Winter 22 to harvest 23

[Obbnw]

Oh how I empathize with the empty supply drawer… making a list for shopping tomorrow as I’m expecting to be making primitivo later this week as part of a group effort. Tempranillo will follow next week. My vineyard grapes are a couple weeks out unless the temperatures rise. We’ve been 75-80 during the day, 50-55 at night. Pretty good weather so I hope it holds.

We had a cool labor day with an inch of rain, which is quite a bit for my location. The next 2 weeks look sunny and warm, basically +10 degrees from your temps.

The Malbecs range from 16 to 20 brix, the remaining tempranillos are at 20-21 brix, the tannats are still pretty green but given the forecast I think everything will ripen nicely.

 

[Obbnw]

Finally got around to shopping. Spent more than I ever have but most of it was corks. Bit the bullet and ordered 1000. I had been reluctant to order that many since it'll take 5 or more years to use them all but someone here posted that they just vac seal the ones they don't use. Great tip!

The Baco is fermenting nicely, forgot how much I like the smell of a clean ferment. I haven't checked brix today but based on the other day don't expect to pick anything this weekend.

It'll be nice to get the corks, got to start emptying carboys, so I can fill them with this years....

 

[Obbnw]

Picked the remaining Tempranillos and most of the Malbecs Friday and Saturday, about 160 lbs total.

80 lbs were powdery mildew scarred but most didn't look too bad. I destem by hand anyway so sorting the bad ones was relatively easy. Definitely tossed a fair amount. Usually I'm about 10lbs of picked wght per gallon of must but this year is seems closer to 15lbs per gallon of must. It's not quite a fair comparison since I pressed the PM infected right away, so the must is essentially pure juice.

Also got 80lbs of mostly PM free malbecs, photo below.




Everything was about 23.5 brix, PH measured 3.8 but I still need to calibrate my meter this year so I don't trust the PH. On a side note, can I use distilled water instead of deionized water to make a ph test solution?

Still have about 50lbs of Malbecs to pick. This week is cool but it is supposed to warm back up. Anticipate picking oct 14. Hoping for 24-25Brix.

The Tannats are coming along and I expect most of them to reach 23 brix by the 14th. A couple of the plants are partially shaded by a tree and they are definitely behind the others.

Yield is way down from last year (about 700 lbs last year, maybe 350 this year), I probably lost 80% of my Tempranillos and 40% of Malbecs to PM.

The Baco-Tempranillo blend is looking great. I racked it yesterday and it was exceptionally clear for it's age and really tasted quite nice. I'll probably bottle and drink it young, Beaujolais Nouveau style. The high acid Baco along with just the Tempranillo juice seems to have mimicked the higher acidity and very little tannin associated with carbonic maceration.

 

[Snafflebit]

Everything was about 23.5 brix, PH measured 3.8 but I still need to calibrate my meter this year so I don't trust the PH. On a side note, can I use distilled water instead of deionized water to make a ph test solution?

Distilled water would probably be fine for the level of accuracy of winemaking

or buy these. I keep the solution in some sealed vials for later use, but these are designed to be disposable
Amazon.com

 

[Obbnw]

Calibrated my ph meter, got 3.6 on a couple of readings of the Oct 2 picking then decided to check the Ph on the Baco/Temp ferment. By the time I got baco batch out the PH meter stopped working permanently. Must have damaged the bulb somehow, it just reads 00.00 no matter what I did. I ordered a new one, and measured again, 3.65 on one batch and 3.75 on the mostly juice batch, SG down to 1 or less.

The mostly juice ferment seemed to struggle. Got an off smell around SG of 1.04 or so and it just looked horrible. The color was tan brown and the liquid just looked thick.

I decided to rack it, and removed the sludge, smell got a little better, but the off smell was still present. The full grape ferment was down to sg 1.0, smelled great, and looked great so I pressed it and put the pressings in the mostly juice ferment which was also near 1.0 sg. Let the juice with added pressing ferment for 2 more days and then pressed it off. It picked up a ton of color and lost the off smell. This pic is the current state of the juice ferment. I'll probably rack it off to a glass carboy tomorrow.

The full grape ferment used Premiere Rouge yeast and the juice ferment used RC 212. I don't use any yeast nutrients and think the juice only batch must have needed some.

The Tannats have been ripening nicely and the plants with good west sun are at 24-25 brix, the shaded plants are at 22. The remaining Malbecs are moving slow, the sunny Tannats blew right past them. The remaining Malbecs lose west sun and morning sun this time of year and it shows. The grapes vary from 20 brix to 25 brix. With the 25 brix all along the section with the best sun.

I'm debating picking the 25 brix Tannats and Malbecs this evening. 78 today but the next two days are low 50's for the high, then gradually building back to mid 70's by Monday

I occasionally have problems with migrating birds, but the "birdcast" site, (yes there is a birdcast site) seems to indicate that most of the migration is done for this year so I shouldn't be too at risk just leaving everything going.

