We started with Batch #1 of the 2011 Fallbrook Syrah, which was fermented with ICV-D80 yeast. This wine has a slight acetone aroma, though not too bad, with nice aromas of spice, roasted plums, sage, and tobacco. It is a lovely ruby-garnet in color, very opaque and dark. We all agreed this wine is loaded with oak already, with lots of spice, smoke, and very acidic/tart on the tongue. It’s also a little gritty, it definitely needs a racking and more time to clear.

Batch #2 was next, this batch was fermented with Pasteur Red yeast and we kept the free run and press run separate. We tasted the free run first, happily it did not have the acetone aroma like batch #1. This wine has more fruity aromas with light spice and smoke, cherry and tobacco. It is more purple in color than batch #1, with mouthwatering, smooth, buttery flavors of ripe red fruits balanced nicely with rich tannins. This wine is not as tart as batch #1, in fact it has a slightly sweet finish. We then tasted the press run, which we expected to be harsh in comparison but is surprisingly smooth and buttery as well. It was definitely more tannic than the free run, with a sort of sweet/sour agrodolce flavor and a little more acidity than the free run. We also got the classic floral rose and violet flavors often associated with syrah on the finish with this wine.

On to Batch #3, fermented with ICV-D254. No acetone with this batch either, lots of dust, leather, and dark red fruits on the nose. This wine is a lovely ruby-garnet, very smooth and clear already. Nice grippy tannins on the tongue, with well balanced, smooth flavors of fruit, spice, and oak.

We then tasted Batch #4, fermented with CLOS yeast strain. This batch has been the most disappointing, it just lacks anything special. No acetone, good mouthfeel and very drinkable but just kind of bland and boring, lacking depth. This wine went well with food, and would probably benefit from blending with another varietal.

I also needed to check the 2010 vintage for oak anyway, so we gave it a taste. This is the Stinky Syrah — LOTS of acetone! Although we all poured from a single bottle, a few people did not have any acetone aromas. The acetone was overwhelming where it was present, in those glasses it was absent we could detect licorice and spice, definitely potential for a great wine. But, something needs to be done to address the acetone problem — I will splash rack it out of the barrel into the empty barrel I have and dose up the sulfite, hopefully that will fix it as it has in the past.

Finally, we tasted the original vintage, 2009. This year was the third leaf for the vineyard, but was hit by a heat wave just prior to harvest. As a result, the berries were very concentrated — the ones that survived, anyway. This wine has changed a lot over the years, which gives me hope for the problems with the 2010 vintage. This wine is now splendid, with aromas of black tea and stewed prunes, a lovely garnet in color. Smooth, slightly sweet flavors of raisins and light spice are nicely balanced with light tannins and a long finish. Unfortunately I only have 9 more bottles left, but I’m going to sacrifice one to send in to the Winemaker Magazine competition this year, I definitely think it will get a gold!

Overall, everyone loved the 2011 vintage wines. It was a toss-up whether the free run batch #2 or batch #3 was the favorite, but everyone agreed that the 2009 vintage is amazing. We will rack all of the 2011 batches and add more oak to some: Batch #1 does not need any more oak; Batch #2 free run will get a little Hungarian oak, while the press run will get a blend of French and American oak; Batch #3 will get a little bit of French oak chips; and Batch #4 will get American oak to hopefully give it some oomph. We’ll get together again in about 4 – 6 weeks to see how they’re doing!

Now it’s finally time to add sulfite and French oak chips and let this wine hang out for a few months.  I’ll check in on it in 2012!

Malic acid quick test results, batch #2 on the left and batch #1 on the right

It’s almost 6 weeks after initiating malolactic fermentation on our 2011 Fallbrook Syrah. I tested malic acid levels today with the Accuvin quick tests. Batch #1 (fermented with ICV-D80) is the one batch that didn’t seem to be progressing at all, but today it seems to be below the max value on the scale. When the readings are in the middle it’s sometimes difficult to tell exactly what the value is, but I think it’s around 110-150 mg/L. The remaining 3 batches are definitely done, no malic acid detectable! I’ll give batch #1 two more weeks of stirring then test again, it should be close enough to done to add sulfite. The rest are getting their sulfite today, and the group will decide what oaks, if any, to put in each batch. I’ve been very happy with 100% medium toast French oak, but trying something different is always fun.

Then I moved on to the 2010 vintage of Live Oak Vineyard Syrah.  I got out my handy-dandy (yes I love this thing!) Vinmetrica SC-100 sulfite analyzer, and in less than 2 minutes knew there is basically NO free SO2 in the barrel.  Yikes!  Doing a quick calculation from The Winemaker’s Answer Book, I estimated I should add about 7.5 grams of Kmeta, which is about 1 1/2 teaspoons.  After stirring this in, I need to take a little volume out of the barrel so I can put in a pound of medium toast Hungarian oak cubes.  The 5-gallon carboy was partially full, but since I didn’t want to deal with this on Monday I added marbles to the Better Bottle to top it up into the neck to minimize air exposure.  Which means now I need to get the marbles out so I can put the extra wine from the barrel in.  Since my hand won’t reach down the neck of the carboy, I racked the wine out, dumped out the marbles, then pulled the wine from the barrel and added this back to the carboy.  Yes, a bit of probably needless wine shuffling, but it happens.  At least I did think to dump in about 2 ounces of medium toast French oak chips into the 6-gallon carboy as I was filling it.  Now we’ll let that oak hang out for a few months and hopefully the syrah will come around the way we want it!

