Making Good Wine: Fermentation Part Three (Red Wines)

If you are growing your own grapes the decision to pick rests entirely with yourself. Naturally, weather and ripeness feature in the decision making. At HHF this involves a casual walk through the vineyard with a refractometer testing select grapes from different locations. Experience says that the overall impression of ripeness will be a degree or two higher than the true end result. Why is not a mystery. Once the bunches are de-stemmed and resting in a fermenter the sugar levels of ripe bunches are spread across not so ripe bunches.

Other considerations are seed maturity i.e. not green and not too brown, a taste test by crunching seeds in the mouth give an indication. The skins should also feel a little silky to touch giving an indication that ripeness is at its peak.

When buying and picking grapes from a commercial vineyard timing is dictated by their activity. Usually their winemaker makes a call and getting a share means fitting in with them. You take what you are given.

A good way to encourage better quality is to triage the bunches as they are picked. Getting rid of an rot, shrivelled or green grapes and even any under ripe fruit. The tool of choice is a pair of short nosed scissors. Their stubby length but sharp pointy end allows easy gouging out of any unwanted berries. The handles a rubbery lined making them comfortable to use for extended periods.

Picking is best in early morning when the fruit is cool. Crushing and de-stemming can commence immediately. If the grapes have been transported from another vineyard the picking bins will go into a refrigeration unit while the crush pad is setup and any other chores are completed. There is a long day after picking which involves a lot of cleaning once the grapes a crushed and de-stemmed. An important task is to weigh everything as this is the basis for payment to the grower but is also the basis for future calculations of sulphur, Acid and Oak additions.

As the fruit is loaded into the crusher de-stemmer any good bunches are set aside to be added to the fermenter as whole bunches which are placed at the bottom. The bunches chosen are undamaged and don't have green stems nor dried brown stems. What is required is mature stems which will add some additional tannin complexity not green herbaceous flavours. The usual ratio is about 10% whole bunches but if it is a particularly ripe year more can be added. A bit of a guess really. In a an under ripe year 0% may be the choice.

Once crushed and de-stemming is finished the resultant fruit and juice is placed under refrigeration for 1-3 days. 30 ppm Potassium Metabisulphite is added. Ideally the cooling temperature should be about 7 C but using old freezers results in the outer fruit freezing. Not a bad thing as the freezing breaks down the skin cells helping release the colour.

This is a good time to drain off 10% of the juice for Rose. Exactly when depends on how much colour is wanted. Again a bit of a guess, but 24 hours is a good start. Experience has shown that a little oak added after fermentation of rose i.e. at the first racking adds a excellent flavour to the dryness. Rose is ideally fermented at 20 C.

Reducing the juice by 10% means there are more skins and less juice adding even more colour.

24 hours after crushing is a good time to run some tests. Sugar levels should be what is expected. If not here is the opportunity to add sugar in the form of plain white sugar. pH should be in the 3.4 to 3.8 range. If it is above 3.8 then the addition of Tartaric acid may be the solution. Ideally testing for Total Acidity (TA) is better but that requires some more equipment and chemicals. Something that most amateurs don't bother with but then some do. I find pH is a reasonable indicator as to where acidity lies. We invested in a pH meter rather than pH papers.

After the cold soak the fruit and juice needs to warm up and the yeast re hydrated. By lowering the temperature of the yeast gradually it is possible to add it to the fermenter early. Usually that will be at about 20C.

Ideally the fermentation temperature should reach and stay at 30 C but certainly don't let it go higher than 32 C. Plunging of the cap of skins should be performed 3-4 times each day. This helps add oxygen to the must and aids the yeast.

5-7 days of fermentation should be followed with 10 days minimum although a total of 21-23 days from Commencement of cold soak to pressing is ideal. Post fermentation is a good time to cover the fermenter with plastic wrap and inject some inert gas such as CO2. We use CO2 because we own a SodaStream which has a conveniently sized spear pint over which a plastic tube can be fitted. CO2 or other gas cylinders are expensive to buy and tedious to rent for short periods.

