Wines I'm Making: 2023 Grape Pressing

Yesterday, November 11, the fermentation of this year's wines largely over, I racked the Sangiovese rosé into the container it will rest in until it clears. I added the yeast on October 23, so it was a long, slow fermentation of 19 days (8-12 days is typical for the rosé). Because of the late harvest this year, we had much cooler weather during fermentation than usual. We'll get 15 bottles of 2023 rosé. The wine should be ready to drink before Christmas.

I also pressed the 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc. We ended up with 12 gallons of pressed wine, which will yield 60 bottles of wine. I added the yeast to the Cabernet on October 26 after a four-day cold soak. Fermentation took 16 days, which is slightly longer than usual (typically 12-14 days). The next step will be to inoculate the new wine to start malolactic fermentation. In addition, it will soon be time to bottle our 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc wine, which has been resting since this time last year. Thanks to my friends David and Kimiko for their help with the pressing yesterday. 

Wines I'm Making: 2020 Cabernet Pressing

It's that time of year again. On Saturday I pressed the new 2020 wine (October 17). We got about 150lbs of Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc grapes from our little backyard vineyard (25 Cabernet vines, of which four, or 16%, are Cabernet Franc) this year. I fermented the grapes this year using Rockpile yeast after a two-day pre-soak. As we harvested and crushed the grapes on October 3, fermentation took twelve days. We ended up with 11.4 gallons of pressed wine (and last week four gallons of rosé from our nine Sangiovese vines).

Next step is to inoculate the new wine with malolactic bacteria to induce malolactic fermentation, which converts some of the malic acid in the grapes to lactic acid, which softens it--standard procedure with red wines. This wine will be ready to bottle in about a year. The 2019 wine is ready to be bottled now--the next wine-related task that awaits me.

Wines I'm Making: 2019 Cabernet pressed, 2018 Sangiovese and Cabernet bottled

On October 21, I took advantage of an unexpected day off to press the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc, ending up with 11.5 gallons of pressed wine, which will eventually translate into about 55 bottles of finished wine. This year's Sangiovese had already been pressed for rosé (five gallons, or 25 bottles).

I also finally got the 2018 Sangiovese and Cabernet bottled.

2018 was unusual in that I made no rosé from the Sangiovese (I was so busy that, by the time I got to pressing the grapes last year, they had already taken on too much color to be a rosé, so I let them develop into a full-on red). This will be an opportunity to see how these grapes do as a red wine. We ended up with 29 bottles of 2018 Cabernet, 17 bottles of 2018 Sangiovese, a very small yield. 2019 was the biggest in many years because of a combination of factors. Our neighbor removed small trees shading the vines the year before and they got better light and air as a result. That and a new method of sulfur spraying (dusting rather than spraying) prevented nearly all mildew loss. We also suffered comparatively little damage from critters.

Wines Im Making: Harvest 2019

We picked our grapes this year on Saturday, October 5, which is a pretty typical date. We usually harvest in the first week of October. We took in 77.42 pounds of Sangiovese and 155.54 pounds of Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc, which is rather more than usual because this year we suffered very little damage from raccoons and other critters, losing only seven or eight clusters of low-hanging fruit, and losing virtually nothing to mildew--a first. It made a huge difference to dust the grapes with sulfur rather than spraying them. It is a far easier method and it works much better. That will be the plan in the future. These are perhaps the healthiest-looking grapes we've ever harvested.

The Cabernet must tested at 23.25 brix and a pH of 3.38, which is close to ideal. The Sangiovese tested at 20.25 brix and a pH of 3.7, a trifle low on the brix side, but we usually make rosé from these grapes, so that's well within the range I'm looking for. I added 230 grams of corn sugar to bump up the brix about a degree, as I did last year. After 18 hours on the skins, I pressed the grapes, (the grapes were crushed at about 4PM on the 5th, pressed at about noon on the 6th). Ten gallons of must yielded five gallons of pressed juice. On the evening of the 6th, I added yeast, this year using the Prise de Mousse variety again, as I did last year, although I've usually used the Epernay II yeast in the past. The yeast doesn't seem to alter the flavor that much. I've had good results with both. The grapes were so healthy looking I did not add sulfite to the Sangiovese must. I lightly sulfited the Cabernet, as that must will soak for a couple of days before it starts to undergo fermentation. So far, off to a good start. Next task--bottle and label last year's wine.

