You Look Awfully Familiar…
So my viognier barrel fermentation is proceeding quickly. The two barrels with the D254 yeast are nearly finished; -1 Brix today. The R4600 is moving slower and is at 3 Brix. Both are fermenting quicker than I would have liked. Ambient temperature in the winery is 63 F, but that’s really not cold enough to really have much effect on the temperature of the fermentation. The 3 stainless steel kegs are in the cooler at 50 F and still at 15 Brix.
A big shout-out at this time to Mark from Pixar Studios - I met him a few weeks ago and he came back in the winery today. I thought the guy looked familiar but faces and names are one of my worst things. Nice to see you again!
Re: grapes - 5 tons of Syrah from Lani’s Vineyard in Shenandoah Valley is coming on Wednesday. This is a great vineyard and 2007 marks the fourth year we’ve sourced our Syrah from here.
Our Soucie Zin, still on the vine, is around 24 Brix, according to Kevin, and he says about seven days to two weeks from harvest. We’re doing our usual two-pass harvest method with this block of fruit. We’ll also be letting a section of grapes hang for a considerable length of time this year. We’ve made a sweet Zinfandel before - our Zinlady - from Kevin’s fruit, but this year we’re doing it in true late harvest fashion - we’re shooting for 30-34 Brix.
September 4th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
With the late harvest Zin — Terry grows Zin in his backyard, in 1 week the brix went from 24 to 33 and the fruit shriveled to raisins. It was hand crushed / destemmed, yielding only about 3 gallons of grape jelly (despite hydration). Terry’s idea was to turn it into a port — we pitched yeast yesterday and will stop feremntation at 10 Brix with the addition of grape spirits. Could we also make a desert wine from this instead. If so, how would you do it? Thanks, Andy
September 4th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Andy - Define “dessert wine” vs. port. … To me, dessert wine means non-fortified sweet wine, yet it can also mean port.
Additionally, Terry needs to turn on some irrigation if you’re looking for Zin table wine. The way this happened is a great way to do a port/dessert however!