Usually if the skins have completely fallen from the surface it is a reasonable guide to press. Pressing slowly is advantageous in reducing the amount of unpleasant flavours that can be forced from seeds and stems. Always a good idea to keep the pressings separate for later use in blending.

We use a fine sieve to reduce the amount of solids being funnelled into the fermenter. The addition of oak occurs at this stage in the form of chips. We found that 50% French and 50% American to be ideal but no more than 6 grams per litre in total and less if the wine is lighter.

If there is another batch of red still fermenting the addition of skins from the just pressed batch will add complexity.

Some people rack the wine 3-4 times before bottling. We found that racking once about 40 or so days after pressing was sufficient to get rid of the gross lees which might impart unpleasant flavours. It is at this time that a decision to add more oak can be accommodated. Ideally a little more sulphur helps, lets say the rest of the 50ppm that we try to stick with.

Bottling commences from 8 months after pressing. Using a Bio Dynamic calendar we choose the best week in each month when turbidity is at its minimum. With reds there will always be some sediment as they age but I'd rather have a bit of sediment and decant . Filtering to me seems to eliminate some of the goodness in the wine that makes it a healthy part of a meal.

That is the short version so any questions?

Making Good Wine: Fermentation Part Two (White Wines)

The juice now separated from the skins, sulphured and rests for 24 hours in demijohns. The prior skin contact will evolve in the flavours of the finished wine.

At this time it is possible to clarify the juice by continuing to chill but choosing not to clarify leads to a richer wine.

Now is the time to perform some testing. Firstly sugar levels using either S.G. or as it is done at HHF a refractometer. Now that all the grapes are combined and everything standardised the reading is accurate. Whether sugar is to be added really depends on the grape variety. Some like Hunter Semillon will do fine at 18.5 Brix (alcohol level of 10.5%). As a general rule at HHF anything above 20 Brix is fine as long as the fruit is ripe. Although there is more comfort in 21.5 Brix. At that level the wine has some body and keeps well without too much sulphur.

The second test which adds value is the pH test using either pH papers which are cheap but not as easy as a meter, although the meter needs to have calibration checked when unused for a period. Various guides recommend a lower level of 3.0 and an upper level of 3.3 through to 3.5. A goal of 3.25 is ideal and adjust only with Tartaric acid. 3.5 is the absolute upper limit but with 3.25 much less sulphuring is required.

If it has been a dry or drought year then yeast nutrient is critical. But don't use a lot and only add it after one third of the way into the fermentation. add the last yeast nutrient at two thirds through the fermentation and none after that.

While the testing is going on a bit of juice has been taken and the sample container sits in a bowl of hot water to get the sample to 40 C at which point the yeast is added. When the yeast commences fermentation a little cold juice is added until the temperature drops by no more than 10 C. This is left until the fermentation fires up again and then more cold juice is added and so on until the temperature of the yeasted juice falls to within 10 C of the main batch of juice. It is then gently added. Now wait until the airlock begins bubbling, usually about 24 hours.

There is a school of thought that the airlock should now be removed and replaced with cotton wool to allow the gases to vent more easily, especially any off aromas.. At HHF both methods have been used with success. although an airlock is safer.

The demijohn must now be slowly cooled to between 10 and 15C. This is done by placing the vessel into a refrigerator with an adjustable thermostat. The cooler fermentation results in the production of more fruity esters.

Test the sugar levels of the wine every day to follow the falling levels. At the same time shake up or stir the sediments in the fermentation container. This will add a complexity to the final wine. When two thirds of the sugar has expired take the demijohn out of the cooling chamber and allow it to finish at a higher temperature but not more than 30 C, 27 C being ideal. This serves two purposes. Firstly, helps prevent a stuck fermentation and secondly, adds another dimension to the final wine. All these manipulations do really add complexity into the wine some of which may not be apparent until the wine has aged a few years.

