2014 Vintage Update

Shiraz, Merlot, Tempranillo

After having frozen these three batches to below 0C it was time to defrost them so as to add the yeast. It took all day and night to have the temperature rise into the high teens early twenties. This morning The yeasts were rehydrated in grape juice taken from each batch that had been warmed to 38 C. Then after allowing the fermenting yeasts to cool to within 10 C of the main batches these starter batches were added back.

Two new yeasts are being tried both from Vintners Harvest an American company. The yeasts were sourced from a local home brew shop.

The Shiraz has VR21 which will go up to 15% alcohol the Shiraz has a high Brix reading of 24 and will need this.

“ Exceptional strain for full fruit red varietal wines with good structure, balance and colour. Excellent strain for red country wines.” Says the manufacturer.

The Merlot and Tempranillo have R56.

“Perfect for rich full bodied red wines with exceptional full flavoured complexity”

Chardonnay

The Chardonnay was racked after the intial fermentation slowed. Now it rests in airlocked demijohns, occasionally giving off a little CO2 as the last bits of sugar are consumed by the yeast cells. Some of the demijohns wee racked to remove the gross lees and now it was time to try some further experiments. Some of the batches that had good skin contact now had few American Oak chips added. Just to see if there would be any flavour improvement. And yes an un-oaked demijohn was kept of each as a comparison.

Sauvignon Blanc

These batches are in demijohns under refrigeration to keep the fermentation temperature between 12 and 15 C. They are bubbling away slowly. The airlocks aren't bubbling because they don't have water in them. Instead there is a little wad of cotton wool. This was recommended in one technical reference to enable H2SO2 to more readily escape. And it is escaping. There is a distinct rotten egg smell when the doors of the refrigeration units are opened.

Rose

These draining's from the Shiraz, Merlot and Tempranillo batches are all fermenting under airlock also under refrigeration. Once they are nearly finished they will be racked and a little addition of oak chips made just to add another dimension.

Chambourcin

Has pretty much finished its fermentation but some skins are still apparent on the surface. The goal is to have these skins in contact with the wine for a minimum of 22 days before pressing and storing in demijohns with Oak chips to settle and age. There is a plastic sheet covering the container to keep out bugs and every day a little CO2 is squirted over the surface to add some further protection against infection. This is the nervous part of the process. While it was madly fermenting the CO2 gas produced as a by-product protected the wine but now the only protection is the small amount of Potassium metabisulphite that was added at the crush and the daily burst of CO2.

Pinot Noir

The fermentation has slowed but not finished. The skins rise but not much and a once or twice daily plunging occurs. This is also now under plastic protection and also getting a whisp of CO2.

Sauvignon Blanc, Lists

Part of being dedicated to making good wine is putting up with the inconvenience of having to perform tasks at odd hours of the day. The Sav Blanc was in the basket press slowly dribbling out the last of its juice when I went to bed. For some reason I woke at 1.30 am and thought “I don't want to get out of bed” but then I thought it would only take a minute or two to crank the press a few notches more to continue the extraction.

And that is what I did except while the juice was dripping out the Chardonnay caught my eye. In the glass demijohns the gross lees were quite thick in some. I'd been reading this week about gross and fine lees and how the gross lees can impart unpleasant attributes if they remain. Well why not rack them now while the pressing continues. And that is what happened next. It is possible to get a lot more juice out of a press if it is undone and the grape Marc stirred around. May as well do that while I'm awake.

Then there is a slow cranking to build up pressure again requiring some waiting time. This was the ideal time to unpack the dishwasher and do some tidying up in the kitchen.

Eventually at 3.30 am with the Chardonnay nicely racked and topped up, the Sav Blanc having released another 4 litres of juice and now under pressure dripping slowly it was time for bed.

Jean's alarm went off at 6 am. Might as well get up and go to the pool to clear the head and start the day with some exercise.

Lists are curious things. They can be a comprehensive bullet pointed array of jobs that need doing – just so they are not forgotten. Sometimes items are completed and crossed off, other times nothing happens. Something intervenes and the list is forgotten. Of course after a time the list has to be re-drafted and re-ordered. More delays.

Then there is the temptation to concentrate on the easy tasks, crossing them off rapidly but never ever getting to those big jobs. The full day or more types. Even when these are started and nearly finished they remain annoyingly on the list until full completion.

Nature, seasons, weather etc overshadow lists. They may force another task that is time critical to take priority.

And every now and then with great enthusiasm and determination a big task is started and finished and a line goes through its entry and the thought transit the skull “that wasn't too bad, why didn't I do that earlier”.

By the way nothing big happened today but we did put away the 150 kg of chook feed purchased a week ago, The yeast was rehydrated for all the Sav Blanc batches, the shallots drying in front of the cave were topped and tailed and put away, Another Havarti was knocked out, the grassed edges of the veg beds got a trim, The vineyard managers were contacted and a booking made to pick Shiraz tomorrow, a few hours of paid work was completed over the river and we harvested the biggest watermelon a Klondyke at perfect ripeness. Another quiet day at HHF.

Sauvignon Blanc

Up at the “crack of dawn” isn't quite right. At 3.30 am there is no crack but as I drove off at 5 am there was a hint of light in the east. But only a hint.

Today was Sauvignon Blanc day. A long chat with the vineyard manager about what was happening with the vintage and the vineyard and at home then off to pick. Only took an hour as SB bunches are really good to pick. Sometimes coming off with just a light tug.
 

Sav Blanc on the right

Brix 21.2 (perfect) pH 3.24 (pretty good and no adjustment made) weighed in at 55KG (good)

Some people just do the same thing every year because it works, no adventurism or risk taking.