Right now I'm trending to picking today then maybe the less ripe grapes will move a little faster. Since I doubt I'll let them go past Oct 22 there really isn't much ripening time left.

hmmmm......

The Baco/Temp blend (about 45lbs Baco full grapes and 25 lbs of Tempranillo juice from PM damaged grapes) is fabulous, I bottled it and will drink it like a beaujolais nouveau. I'm going to have to buy a bottle of beaujolais nouveau to compare since I've never had any.

 

[Obbnw]

Ended up picking all the Malbecs and left all the Tannat's.

Picked about 60 lbs, all from 1 vine covering about 24 linear ft of trellis (the ripe section is about 12' running east - west, the other 12' runs north-south). Destemmed and crushed, ended up with about 5.5 gallons. Brix 23, ph 3.25. The PH is absurdly low compared to other years. Previous years PH probably averaged 3.7 to 3.8. Most of the bunches had lignified stems, even the lower brix bunches. Had more bunches break apart or just snap off while picking than I ever had. After picking the higher brix grapes and looking at what was left it just seemed like they probably were not going to change. They seemed have been stuck at the low 20's for the last few weeks and it looked like I'd get enough for a full bucket ferment so I decided to pick them all.

I've got them cold soaking outside. Forecast low is around 40 for the next 2 days and forecast high is low 50's. Temperature of the must was 62 when I put it outside.

I just wish I had separated out a high brix bunch or 5 to see what the Brix/PH was - so it goes.

 

[Snafflebit]

At least the lignified stems will not add green flavor to your wine. That is worse than low pH in my opinion

Are you finished with 2023 winemaking yet?

 

[Obbnw]

At least the lignified stems will not add green flavor to your wine. That is worse than low pH in my opinion

Are you finished with 2023 winemaking yet?

Not done yet.

Picked about 60 lbs of Tannat yesterday, finished destemming them this afternoon. Again just a little over 5 gallons of must after destemming, Brix is 23.1 and PH is 3.1 and rising (was 2.95 a few hours ago). I thought the brix would be over 24 so was surprised at the 23.1. I'll leave them outside the next couple of days. It is supposed to cool down this week and hard freeze over the weekend. It has been the warmest October I can remember. The bunches were mostly open, previous years had really tight compact bunches. Typical bunches this year looked like:


The post destemming juice was very dark far more liquidy than I've seen on the Malbecs and Tempranillos. This photo is just after destemming was complete but no crushing. ( my crushing is typically pretty minimal, potato masher just to get it more liquidy).


On the October 10th pick I left them outside until October 15. Must temp on the 15th was 48 degrees, the PH had risen to 3.6 and brix dropped to 22. Pitched the yeast , Premiere Rouge on 10/16. The ferment stayed cool, max temp was 66 and it was essentially dry yesterday. I'm going to light press it, hopefully tonight and do a second run.

In total I should end up with about 26 gallons including 3 gallons of seconds. My goal is to make enough to cover my drinking for the year and be able to age some but I didn't make it. For the last year I've averaged about 1/2 bottle a night. I've been bottling in 375ml bottles and beer bottles with beer caps. For how I use the bottles the beer bottle and caps are nice but the beer bottles I use are really light and just don't have the same feel as the 375ml bottles with corks. I was surprised at how disappointing the feel of the beer bottles was - so it goes. At least the beer bottles/caps are much cheaper.

On the plus side, since last year was a huge harvest I still have about 14 gallons from last year bulk aging and another 5 gallons of 22 bottled.
2022 Harvest 676 lbs,
2023 harvest 355 lbs (damm powdery mildew!)

 

[Hazelemere]

Spent yesterday with the vines.

The baco's blew right to 25-26 brix. At first I figured my refractometer needed calibration, but it checked out fine.

Picked all the baco's, about 45 lbs of tiny berries. The pm damaged tempranillos were also reading 22-23 brix so I picked them too. Got about 25 lbs where last year I had about 200. Destemmed and crushed by hand. Hand pressed the Tempranillo, ended up with about 1.5 gallons of juice.

Crushed the baco's, about 3.8 gallons of juice.

Decided to mix them together and start a ferment.

Final sg about 1.105, ph measued 3.3, but I didn't have any solution to check the calibration so I don't have a lot of faith in the reading.

This morning the bucket is bubbling away.

I need to do some shopping. My wine drawer was empty, no ph check solution, no campden tablets, no corks...

sounds like you have really good baco noir with decent tempranillo. What an interesting combo. Good luck with it.

 

[Obbnw]

Pick grapes on Tuesday, snow on Thursday. I swear we have the perfect climate for grapes, seriously. ; )

A little squall blew through. My photography skills are weak - I didn't pick up the big giant fluttering snowflakes, only captured faint dashes.

