day thread. From two different continents, the only two whose ph lowered and TA increased from preferment to post MLF. I'll treat it differently in the future.

My takeaway from the exercise, other than the Merlot anomaly, is to shoot for a TA around 7 and ph of 3.5, preferment, and let the AF and MLF bring it back into the sweet spot........hopefully.

 

[Johnd]

Racked and sulfited the Spanish wines today. Made a mental error, not winethreatening, but definitely not good.

Had the 6 carboys to be racked on the ground, only 4 empty carboys, so I sanitized the 4. Dumped about a cup or so kms into thr first, sloshed around well, dumped it into the second, repeat til the fourth was done. Left the solution in the fourth to us to sanitize the first two carboys I emptied and cleaned.

Can you see it coming? Set up the vacuum and started racking, right down the line til the last clean carboy was full, adding kms to each as I hooked the vacuum to it. So carboy 4 got 1/4 tsp plus about a cup of solution, which equates to about another half teaspoon, for a total of 3/4 tsp in a pH 3.59 wine. Triple + dose. Guess it'll be pretty safe for a while, I'll check it in about 6 months.

 

[jburtner]

Did grapemasters close their doors? Website doesn't work anymore.

Cheers!
Johann

 

[Johnd]

Did grapemasters close their doors? Website doesn't work anymore.

Cheers!
Johann

Not that I know of Johann, I talked with Charles just a few days ago. Did try the website, but it says that the server is unavailable.

You could try his email if you like: [email protected]

 

[jburtner]

Thanks John! I'll shoot an email. I had browsed the site before and may like to order for spring.

Cheers!
-johann

 

[cgallamo]

John have you tasted recently? Are these in barrels?

 

[Johnd]

John have you tasted recently? Are these in barrels?

Haven't tasted recently, but they're due for racking on 5/11, that'll be my next chance. If you'd like me to take a taste before then, I'll be happy to @ceeaton a little bit and let you know how it is.......

 

[cgallamo]

I'll be in New Orleans for Jazz fest I could help you

 

[Johnd]

I'll be in New Orleans for Jazz fest I could help you

LOL, I'm certain that we could arrange a tasting, shoot me a PM and let me know when you'll be in the area and we'll see if it'll work out.

 

[cgallamo]

Sounds great. Still working on arrangements, but if we can work it out I'll bring some of my stuff too.

 

[Johnd]

A little update, prompted by @cgallamo , these wines were started in January of 2017, so about a year old and still in glass.

Two carboys of Merlot went into two 6 gallon Vadai barrels last weekend, both barrels are neutral, so I added 1 FR M+ Wine Stix and 1 AM M+ Wine Stix to each barrel. Plan to leave the Merlot in barrels for 6 months before racking out, making final evaluations / adjustments and bottling. I wasn't really thrilled about putting them into separate barrels, but only have one 12 gallon barrel, decided to save that for the Tempranillo.

The Tempranillo remains in glass, waiting for another wine to finish up in the 12 gallon barrel, some time in the next few months.

Recall that I had one carboy of a Temp / Merlot blend, it's been sitting in glass with FR M+ Wine Stix for a long time, having been racked off of fine sediment some 8 months ago, and not dropping any more. It was decided that this blend wasn't going to spend any time in a barrel, but be aged in glass, it's really ready to be evaluated, adjusted and bottled, I just haven't gotten around to it.

Last tasting of the three was good, they're all fairly impressive for being under a year old, still a tad green and tannic, but that's to be expected. I believe that tasting was around October of 2017.

 

[cgallamo]

Awesome - thanks for the update. I bet they are amazing. That tannin could turn into something beautiful in a few years. How do you like the flavors from the Vadai? So how long do you plan to leave the Tempranillo in the barrel?

 

[Johnd]

Awesome - thanks for the update. I bet they are amazing. That tannin could turn into something beautiful in a few years. How do you like the flavors from the Vadai? So how long do you plan to leave the Tempranillo in the barrel?

Certainly hoping that the tannins mellow, and expect that they will. I like the flavors from the vadai, and am experimenting with my first French oak barrel flavors, and really like what I’m tasting and smelling thus far. All of my vadai barrels are neutral now, so I’ll leave the wine in the 12 gallon barrel for 6 - 12 months, just need to keep an eye out for oxidation.

 

[cgallamo]

Have you ever noticed any oxidation? They seem so thick, seems like the benefit of micro oxidation.

 

[Johnd]

Have you ever noticed any oxidation? They seem so thick, seems like the benefit of micro oxidation.

I haven't ever noticed any oxidation, but have always tended not to push the line too far, and always try to keep my sulfites in line. Advice given by several of our members here, based on barrel size, is not to leave a wine in a 6 gallon barrel more than 6 months to avoid the risk of over oxygenation, I've gone as much as 7 months with no noticeable effects. Of course, these are neutral barrels, that long with a new barrel would overpower the wine with oak. As the barrel size increases, the wine volume to barrel surface area decreases, and longer sits are ok. I'm planning to leave the 17 wine in the 30 gallon barrel for a year, if the oak doesn't get too overpowering, but I don't have a feel for that barrel yet, time will tell......

 

[cgallamo]

I left my rattlesnake cabernet/merlot in the vadai (50L) for 7 months. It was a little too long. I really liked it out of the barrel, but I like oak bombs. It may have to sit for years to integrate. I really love wines from Montsant (usually Grenache (Garnacha)), so I bet you have something great going there.

 

[salernovic]

I’ve been following the progress of your montsant merlot and Tempranillo since this year I’m going to try Charles merlot for the first time along with grenach , carignan and Cabernet Sauvignon. I have the 2016 Tempranillo in a 100l zemplen barrel from Hungary now and plan to leave it for 9 months or so. It’s a 3rd use barrel that I rotated some niagara cab Franc already and 2016 montsant syrah that was in there for 5 months. The Tempranillo seems tannic but the flavour profile is great . I have a ph of 3.71 in mine and it doesn’t taste green, just tannic but probably will fine with egg whites in semptember and bottle in October. That will give me 16 months of aging which should be enough. The syrah is great as well, little more alchool but the flavour is there and these are the best wine I’ve ever made even though you have to play around a little with ph and water additions , it’s worth the effort.

 

[gitmo234]

Are you US based? Real question is will grapemasters ship to the US? I've seriously been looking for some tempranillo

EDIT: Disregard. It's plain and clear on their website

 

[Johnd]

I’ve been following the progress of your montsant merlot and Tempranillo since this year I’m going to try Charles merlot for the first time along with grenach , carignan and Cabernet Sauvignon. I have the 2016 Tempranillo in a 100l zemplen barrel from Hungary now and plan to leave it for 9 months or so. It’s a 3rd use barrel that I rotated some niagara cab Franc already and 2016 montsant syrah that was in there for 5 months. The Tempranillo seems tannic but the flavour profile is great . I have a ph of 3.71 in mine and it doesn’t taste green, just tannic but probably will fine with egg whites in semptember and bottle in October. That will give me 16 months of aging which should be enough. The syrah is great as well, little more alchool but the flavour is there and these are the best wine I’ve ever made even though you have to play around a little with ph and water additions , it’s worth the effort.

I'm pretty impressed with his stuff thus far, they're getting some age on them, but still haven't gotten the Temp. into a barrel yet, Merlot has been in for a bit. I have similar tasting recollections of the Temp. and Merlot, good fruity flavors, but still a little tight and tannic. I'm suspecting that when I can get them through the barrel(s) that they will really come around. None of my wines have had an finings added to them, just fermented and aged....