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http://news.opb.org/article/wet-weather-could-bring-worst-wine-grape-harvest-decades/ It seems some members of the press have, unlike 2010, already grabbed a hold of the 2011 Willamette Valley vintage and are attempting to run it into the ground. GDD are tracking about a week behind 2010, which was itself a difficult year to get phenolic ripeness of any type. There were a few properties that were able to ripen fruit, but the overwhelming majority came in under-ripe and needed substantial chaptalization and subsequent chalking out of the high acidity, mostly well before ML fermentation began. Make sure you read the comments to this article and take their opinions with a grain of salt. While they seem to remain optimistic as one of the most challenging vintages in Oregon's history looms, they are also producers who live and die by press like this. I'd love to take the advice of a "farmer in the field," unless that farmer had as much skin in the game as these do. But, we'll see how this rounds out when fruit begins arriving this/next week. Full disclosure: Highest brix and pH we've seen so far on any Willamette pinot noir property: 20.1 brix, 3.05...and that was yesterday. For reference, in 2008, fruit began to come in at 24-25 brix and around a pH of 3.5 in the last part of September. God have mercy on our souls. Eco RI fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Oct 10, 2011 |
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Oct 10, 2011 20:48
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rangersilme posted:Hi Thread. I'm relatively new to wine and I'm still trying to get my footing on being able to differentiate between different types and varieties. So far I've enjoyed red wines like cabernet, though a lot of wines still are mainly hot or quite acid. I remember beer being similar, though more tasting like piss and ear wax, but the revelation of being able to taste the hops and malts came from after brewing up a batch and smelling/tasting the hops by itself. After that beer tastes amazing. So I've decided to so something similar with wine by making some. The optimal time to make sugar additions if you don't do them en masse prior to inoculation is in equally spaced intervals during the steepest part of the fermentation curve (during which the second third of the sugar is consumed in fermentation). In fact, there have been some recent papers suggesting that lengthening this phase of fermentation actually encourages glycerol production. That said, adding it too late could potentially leave you with some unwanted residual sugar once the yeast begin to shut down. So, I would recommend adding early and often. I'm assuming you are planning on innoculating the batch with an ML culture once primary fermentation is done(unless you have already done so). If you have to add more tartaric (I personally wouldn't this with these varietals at that pH/TA), add it between the end of primary and the start of secondary. Alternatively, you could add the tartaric acid just prior to bottling, but it won't "integrate" as well as if you adjusted it prior to primary. I would just recommend against it in general with the fruit that you currently have. Be sure keep the pH > 3.5 so that the ML ferment doesn't struggle. You'll also want to wait to add any significant amount of KMB until after ML is complete. Otherwise, good luck. Also, for home winemaking purposes, I would recommend against any extended maceration. There have been several recent articles in the industry journal that basically show the net effect as negligible (across different [EtOH]). In the future, any improvements you would like to see in phenolic extraction and color stability should be made via cold-soaking, and even that should probably never exceed 3 weeks. Also, as a rule of thumb, the general conversion factor for brix to %abv is roughly .55. I've seen yeasts produce more and less EtOH, but this is close enough. So figure that, with your current brix, you'll get 10.7% and 11.8% abv, respectively. Eco RI fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Oct 12, 2011 |
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Oct 12, 2011 20:59
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Lolcano Eruption posted:I tried a couple different Texas vineyards around here in the Hill Country. None of them were particularly amazing. I suppose I'd better give them a few more decades to refine their techniques or something, I just really like supporting local businesses. I worked there for 3 years as a winemaker in the Hill Country. Texas wine has about as much of a chance to compete nationally as Missouri, Virginia, or other states where you shouldn't grow winegrapes. As far as contemporary winemaking goes, Texas has been making wine about as long as Oregon or Washington, but can't seem to figure out issues like disease control or varietal/rootstock optimization. As a general rule, you'll find that the average Texas winery lacks the level of talent that wineries in the larger wine producing states possess, which compounds issues with producing wine with sub-par fruit. That said, they all aren't terrible producers; Becker, Grape Creek, and the high-tier Llano Estacado all have great wines for where they are made. Just manage your expectations and understand that you'll be paying a premium for a local product and not superior quality.
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Feb 15, 2012 03:32
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4/20 NEVER FORGET posted:My teeth stain really bad when I drink red wine. Less so if it's something light like Pinot Noir, but if am tasting a line-up of cabs or something, by the end of the tasting my teeth look horrible. I am usually able to wipe a good amount of it off with a wet paper towel. I agree though, it's annoying. A dilute solution of Oxiclean for the lips and some kind of peroxide based whitening toothpaste should clear that right up. I use oxiclean for my hands during harvest. They turn black otherwise.
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Oct 4, 2012 15:12
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