At this two thirds point when the wine reaches the ambient temperature, usually about a day, it ideally should be racked into vessels with as little head space as possible to finish fermentation. At the end of fermentation allow 30-40 days for the sediment to settle and then rack into clean containers. Getting it off the gross lees is important to prevent the production of Hydrogen Sulphide from the dead yeast cells.

When racking off gross lees is also the best time to add oak chips. Anywhere from 0.5 to 4 grams/litre although 5 grams has shown a good result in Semillon. The amount of Oak really depends on the fruit ripeness. More ripeness handles more Oak. Don't use Oak on Sauvignon Blanc or Traminer as they have strong spicy aromatics of their own.

It can be racked again if desired although at HHF the least amount of handling has produced the best results. If lees really build up then a racking is a good idea but if there is only a fine film it is left alone. 

Bottling is best done during the period leading up to no moon and ideally in the cool of mid to late Winter. The experience here is no sediment problems even after a number of years in bottle. Natural settling is far superior to fining or filtering.

New Cheese, Hot Sauce, Mustard and people who can grow seedlings

About every five days we collect milk from a local dairy in a 20 litre container. Usually we bottle between 5 and 9 litres for drinking ourselves, the cats and dogs. That leaves between 12 and 16 litres for something else. If you do the math it doesn't seem to add up but that's because the container holds 21 litres when absolutely full.

Sometimes the excess is used for yogurt but mostly it goes towards a cheese. The standard inventory in the cheese fridge is Fetta, Haloumi, Parmesan, soft Blue and a variety of hard cheeses. Most of these  hard cheeses are Cheddars or Havarti. Occasionally (as time permits) we experiment with a flavoured cheese such as peppercorns or caraway. While making wine in February some grape marc was used to store an existing cheese to observe the results. This turned out well with the distinct winey flavour permeating the Havarti. The Hispanico from three months ago was OK but a bit dry. A Colby from last year was tasty. Yesterday being a bit short of time and in the experimental mood a hard cheese was knocked out using a combination of starter cultures selected on the basis that they hadn't been used much and the process was a mix of the Havarti steps and whatever fitted into the day's schedule. The curd looks good and it will be an interesting cheese to try when it matures.

Pressing



Brining

One of the milder Chilli bushes was loaded with large red chillies and finally while Jean was away the harvest was turned into a chilli sauce. Or will become a chilli sauce. The recipe calls for a pureeing of the chillies with a little salt and allowing it to ferment before adding vinegar to taste for storage. Just an interesting experiment.

Fermenting Chillies

The MP3 player has been working overtime playing podcasts of Radio National's First Bite. The episode on Mustard struck a cord and fortunately having a large container of Brown Mustard seeds worked in well with the recipe which was just seeds soaked in Red Wine Vinegar for a couple of days and then run in a blender for a time. The blender didn't completely puree the seeds leaving a gritty mustard. After a couple of days to age the tasting was impressive. Strong full flavoured mustard nothing like a shop bought product. Last night it went well with the Falafels.

First Mustard attempt

Falafels of a sort

Being impressed by this first result and just by chance having a book on mustard in our home library another recipe is being attempted. A fully fledged Dijon. Now this is the difficult part, the herb and spice cupboard didn't quite come to the party. We didn't have Chervil or Tarragon but the cupboard yielded the other dozen or so ingredients. Some of the items used were freshly grated as there was no dried equivalent but in the end we have a batch of stuff soaking in the last of our Verjuice from a few vintages ago.

Dijon of a sort soaking

A friend down the road rang to say she had too many late season Tomatoes and would we want a few. "Yes please". She is organic and has a large greenhouse where she raises her vegetables. We called in for the obligatory morning tea before collecting the Tomatoes.  Then we noticed her seedling raising bench groaning with every type of Autumn vegetable. Including two large trays of Onion seedlings.

"How do you do it".

"I just chuck them into the tray with some soil mix".

Of course we left with a few seedlings as well.