Wines I'm Making: 2015 Wines Pressed

I pressed our 2015 Cabernet and Sangiovese wines the other day. We ended up with only two gallons of Sangiovese, three gallons of Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc--the smallest harvest we've ever had. This appears to have been typical even at commercial wineries around the county--very low yield this year. The wines are now resting, ready for inoculation to initiate malolactic fermentation. I'm also in the middle of a hard cider fermentation and trying to make wine from the neglected Zinfandel grapes (mostly raisins) my neighbor gave me.

Wines I'm Making: 2013 Cabernet Pressed (October 20, 2013)

Today (October 20, 2013) I pressed the 12 gallons of Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc that's been fermenting in the living room the past couple of weeks. The must yielded a little over eight gallons of new wine, which is still fermenting in the glass carboys that now contain it. It smells excellent and doesn't taste bad either, although a little sweetness is still apparent. I expect it will be fermented completely dry in another three days or so.

As I added the yeast on October 10, the wine was fermenting 10 days on the skins, but had had a four-day pre-soak, so a total of two weeks on the skins. It looks dark and heavily extracted. So far, so good.

Wines I'm Making: 2013 Grape Harvest (October 6, 2013)

2013 marks our 10th harvest. We picked the grapes in our little backyard vineyard on Sunday, October 6--both the Sangiovese and the Cabernet grapes. October 6 is a fairly typical date for the Sangiovese (the dates have ranged from around September 29 to October 16 over the years).

It's somewhat early for the Cabernet (October 18 in 2012), but a fair number of clusters were already turning to raisins, probably because I watered less than usual this year (only twice, rather than three of four times in most years) and it seemed best not to wait any longer. We harvested 20.5kg (or 45.1 lbs) of Sangiovese grapes, which became just under eight gallons of must after crushing and de-stemming. The must measured 22 degrees Brix with pH at 3.63, just about right for the light rosé these grapes will become.

We harvested 41kg of Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc (or 90.2 lbs), which yielded a little more than 11 gallons of must. The must tested at 27.5 degrees Brix--the highest it's ever been, reflecting the high percentage of raisined grapes. The pH was at 3.56. Because of the high sugar level, I'll probably add a small amount of acidulated water to the must to lower the Brix to around 26 to avoid producing an excessively alcoholic and therefore unbalanced wine. The lesson here is to water the grapes a little more, although I'd been hoping to eventually wean the grapes off water altogether.

The Sangiovese is already pressed and inoculated with Epernay II yeast, as usual. We ended up with about 4.5 gallons of pressed juice. I pitched the yeast on the afternoon of the 7th. The grapes spent about 20 hours on the skins, which will result in a fairly deep pink wine.

The Cabernet must is resting. I usually do a three- to four-day pre-soak, which is supposed to result in more extraction from the skins of softer (water-soluble) tannins than the (alcohol-soluble) tannins extracted during the fermentation process. I don't know, but this method seems to produce a wine we like. Today I'll be adjusting the sugar level, as noted above. Tomorrow or the day after it will be time to add the yeast and get the fermentation started. I love this time of year. The whole house will soon smell of fresh yeast and fermentation--like a winery.

[Update: This afternoon (October 9) I dissolved 15g of tartaric acid crystals in 2.5l of distilled water (using a formula provided by the kind people at The Beverage People) and added the mixture to the Cabernet must. It was difficult to mix it all in evenly, so, measuring the Brix after the addition, it comes out a bit low (at 23 degrees Brix), but I suspect that's simply because of an imperfect mixture. The sweetest juice is probably stuck at the bottom of the container. The aim was to reduce the sugar to 25.5 Brix. I'll stir it up again tomorrow and test it once more.]

