We’ve been trying to get organized to bottle this wine for a while now, and we finally set a day and got it done. I brought my portion of the wine home in carboys and a few miscellaneous bottles. Dave and Josh wanted theirs bottled, so that’s what we did. Dave did a few blending […]
Tag archive: cabernet sauvignon
The SG on the Yakima Synergy is at 0.994, although it’s still bubbling away in there. After racking, it’s not very pretty! But, it’s early in the game, there’s still plenty of stirring ahead before it’s expected to clear. In the meantime, Dave bought a cabernet sauvignon kit last year, at the same time that […]
I stopped by the office to check out the barrel wines to make sure they’re not over-oaked. They both taste great, and we don’t think they’re too oaky yet. Let a sleeping cab lie ….
Just checked the malic acid levels in the cab, and it’s at the bottom end of the strip test, reading ~50 mg/L. So, we know the strip tests work, the MLF in the merlot just didn’t.
We racked the cab out of the lovely grey trash cans into an even lovelier new American oak barrel with medium toast. Dave and I ended up with a full 30 gallon barrel plus a 6 gallon carboy and another 2 gallon bottle full of fine lees. I checked the malic acid, and it’s down […]
I stopped over to check the MLF progression on the cab, and it looks like it’s working this time! Malic acid levels have dropped below 300 mg/L (not at max at least!), and lactic acid is reading positive at 80 mg/L.
Paul borrowed the bladder press again, and I happily took a day off of work to, well, work on the wine. Definitely more fun work anyway! We got it all pressed out and added the Malostart, and tomorrow the guys will add VP41 malolactic bacteria. Let’s hope it works this time.
Week 3 of malolactic fermentation, and malic acid levels are not going down. I’m a bit nervous about not sulfiting the wines at this point, and it is possible that MLF might not complete in these wines anyway. I poked around the internet and decided it was not worth risking, so I added ¼ tsp […]
I went over to the office to check on the wine. Sugars are dropping steadily, down to 8.5 degrees brix. We added more yeast nutrient to all of them.
Things are definitely busy. I am taking care of the “office wine” on the weekends since the guys are taking care of it through the week. After punching the cans down, I checked the temp and brix. Temperatures are rising, definite active fermentations at 77-78 degrees now, with sugar levels averaging about 17 degrees brix. […]