In the Barrel!!

Ok, I forgot to keep posting during the fermentation - so a quick catch-up.
Brix was 24.9 on day 1 - after crush. It took about 9 days to get just below 0 brix. I was able to punch down the cap on my grapes a couple of times in that period. I spent a good deal of time at the winery between crush and press, learning the ropes and lending a hand where I could. It was really fun watching the other folks crush their grapes, however my group was definitely more picky about which grapes to keep. Without a second sorting table we had to be right the first time.

Ok, so now we've reached press time. I was curious about how the free run juice would taste, but after putting my nose on the cap the aromas were great. I picked up roasted coffee and chocolate - very pleasing to me!! We pumped the free run juice into a brand new bladder press, and then dumped the skins in. I ran a soft press so as to avoid harsh skin tannins. I really want my wine to be approachable on the front end and not need several years to "calm" down. So we pumped the juice into a holding tank allowing it to settle for about 12 hours. The next step was racking into the barrel.

I chose 100% new french oak, a DAMY barrel. The medium toast in the barrel has an amazing smell. It reminds me of my grandparents house when I was very young - aromas of old wood, varnish, pipe tobacco, and bonfires in the fall. I will start barrel tasting at about 4 months to determine when I need to rack into a neutral barrel. We started secondary fermentation or Malolactic in the barrel. This will change the harsh malic acid (think tart green apples) into the softer lactic acid (think silk or licking cotton) for better mouth-feel. Not sure how long the change will take.

I will add the pressing and racking pictures soon.

Cheers, M

CRUSH 2009!

So it was 24 hours ago that some of my closet friends and family arrived at Vintners Own in Houston to sort grapes. I was worried about the grapes because of the rain that decided to show up 1 week prior to harvest, but all in all it wasn't too bad (the vineyard should have done a better job dropping fruit). We had 8 people on the sorting table, the more eyes and hands the better, and everyone did a superb job of culling any berries or clusters that showed rot. I spent the 1st half under the de-stemmer pulling debris that made it through - need to keep a clean tank! I switched out the other half and sorted on the line, props to those that were on the line the whole time, that'll kill your back. It took about 2 hours to process what turned out to be around 2 tons of grapes to get a really beautiful ton for fermenting. Look thru the pics and you can see just how much work is going into this barrel!

For the detail minded - these grapes basically underwent a cold-soak on their trip from Napa to Houston via reefer truck at roughly 40^F. They arrived Tuesday around 2pm and we sorted at 8pm. The fermentation is roughly 90% whole berry and 10% crushed in an open top tank. Brix was down at harvest because of the rain so alcohol will be lower in the end - which is fine with me - it shouldn't be the main feature. I will post updates on the ferment status and what we are doing along the way.

I'm very proud of my crew and got some great props from the owner and his son (wine-maker). We were tedious and choosy in our grape selection, if I didn't know better I would have said the grapes were double sorted - the final product was clean and beautiful. Now the science begins... Stay tuned.

Cheers, M
pics and videos posted soon.