Wines I'm Making: 2012 Cabernet Pressed

I pressed the Cabernet grapes yesterday, on November 5, after a four-day cold soak and a 14-day fermentation. We ended up with just under eight gallons of new wine. After racking off the lees, I suspect we'll have about seven gallons of finished wine, or 35 bottles. So far, everything looks good. However, I was planning to start the malolactic fermentation yesterday and there are no local supplies of malolactic starter. Apparently supplies were disrupted by the recent hurricane on the East Coast. I hope it becomes available soon, as the wine can't be sulfited until after the malolactic fermentation is complete and the wine remains vulnerable to oxidation until it is sulfited and the containers are topped up, but I'm hoping for the best. The photo above shows the fermented grapes ready for the press. The photo below is new wine before transfer to the glass carboys that it will mature in.

[Update: Apparently the malolactic starter will arrive tomorrow (November 8), so the malolactic fermentation will get under way tomorrow.]

[Update 2: Picked up the malolactic starter this morning (November 8). In a new development, a brand called Wyeast is offering pre-hydrated starter suitable for small batches of wine (five gallons) for only about $8. In the past, I've always had to buy a powdered starter that's intended for much larger batches of wine that cost about $30 a dose. So, that's a big improvement: the Wyeast product is easier (no need to get distilled water to hydrate the powder) and it's cheaper.]

Wines I'm Making: 2010 Cabernet Bottled/2011 Cabernet Pressed

Yesterday (November 7) I put capsules and labels on the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc wine I bottled yesterday. The day before, I pressed the 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc and transferred it to glass carboys. Yesterday, Monday, I inoculated the new wine with malolactic bacteria to start the malolactic fermentation. Malolactic fermentation converts malic to lactic acid, a routine procedure in making red wines. Malolactic fermentation is a bacterial fermentation that requires a little more warmth than the yeast-based primary fermentation. So, the carboys are wrapped in blankets in the living room with a small electric blanket between them to keep the temperature up. Malolactic fermentation is somewhat mysterious. It can take anywhere from three weeks to two months and it doesn't always show outward signs. The only way to really know what's going on is to do a paper chromatography test that shows the levels of tartaric, malic, and lactic acid in the wine. Sometimes tiny bubbles form at the top of the wine, indicating that some sort of activity is going on, but not always. I tend to take it on faith that the process is under way, but I'll be looking for signs the next couple of days.

The Sangiovese rosé fermentation is just about finished. I'll need to rack that wine off the gross lees soon--probably tomorrow. The wine is beginning to clear. Less carbon dioxide production means the suspended material is beginning to fall out of the wine. I think we'll end up with a very pretty pink. The harvest was so late this year, though, that I don't think the wine will be ready by Thanksgiving, as it usually is. We'll have some for Christmas though.

The 2010 Cabernet is finished now. I put the back labels on today. I'm pleased with the labels I designed for both the front and rear of the bottle. I decided red capsules would look best with the deep red of the front label. The capsules are on. The wine is ready to drink. The samples I tried while bottling and with dinner after bottling was done suggest the wine is good despite the cool summer last year. It seems a little soft compared with other years, which suggests it may not age as well as other vintages, but only time will tell.

Wines I'm Making: Cabernet Malolactic Fermentation Initiated (2010)

Yesterday (October 24) I introduced an Enopherm Alpha malolactic bacteria culture into the Cabernet Sauvignon. It's often hard to tell whether malolactic fermentation has started or not, but it should be under way. About two weeks of very tiny bubbles at the edge of the wines is usually all you can see. Right now there is a fair amount of foam at the top of the carboys, but I suspect that's the end of the primary fermentation--yeast using up the last traces of sugar--rather than evidence of the malolactic fermentation under way. Molalactic fermentation will convert some of the malic acid in the wine to the softer lactic acid, which is a pretty routine step in making red wines. Once that's done, it will be time to rack the new wine into clean containers to leave behind most of the yeast and other residues still settling into the bottom of the containers. So far, everything continues to look good. The Sangiovese rosé continues its primary fermentation in the garage.

As usual, after finishing the real wine I didn't want to throw out the pressed skins and seeds. It seems such a waste. I decided to make a second-run wine again this year. I tried it last year with poor results, but I made an incorrect acid addition and made the wine artificially sharp, so it doesn't really seem like it was a fair trial. So, I added water back into the spent pressings and enough sugar to bring the soup to 20 Brix again and it has started fermenting spontaneously. Plenty enough yeast is left behind to initiate a new fermentation. This, too, will probably be undrinkable, but, you never know. It looks like wine (below).