Prefermentation American Oak (10 g/gallon, 1 week exposure): Dry, but brings out citrus and vanilla flavors.  Oak very subtle, but definitely detectable.

Prefermentation French Oak (10 g/gallon, 1 week exposure): oak is also very subtle, but adds to the flavor; seems to add more to the mid-palate than the prefermentation American oak.

Post fermentation American oak (1 month exposure):  Oak more perceptible, wine is more buttery with more vanilla; 10 grams per gallon oak definitely more intense oak flavors than 5 grams per gallon, and both more oak flavors than the prefermentation oak.  10 grams per gallon post-fermentation oak is almost a little too much for the American oak, finishes flat with no mid-palate.

Post fermentation French oak (1 month exposure): the most “pleasant” oak flavors to our palates.  Smooth, rich mid-palate with cloves and cinnamon.  Again, the 10 grams per gallon is almost a little too much, though with longer aging this may turn around.

Our favorite is the post-fermentation 5 grams per gallon French oak, and we both prefer the French oak over American; it’s a more subtle, rounded oak influence than the American.  However, I remember that at the Winemaker magazine conference in Santa Barbara, all of us at the table preferred the prefermentation oak samples.  Tim used a different Chardonnay kit than I did, which could definitely influence our preferences.  In fact, I’m sure if I did this trial with a zinfandel or cabernet, I would prefer American oak over French, based on how it compliments the varietal.

It is very interesting to taste the difference between pre-fermentation oak and post-fermentation oak.  The yeast metabolize the oak flavor molecules to yield a different flavor profile.  However, this type of oak trial is quite an endeavor, and not something to do with every wine!  But, if you’re feeling ambitious, I highly recommend doing one on your own.  Maybe try both a red and a white!

When I first opened up the flextank, there was a very nasty layer of white film on top again.  I’ve seen this too many times before, but it has always just been an innocuous pectin haze.  The wine overall smells OK, though it has a slight acetylaldehyde whiff at first.  This odor does go away with a little time in a glass, so hopefully will blow off with all of the transferring it will go through today.

We pumped the wine out into several carboys and loaded them into the car with the empty flextank.  Then the syrah got to go for a ride down to the shop, where it was pumped back into one of the empty, neutral American oak barrels.  We also filled another whole 6-gallon Better Bottle and partially filled a 5-gallon carboy.  It’s been a long day, so I pitched about a teaspoon of Kmeta into the barrel and 1/4 tsp into each carboy.  I’ll check the free SO2 later and add some oak cubes, it definitely needs it!

Thinking about the disaster involved with using my new must pump with the cleared primitivo in 2009, plus having lots of little batches, we opted to use the Buon Vino minijet filter pump, and bypass the filter unit to use it just as a pump.  It’s definitely slower than the must pump, but for these sized batches, that was kind of a good thing.

Since you never know exactly how much you’re going to get, we pumped everything to 6-gallon carboys first, then juggled them around into carboys that fit the volume as closely as possible.  We do want to top up the carboys to the necks now to minimize air contact, but want to leave just a little extra room so we can stir it up with a spoon every week during MLF.

After a few hours everything was ready to start MLF.  First I tested the free SO2 levels, just to be sure the yeast had not created too much during fermentation to inhibit MLB activity.  A quick run with the SC-100 showed levels were below 10 ppm.  So we then rehydrated VP41 MLB in one jar, and Opti-Malo Plus nutrients in another jar.  After 15 minutes, the appropriate amount of solution was added to each carboy, then stirred gently.

Overall we now have 9 gallons of batch #1, 6 gallons of free run and 5 gallons of press run for batch #2, 11 gallons of batch #3 (our favorite), and 9 gallons of batch #4.  Now it’s waiting time, we’ll stir the wine every week and in about 2 weeks we’ll test for the appearance of lactic acid.  Hopefully it will be positive, indicating that MLF is off and running!

We decided to keep the four yeast fermentations separate, and one batch we will keep the free run and press run separate.  We started with a little 4-gallon #25 wood basket press to press batch #1, which was fermented with ICV-D80.  The wine was terrific, though surprisingly spicy!

This basket has a racket to push the followers down over the must to press out the wine.

With the basket press, after the first press we “fluff up” the must to get the most efficient pressing.  The second press is not as much pressure as the first, though.  As we loaded the bottom of the fermenting barrel, we were careful to keep out as many seeds that were at the bottom as possible.  Crushed seeds can add bitter flavors to the wine that we don’t really want.