 

[winemaker81]

Pick grapes on Tuesday, snow on Thursday. I swear we have the perfect climate for grapes, seriously. ; )

You missed the opportunity for ice wine by 2 day! Better luck next time!




On a more serious note ... wow ... Dionysus smiled upon you.

 

[Obbnw]

23 vintage summary:

9/3/23 harvest, Baco Noir, Tempranillo Juice

Batch 1

• 45lbs Baco Noir, 25 degrees brix, very small berries
• 25lbs of powdery mildew damaged tempranillo, hand destemmed and crushed, only juice added to mix
• SG 9/4/23 of 1.105, no ph test
• Pitch Yeast EC 1118 9/4/23
• 9/10/23 pressed
• 9/14/23 racked into carboys/bottles (3 gallon carboy, 2 1.5L bottles)
• 10/1/23 racked and sulphite, already very clear.
• 10/15/23 Bottled and started drinking
• Bought some Beaujolais Nouveau (Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau and Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau Villages) to compare. Very similar taste profile.
• This is a blend I will likely try again.
• The big surprise was how fast it cleared, especially with no clearing agents.

9/28/23 to 9/30/23 harvest



Batch 2

• 35 lbs powdery mildew damaged Tempranillo, hand destemmed and crushed, only juice added to mix
• 50 lbs of powdery mildew damaged Malbec only juice added to mix
• SG 1.1, PH 3.6
• Pitched RC-212
• 10/5/23 looks horrible, tan/brown color, and smells bad.
• 10/8/23 Pressed Batch 3 and added pressings to this batch
• 10/10/23 pressed, got good color and bad smell gone.
• 10/16/23 SG 0.992 PH 3.75
• Still in carboys

Batch 3

• 80 lbs of Malbec brix 22.5
• PH 3.6
• Pitched Premiere rouge
• 10/8/23 Pressed
• 10/10 racked to carboy
• Still in carboy

10/10/23 harvest



Batch 4

• 60 lbs of Malbec brix 23
• Cold soaked 5 days at 48 F
• SG 1.088, PH 3.6
• Pitched Premiere rouge
• 10/24/23 Light Press (used solids for 2nds run, batch 6)
• 10/26/23 racked to carboy
• Still in carboy

10/23/23 harvest



Batch 5

• 60 lbs of Tannat brix 23
• PH 3.6
• Pitched Premiere rouge
• 11/7/23 Pressed (used solids for 2nds run, batch 6)
• 11/9/23 racked to carboy
• Still in carboy
• Extremely dark color

Batch 6

• 10/24/23 Mixed Press solids from batch 4 with 2.2 gallons of acidulated water
• 11/7/23 Mixed Press solids from batch 5 with 1.5 gallons of acidulated water
• PH 3.7 SG 1.08
• 11/10 Split into 2 buckets added 5 gallons of seconds mix from last 2022 (wasn’t happy with 2022, just seemed a little thin and light and thought the tannats might add color and body)
• 11/18 Racked to a 5 gallon and 2 3 gallon carboys, left a lot of the fine lees in to top it off)
• Still in carboy.

Tasted everything today, one of the batch 2 carboys had a little off smell but taste was OK, I'll rack it off this weekend.

Everything else seemed OK, the batch 5 Tannat seems promising, but nothing really jumped out except the batch 1 Baco/Tempranillo mix which is almost gone. Only 4 375 ml bottles left.

Besides my powdery mildew fiasco my biggest disappointment was my 2022 wines. I decided to drink or age them based on PH, high PH I drank early, lower ph age for a year. The high Ph was pretty good but all the stuff I saved is drinkable but nothing special. I think the lower PH grapes just weren't as ripe and don't have the color or density of taste that the higher PH grapes had.

I'll probably compress my harvest, and leave the grapes on the vine longer as opposed to my previous years of trying to spread out the harvest to spread out the work effort.

My goal for next year is to improve cleanliness and bottling. I have been bottling a 3 gallon Carboy and drinking them. I definitely had more variation in the bottle than I expected ( especially with most of the bottles opened within 60 days of bottling) which I can only contribute to lack of adequate cleaning.

So it goes. The more I learn the more I realize I don't know

Forgot to add - my makeshift wine cellar is performing well. The red line is the wine storage area, blue is outside, yellow is in the house (in the room with the highest temp swings), purple is my detached unheated garage, green is in my box of potatoes (which I moved because they were getting a little too cold).

The wine storage area is in the basement, which has unfinished walls. It is a 6' long by 2.5' wide by 2.5' high area against a wall. Plywood top and sides with blankets hanging over the top sides and front. Cardboard under carboys on bare concrete on the floor. Backwall is bare concrete. The area outside the wine storage area is a relatively constant 67.

 

[Obbnw]

I don't think I've seen anyone reference this but I found a lot of interesting wine articles here:

https://www.internationalwinechallenge.com/Canopy-Articles.html
It's a little heavy on the "sustainability" push but still interesting.