Today’s harvest: Merlot

[Snafflebit]

Time to press. Some of the whole berries have a shrunken pulpy center that is going to bring my SG back up.

 

[Snafflebit]

 

[Snafflebit]

5 gallons of Merlot and 15 gallons of Cabernet this year. The first wine I have made from my own grapes!

 

[Snafflebit]

I have been lazy and left the wine sitting on gross lees for 8 days. I rack tomorrow. I did a sensory analysis of the wines and I am fine, no rotten egg from the lees.

The merlot is very good, the cabs are tasting more acidic than I would have expected from the numbers. They are slightly carbonated so that could be why. Overall this has convinced me that less fiddling with acid additions is a good thing. Maybe make a small acid adjustment during aging if MLF raises the pH over 3.7. The cabs could use some oak, the merlot is pretty good on its own.

 

[hugo1236]

Numbers are in
pH is 3.64 and the TA is 0.62%
acid is just a little low and I like the pH to be closer to 3.6
1.111 SG, or 27 Brix
this is going to be a big wine

but the grapes look great. This will be a blender wine, so I am debating if I should add any tartaric.

Numbers look great! If you want blend with grapes that have lower brix. You may have trouble fermenting due to high sugar. Maybe just water it down a tad. But those grapes look awesome! Happy wine making

 

[Snafflebit]

Update on the 2020 wines:
The biggest surprise is MLF is still bubbling in the Merlot! I kept the wines in a storage space over winter where the temp stayed above 60F but I guess that was low enough to halt MLF. It has been a hot week and the space is over 72F. This is in the Tahoe area. So, I have not sulfite that carboy. So far no off flavors are forming. Maybe I can get this MLF done by July 4 I hope. Then another racking. One of @Rice_Guy posts has a Lallemand video on stuck MLF and it was mentioned that Chardonnay and Merlot commonly have issues. For 2021 I will do coinnoculation, that was another suggestion for problematic MLF.

 

[Snafflebit]

I am also happy to report that the smoke taint has blown off. And the wines, while not having the amount of body I hoped, they are improving and sharpness has diminished.

 

[Mario Dinis]

Update on the 2020 wines:
The biggest surprise is MLF is still bubbling in the Merlot! I kept the wines in a storage space over winter where the temp stayed above 60F but I guess that was low enough to halt MLF. It has been a hot week and the space is over 72F. This is in the Tahoe area. So, I have not sulfite that carboy. So far no off flavors are forming. Maybe I can get this MLF done by July 4 I hope. Then another racking. One of @Rice_Guy posts has a Lallemand video on stuck MLF and it was mentioned that Chardonnay and Merlot commonly have issues. For 2021 I will do coinnoculation, that was another suggestion for problematic MLF.

For the first time I had probles with stuck MLF with a chilean syrah with VP41. Tried twice to no avail. I gave up and racked it to another carboy, added Kmeta and oak.

 

[Sage]

Looks great! Looks like you'll have a quality wine!!

 

[Snafflebit]

MLF has finally completed on the Merlot. It has been racked and sulfited. Now I prepare for 2021 harvest. This batch is very tasty and the fruitiness is starting to come down and 30 cubes of med toast French oak were a good amount in 5 gal. No acid addition needed and I am glad that I did not fiddle too much. My guess is that Merlot is a low nitrogen grape and I will add a bit more nutrient at the start of the 2021 batch.

Just getting back from camping Tahoe National Forest—in between the Caldor and Dixie fires! Harvest is probably next weekend.

 

[Snafflebit]

Vintage 2020 is in the bag, er, bottle!

Yesterday was so busy. My finished wine is 8 cases and 8 bottles. I have moved my wine making from the spare bathroom to our workshop that was intended for woodworking, but plans change. I will be getting water from a garden hose and running the drain out the front door.



New floor corker and drying tree came in very handy. I blended 250mL of Petit Verdot in three of the carboys. That makes about 2% addition and I actually found the addition noticeable and improved the nose and taste. This Tom Shula came from my Naked Wines shipment. For $10 a bottle, this will be my go to blender.

I guess I need to post my blends to the #BLENDSRULE thread.

 

[VinesnBines]

Looks really good.

I like the spare mattress in the wine room; it looks familiar.

 

[Snafflebit]

Seriously, this is a junk room more than a workshop!