We decided just to do the first batch with the basket press, and do the rest with the bladder press.  Needless to say, the bladder press was much more efficient.  We also decided to keep the free run and press run for batch #2 separate.  This wine was fermented with Pasteur red.  The color of all of the wine is a beautiful dark purple, though the second batch was the deepest, darkest color.  It just happened to also be the one that had the most vigorous fermentation, with lots of foaming and the highest temperature.  The wine had a wonderful fruity flavor, without much spice, in sharp contrast to batch #1.

We loaded the must into the press, and gathered 6 gallons of free run juice first:

After 6 gallons of free run wine (the wine that comes off before pressure is applied) was collected, we loaded the rest of the must into the press, again being careful to leave as many seeds as possible in the can.  The lid was secured and the water turned on until the flow of pressed wine slowed, then we turned the water back off and released the pressure.  We dumped out the pressed pomace and moved on to the next batches.

Lots of seeds left behind

The next 2 batches went fairly quickly.  Batch #3, fermented with ICV-D254, was everyone’s favorite.  It had a perfect balance of fruit and spice with solid mid-palate and notes of cedar.  Batch #4 was fermented with CLOS, and was somewhat unimpressive after the first three.  It wasn’t bad at all, but lacked any bold, special character.  It was very nicely balanced with good fruit and light spice, and will definitely benefit from oak addition.

We finished pressing in about 2 hours, but it was a messy process.  We spent another half hour or so cleaning up the presses and most of the cans, and covered the top of the pressed wine with plastic wrap to settle out overnight.  Tomorrow we’ll pump off the settled, cleared wine into carboys and start MLF.

Everyone's hands will probably be purple for a few days!

A toast to the mess!

First, we set up our yeast starters.  We have 4 cans of must available, so we decided to use 4 different yeasts:  ICV D80, Pasteur Red, ICV D254, and CLOS.  We set up mason jars with about 1/2 cup water at 104 degrees and added about 15 grams of Go-Ferm and 5 grams of yeast in each jar.  We let that sit for about 30 minutes while we went to test the initial brix, pH, and TA of the must.  After 30 minutes we added 1/2 cup of syrah juice that we pulled off of the must to each jar, and let that sit for another 15 minutes.  We could see the signs of life as the jars showed faint signs of foaming.  We then stirred each jar into their respective cans with a stainless steel paddle.

Check out the gorgeous color that is already extracted!

We tested the TA with Accuvin quick tests, which I have found to be very accurate, and quick!

Initial readings before pitching yeast:

#1: brix 24, TA 7, pH 3.46

#2: brix 25*, TA 7.5, pH 3.49

#3: brix 25*, TA 7, pH 3.44

#4: brix 24, TA 6.9, pH 3.44

*initially #2 was 23 brix and #3 25 brix, so we mixed some must back and forth before the yeast was pitched to adjust the brix levels.  It seemed to work!  These readings are pretty much perfect, everything fell in place for this year’s harvest.  Should be an exceptional vintage!

Harvest this year was part of a Hands-on Winemaking class I’m leading at Curds and Wine.  Everyone else in the group started showing up shortly after my arrival, eager and excited for their first wine grape harvest.  After some coffee and muffins, Mike and Tricia Hoffman, the vineyard owners and our hosts for the day, gave a brief overview of harvest then lead the group down to start taking the bird netting off of the vines.

Step one on harvest day: remove and roll up bird netting just before harvest

As we pulled the netting off of the vines, we could hear the birds gathering around us.  It was like they knew the grapes were exposed now,  so we needed to get to work fast to get the grapes before the birds did.  Mike has 140 vines of syrah, clone 877, for us to harvest.  We had about 20 people total, and harvest actually went pretty fast — and no one cut their finger this year!

The grapes looked great this year!  We started in the upper vineyard “Cima Sur,” then Mike hauled the load down to the crushpad with his tractor.

We finished up harvesting the lower vineyard “Este,” then moved the grapes to the crushpad.  The lower vineyard had a lot more raisins than “Cima Sur.”  When we were done, we harvested 1100 pounds!  My group will take 600 pounds for our class.

We fired up the crusher/destemmer and processed the grapes, then put a little Kmeta and dry ice on the must to inhibit spontaneous fermentation.  My group will do a 3-day cold soak before pitching our yeasts, partially because it is a convenient day for us to regroup.

We were done by about 10 am, and we all retired to the patio to toast the 2011 syrah harvest with 2010 vintage Syrah, then have a feast of Italian food.  Luckily we were under some cover, as a pretty heavy rain came out of nowhere just before we started eating!

After a while we packed up the cans and trucked them back down to Curds and Wine.  The must was already warming up a little, so we added a little more dry ice then stirred in pectinase and Opti-Red.

An initial brix check of the must gave an average of about 24 brix, right on the spot!  We didn’t test our pH or TA yet, but Mike reported in that his must was at pH 3.35 and TA 7.5-8.  A perfect harvest this year!  The initial color is a dark fuschia, I expect it to become darker by the time we pitch the yeast in a few days.