Neatly pruned and tucked in SB

But not here on HHF we love to sail close to the wind and seek new frontiers. No not bungy jumping or parachuting or other adrenaline rushes. Our risk taking is to try the untried in wine making. At least untried by us.

Perfect little bunches

Firstly the decision was to press full bunches i.e. stems and all – no de-stemming. Why? A couple of reasons. Firstly the stems act as coarse matting to help the juice run out. Secondly, because there few shattered berries there is less pulpy material. And thirdly it means you don't have to stand out in the afternoon sun with the crusher/de-stemmer putting through grapes. Then of course there is no cleaning up afterwards. Beautiful.

The next adventure is to make three types of SB. S1 is the purest free run juice. S2 is pressed juice and has a little skin contact. S3 will be the heavy pressing, lots of skin contact and just to make it even more interesting some French oak dust will be added to simulate barrel fermentation.

 

Bottling Wine

Bottled most of the whites today, Muscat, Semillon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. The first dozen of each was made into sparkling by adding fermenting yeast and sugar. 15 ml of 25 Beaume water and sugar with yeast added while it was 40 degrees C. Then 12 grams sugar then filling the bottle. Using recycled champagne bottles to make sure they handle the pressure.

A nearby resident celebrates Friday night with a bottle of French champagne. Rummaging through their recycling bin once a week has resulted in a good collection of top quality bottles.

The rest of each batch of wine went into Stelvin sealed bottles also collected from recycling. The screw caps can be reused several times just need to check the wadding inside has stayed intact.

Not a bad days effort six dozen whites and four dozen sparkling. Should get us through the year. When opening the sparkling it just needs to treated like a home brew i.e. decant gently into glasses or another bottle and leave the sediment behind. Getting crown seals for the champagne bottles is not all that difficult as a lot of home brew places carry them.

Prettied up with a nice label

The underground wine cellar filling up and getting some order with neck labels

Freshly bottled still wine alongside a nicely shaped sparkling wine.
 

Wine Making

Everything is progressing well. The Sauvignon Blanc ferment came to halt which allowed me to rack it into clean demijohns and it is now aging and settling. 

 The Pinot is still bubbling away but now under airlock. The header boards mean that the juice at the top isn’t representative of the entire batch in terms of sugar levels. Once each day I take out the header boards and give the barrel a good stir.

 The Shiraz, Muscat and Tempranillo are about two thirds through the fermentation process and are out of the their chiller units and finishing off at the ambient temperature. Only the Merlot is under refrigeration. The electricity bill will be phenomenal .

 The Chambourcin in our own vineyard is in the low 20s (Brix). I’d like to get it up to 24 if possible. This week is cloudy but hopefully not a lot of rain. Could be another week or two before harvest.
The Tannat which we are buying is in a similar position to the Chambourcin.

 An interesting observation was the effect of hot days on pH. The Pinot was harvested following a 40 plus day. The pH was 4.1. The other reds were harvested later after a week of rain and cloud and the pH was 3.6. Had it been our Pinot instead of an hours drive away I would have waited and harvested at a more optimal time. Anyway there is nothing that Tartaric can’t fix.

 I’ve been able to taste some samples of the whites as they were being racked and they show a lot of potential. Good nose, a little bite but that should settle out.

From left to right 1) pH Tester, 2) Small digital scales for measuring from 0.01 grams to 20 grams, 3) Digital scales for up to 5KG.
 

2013 Vintage

Well 2013 vintage in the Hunter Valley NSW Australia is shaping up to be another disaster. The whites are mostly in. I managed to get some Chardonnay, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc from a good vineyards. Also a little Pinot Noir.

It's surprising how some vineyards are so generous in allowing amateurs to pick (and pay) for a few small quantities of grapes for home winemaking. It always seems to be the viticulturists who are happy to oblige and generous with their time. Some liberal and sincere praise for their efforts in producing a quality product does not go astray. I suspect sometimes that the vineyard's winemaker may not offer as much praise. I'm of the opinion which is shared by many that it's easy to make good wine with good grapes. The winemakers skill is required to make a silk purse from a sow's ear.

Picking grapes from a large commercial vineyard isn't simple. Got to remember the samples taken by the viticulturist reflects an average from the entire variety.

Last year we picked the Chardonnay from the short bottom rows to save the vineyard having to run a picking machine through them. Well that was a mistake as being at the bottom of the hill they were maturing in a slightly cooler environment and consequently the sugar levels lagged behind. This year we picked the same stand but did an entire row half way up the hill with a good result. With the Semillon where the tests showed sugar a little short of desired levels we picked ripe bunches only from all over the plot, again a good result.

Didn't quite get it right with the Sauvignon Blanc as we picked from the eastern side (sun rising end) instead of the western end and so the sugar levels were a little lower.

The whites were destemmed, sulphured to 50ppm and the berries chilled to 10 degrees Celsius in 100 litre plastic containers using old freezers. Upright freezers seem the best. About 16-20 hours on skins before pressing. The yeast was acclimatised to a lower temperature and the must inoculated. After about 24 hours, when things were fermenting well the must was gradually cooled to between 15 and 20 Celsius. A timer on each freezer kicks in and cools. How often is adjusted depending on outside temperature and heat generated by the fermenting must. The must is in demijohns with an airlock and a temperature probe against the glass. A little yeast nutrient was added in three stages.

About two thirds through the fermentation the freezers are turned off and the fermentation finishes at a higher temperature. Racked and American Oak chips added this year to the Chardonnay and Semillon. Now its just sit and wait.



Pinot Noir in Crusher Destemmer

 



Crusher Destemmer and Basket Press

 





Demijohns in Freezer

50 Litre Fermenter in Freezer