We all seem to have strengths in different areas. Raising seedlings is not one of ours. I wonder if she would be interested in taking payment in wine for more seedlings?

A selection of seedlings

Just realised what a full day we had. A trip to the pool in the morning. A quick drive across the river to move cows, after morning tea Jean went harrowing while I mowed the lawns and then went down to the pool for a second time to annoy the pool manager with 40 more laps and a busy afternoon in the kitchen. Some days are just really productive.

Slept well.

Fermentation

A full days work in the winery. Pressed the Muscat and made three batches. One with American Oak chips, one with French Oak chips and one with no oak chips. All into glass with airlocks. As the pressing progressed the juice became redder and redder. I tried to share the colour with each batch. By last night all batches had commenced bubbling with CRU 56 yeast, the first of three instalments of yeast nutrient added and the refrigeration was set to start after midnight.


 The Shiraz had been carefully picked to exclude bunches with botrytis but just in case it had 80ppm of sulphur added. After an overnight chilling to 10 degrees C about 12% of the liquid was drained off for Rose and BDX yeast added along with some yeast nutrient. Again by late last night fermentation had commenced and a time was set to kick off the refrigeration in the early hours.

The Merlot was in good shape but as it will receive extended time on skins post fermentation, 50ppm sulphur was added. The same process as for the Shiraz was followed.

The sulphur is being added at the vineyard as there is at least an hours drive afterwards to get home after the last batch is picked and the grapes can get quite warm in the drums on the back of the ute.
As of this morning everything was fermenting nicely and the freezers cooling the batches slowly down to the 15-18 degrees.

 The Pinot was two thirds through its sugar and the last instalment of nutrient was added and refrigeration turned off. Hopefully it will peak out at 25 degrees C and all the sugar consumed over the next few days. Weather conditions are quite mild in the 21-25 range.
Everything clean and tidy in the cellar and paperwork up to date. Peace at last – for the moment.
 
The Muscat is Hamburg. Must have had a rush of blood to bother with this but the fruit looked so enticing, large berries like Spanish olives, black skin and in big bunches. Unfortunately all the books recommend this for table grapes or port. Still I'll have a go at something even if it is just for fun. They are crushed and destemmed and have been chilling overnight. I thought a dry rose if some colour can be extracted from the skins. The sugar level is not overly high and the pH pretty good. Might even try some oak in a small batch to see the effect. I've used oak in previous Rose to good effect.

Pinot Noir Fermentation

I mentioned previously having picked Pinot Noir (for the first time). Just 30 KGs to perform a trial. The Baume was 12.7 and some berries were a little shrivelled. The bunches were collected from the western side of the rows where they were getting that extra bit of sunshine. The pH level was 4.14 which was adjusted with Tartaric Acid to 3.6. One of the side effects of some weeks of very high temperatures, the day before was 40 degrees C.

20% good quality whole bunches were selected and placed at the bottom of the fermenter and the remainder destemmed. At this stage 50ppm of Potassium Metabisulphite was also added. The fermenter was placed in an upright freezer and the temperature lowered to 10 degrees C and held at that for 48 hours. L2323 yeast was rehydrated in some warmed must then progressively lowered to 15 degrees C and the fermenter inoculated. Some yeast nutrient had been added would be topped up again in three stages.

Once fermentation was well under way the fermenter was place back in the freezer and the temperature adjusted to float between 14 and 18 degrees C. A previous experiment with some Tannat grapes showed better colour and flavour occurred using Header Boards in the fermenter rather than plunging the cap several times each day. I've jerry rigged an equivalent setup which successfully keeps the berries submerged under a thin layer of fermenting must. So to wrap up, picked 22/1/13, cold soaked until 24/1/13 and fermenting slowly for 9 days so far and not quite through two thirds of the sugar. When it reaches two thirds complete I'll stop the refrigeration and allow it to complete fermenting at a higher temperature to try and ensure a dry finish.

Fermenting using Header Boards

 

100 litre containers for transporting grapes and fermenting bigger batches