Wines I'm Making: 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Harvest (October 3, 2020)

Just finished harvesting and crushing our Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc grapes. It was a novel situation this year. Ash everywhere. Everything lightly dusted, but the grapes were mostly protected by the leaves of the vines. Many of the commercial wineries in the area heavily thin the leaves around the grape clusters toward harvest time, to give them extra sun and light and to facilitate harvesting, but I generally don't follow that practice and this year leaving the leaves alone served to protect the fruit.

The ash is easily removed. The problem is that "fire taint" is caused not so much by ash from distant (relatively speaking) fires, as in our case this year, but by prolonged exposure to thick smoke, which is absorbed directly through the grape skins and by the leaves, later migrating toward the fruit. I'm hopeful that the grapes we've just harvested won't suffer from taint as we have had only a few days of really bad smoke. We'll see.

Today harvested 152.46 pounds of Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc grapes, including fruit from two more-recently planted vines at the front door. The crushed juice measured at 24 degrees brix, which is perfect, and at a pH of 3.48. Aside from the ash, the fruit was very healthy. Suffered no losses to critters at all this year and no losses to mildew either. So, I'm hopeful that, despite everything, we'll have good wine from 2020.

The crushed grapes will undergo a two-three day cold soak now (or a cool soak anyway) until I inoculate the must. I plan to use the Rockpile yeast strain this year as my notes say that's what I used in 2015 and our 2015 wine turned out to be very good indeed.

Wines I'm Making: Harvest 2014 (September 24, 2014)

We picked our grapes on the 24th of September this year, which is about a week to two weeks earlier than usual. The grapes were looking a little dehydrated and rain was threatening. While rain is good for the plants, a heavy rain on soft, ripe skins could have been disastrous and I was worried about mold. With the sugar levels close to optimal anyway, I decided to pick.

The Sangiovese must tested at 22.8 degrees Brix and a pH of 3.47, the Cabernet at 24.5 degrees Brix and a pH of 3.37, both close to ideal, although these are averages of all the grapes in the vineyard. I would like to have let the fruit hang a little longer, but I'm hoping the wine will be at least as good as it usually is--which is not bad at all.

I pressed the Sangiovese grapes on the following morning. I always make a rosé from the Sangiovese. The juice was about 18 hours on the skins, which has been normal. That amount of skin contact typically produces a wine of a pale salmon hue. The Cabernet is still cold soaking (or cool soaking anyway). I usually let the crushed grapes sit for about three days before inoculating with yeast. The Sangiovese fermentation is already underway. As usual, I have used the Epernay yeast for the rosé, the French Red yeast for the Cab. Soon the house will smell like a winery.

Wines I'm Making: Sangiovese Rosé Fermenting, Cabernet Soon to Be Picked (October 9, 2012)

The Sangiovese rosé is fermenting in the living room (I've brought it in from the garage as it was a bit too cool and the activity seemed to have slowed). Today is day three and everything seems to be going well so far. I took a sample of the Cabernet grapes again today. The numbers look good, but I think they will need a little more time. The sample measured 24.2 degrees Brix at a pH of 3.38. That's already quite acceptable in theory, but a fair number of the seeds in the crushed grapes I sampled still looked immature. The rule is to pick when the grapes are physiologically mature (and at their most flavorful) rather than going strictly by the sugar and acid levels. a pH of 3.38 is still on the low side for a California Cab and 24.2 degrees Brix is not excessively high. I'll probably wait another week and test again. If rain threatens--serious rain, that is--I'll probably pick to avoid it, but, otherwise, I think the wine will benefit from more time on the vines.

[Update: Tested again on October 15. There wasn't a lot of change. The sample tested at 24.4 degrees Brix and a pH of 3.37-3.38. So the sugars were up slightly and the pH was virtually unchanged--which is not a bad thing. I'd say more of the seeds looked mature than last week, but there are still a few green seeds. Same conclusion: It's probably safe to pick any time now, but there's no hurry either. The weather is supposed to be very hot in the next few days, though. Decisions, decisions. The Sangiovese rosé is now in its ninth day of fermentation.]

Wines I'm Making: 2012 Sangiovese Harvest (October 5, 2012)

I decided to harvest our Sangiovese grapes yesterday (October 5), with the sugars looking good (at 22 degrees Brix) and the pH about right, at 3.47. We harvested 50.6lbs of grapes, which is a little more than last season. I'm happy to say that we lost none to animals this year and there was virtually no mold. Mostly good, healthy-looking grapes went in to the hopper for crushing. The Cabernet will require a little more time.

We got about 5.5 gallons of must and 3.5 gallons of pressed juice for fermentation (I always make a rosé from the Sangiovese). The must tested a little differently from the sample that prompted me to pick, but the numbers were still decent--21.5 degrees Brix and a pH of 3.66. The hydrometer read 1.090.  

I very lightly sulfated the must (three Campden tablets) and left it overnight. As it was crushed at about 1:00PM on the 5th and pressed at about 11:00AM today, on the 6th, the juice spent 22 hours on the skins. I usually aim for about 18 hours, but a few extra hours won't make a big difference. I inoculated the juice with Epernay II yeast at around noon. Once the dry yeast on the surface is well hydrated, I'll mix it into the juice and it will be on its way to becoming wine. Fermentation usually takes anywhere from about six days to about 14 days.

Wines I'm making: Grapes Coming Along Nicely (September 23, 2012)

Today I took a decent sample of both the Sangiovese and Cabernet grapes in the garden. The Sangiovese is at 19.6 degrees Brix and a pH of 3.22. Some say the best indicator of ripeness for picking is given by taking the square of the pH and multiplying that by degrees Brix. For the Sangiovese grapes I tested today, that yields a number of 203. A value of 200 is supposed to be ideal for white wines, a value of 260 ideal for red wines. As I'll be making a rosé from the Sangiovese, that doesn't really help, but these are just general guides. From experience I know that the Sangiovese grapes aren't really ripe yet. The seeds are brown and fairly crunchy, but not really mature-looking. I'll be aiming for about 22 degrees Brix (or a little more) and a pH of around 3.4 or so. In that case, pH squared times Brix would be 254, a good number for red wine by the rule of thumb--which is to say that my experience has been that it's best to treat the Sangiovese grapes for rosé as grapes for red wine when it comes to deciding when to pick.

The Cabernet grapes tested at 22.0 degrees Brix. PH was 3.04. PH squared times degrees Brix yields 203 (coincidentally, the same as the Sangiovese). Too early to pick. With the Cabernet, I like to pick at about 24 degrees Brix with the pH at about 3.5. That gives a number of 294 using the rule of thumb, which is nominally on the high side, but most of the books I use for reference in winemaking were written for an East Coast audience and a colder climate--a climate where pH rarely gets as high as it routinely does here, so the number doesn't concern me much. Again, it's just a rule of thumb. This year will be our ninth harvest. I've made the wine enough times by now that I have a feel for what's right. The Cabernet seeds, like the Sangiovese seeds, were brown and moderately crunchy, but, again, not entirely mature. I'm guessing we'll be harvesting in the second week of October, which has been fairly typical. So far, zero losses to raccoons or other critters. The fruit looks great.

Food I'm Eating: Blackberry Season (September 12, 2012)

Went blackberry picking today at Place to Play Park, in Santa Rosa. I had been there a couple of days ago looking for birds and noticed many unpicked berries along one side of the park. Went back today with a ladder and plenty of containers. Now, what to make of them?