My plan for 2017 wine from California grapes

heatherd said:

My Cali whites are stabilized and bulk-aging. The reds are MLF-ing along (co-inoculated VP-41) and I'll check them this weekend.

A question: I picked up my lovely Washington Pinot Noir and they are fermenting now. I'm on the fence on whether to MLF. What do you guys think? I'm aiming for a fruity wine with no oak.

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I assume lovely meant that the grapes were in nice condition. Tell me more!

I MLF'ed my Pinot Noir from Spring 2016 (used CH35), it is still fruity and I only added one French M+ Winestix, and it definitely didn't overwhelm the wine, yet.

ceeaton said:

I assume lovely meant that the grapes were in nice condition. Tell me more!

I MLF'ed my Pinot Noir from Spring 2016 (used CH35), it is still fruity and I only added one French M+ Winestix, and it definitely didn't overwhelm the wine, yet.

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@ceeaton the grapes were really nice quality when I picked them up at Harford, and they had crushed them for me. This is the first time Harford has had Washington State grapes to sell, and I told Brent (Theresa and Kevin's son) that I hope they get them next year as well.

Thanks for the feedback on MLF. I'll get some bacteria and get that started.

jgmann67 said:

@heatherd I'm a YES on doing an MLF on your Pinot Noir. I haven't done a PN from grapes yet. @ceeaton did with his Chilean PN, IIRC. Others have, too.

When I think of PN's, I think soft and round. Can you do a chromo to see how much Malic acid is present? If it's a big yellow blot on your paper, I'd say definitely do the MLF.

Did you add tannin when you started AF?

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@jgmann67 I have not added anything to the pinot except yeast at this point. I agree and will do MLF. This is my all-grape batch for the year, so I'm going to wait and see on tannins and oak.

Boatboy24 said:

My CA Pinot is MLF'ing as we speak. Co-innoculated w/ VP41.

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@Boatboy24 That's good advice, thanks.

Johnd said:

[QUOTE="heatherd, post: 667842, member: 30498"

A question: I picked up my lovely Washington Pinot Noir and they are fermenting now. I'm on the fence on whether to MLF. What do you guys think? I'm aiming for a fruity wine with no oak.

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My vote is yes![/QUOTE]

@Johnd I concur!

Started MLF-ing this morning. I hydrated both the Opti Malo Plus and the MBR 31. Finished around 9:30 and already seeing signs of activity.
8 gal Zin
8gal Syrah for the S American juice
6 gal Barbara
6 gal Norton
1 gal Amorosso - pulled out of a MM kit for an experiment
3 gal Norton that I used a White Labs on a couple of days ago. This is the third time using this and the first that is working.

jgmann67 said:

This weekend will be three weeks. And, the MLF has been pretty active. Probably time to taste and test, I think.

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Test started, picture tomorrow afternoon...

Getting dark so early, Goodbye Blue Sky, Goodbye Blue Sky, Goodbye...Goodbye...

Had to deal with picking up my wife and daughter last night from the school, her car wouldn't start (it does now, it warmed up a bit) So need to find a replacement for that battery, not the wifey...but I did actually do the test. Looking like the PV is further ahead of everything else. I'd just continue to stir all four, no Kmeta yet...

That’s kinda surprising and disappointing... thought it would be further along. Ahh well. Guess we go another 2-3 weeks and try again.

jgmann67 said:

That’s kinda surprising and disappointing... thought it would be further along. Ahh well. Guess we go another 2-3 weeks and try again.

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Though the PV looks like it has stuff at the Malic area, most of it is the dark red stuff that got carried up by the lactic component, I'd call that one done, think you can Kmeta that one around Thanksgiving.

I had problems getting good contrast with the image. Having it right here beside me, the Merlot looks better than the Cab, I'd stir and we'll test again at the end of the month.

Interesting... when I give the wines a stir, the tiny bubbles stop (or at least are not visible). After a day or two, they're back. I stirred over the weekend and the cabs are showing the greatest activity, followed by the Merlot. The activity in the PV is nominal. This, to me, is consistent with the chromo.

Tom Petty was right...

Tom Petty is always right. I think leaving the country for a week or two is a great aide to good winemaking. You can't get about nothing during that time.

jgmann67 said:

Interesting... when I give the wines a stir, the tiny bubbles stop (or at least are not visible). After a day or two, they're back. I stirred over the weekend and the cabs are showing the greatest activity, followed by the Merlot. The activity in the PV is nominal. This, to me, is consistent with the chromo.

Tom Petty was right...

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I assume you are thinking of a song with "waiting" in the title....

FYI, finally got to talk to my oldest Son tonight for about two minutes (you were referring to patience, I think). He's scheduled to graduate from basic training next week. My wife is making the trip alone since it's over the holiday weekend and was cost prohibitive. He's supposed to get two weeks leave closer to the holidays, but either way, it was nice hearing his voice, he sounds good and like he's having a lot of "fun". Most important to me is he sounds like he has the right attitude to make the most of his time in the Air Force. I am very proud of him. I can tell he's grown up quite a bit over the last 6 or so weeks...

jgmann67 said:

Interesting... when I give the wines a stir, the tiny bubbles stop (or at least are not visible). After a day or two, they're back. I stirred over the weekend and the cabs are showing the greatest activity, followed by the Merlot. The activity in the PV is nominal. This, to me, is consistent with the chromo.

Tom Petty was right...

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Here's song I thought of

mainshipfred said:

Here's song I thought of

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That's the MLF fight song!

It's the day after the festival of turkey and the gatherers in my tribe are out seeking bargains. The PV hasn't made so much as a bubble in 10 days. So, I racked and dosed it. Then, rinsed the oak and added it back to the clean wine.

The Merlot activity is pretty nominal. Maybe another week before I fuss with it, too.

The two cabs are showing activity, just they're just a bit slower than last week. I might have to leave them go for a couple more weeks before testing, dosing and racking.

Let me know when you want to test the other two again. This weekend I'd have problems getting the samples since I'm the lone parent and my responsible 17 yr old daughter is working both days. Maybe next weekend?

ceeaton said:

Let me know when you want to test the other two again. This weekend I'd have problems getting the samples since I'm the lone parent and my responsible 17 yr old daughter is working both days. Maybe next weekend?

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Next weekend is good for me.

I guess MLF proceeds at it's own pace. It appeared they all shown signs of starting when I innoculated. The Norton finished in 2 weeks @cmason1957 I'm going to let it go another 2 weeks as you recommended. The Zin is just now showing decent activity, the Syrah seems to be trying but the Barbara doesn't seem to want to do anything. All sulfite levels are below 20 and the ph is 3.3-3.5. I added twice the amount of Opti Malo and 1.5 times the bacteria. The chromotography indicates the same activity.

mainshipfred said:

I guess MLF proceeds at it's own pace. It appeared they all shown signs of starting when I innoculated. The Norton finished in 2 weeks @cmason1957 I'm going to let it go another 2 weeks as you recommended. The Zin is just now showing decent activity, the Syrah seems to be trying but the Barbara doesn't seem to want to do anything. All sulfite levels are below 20 and the ph is 3.3-3.5. I added twice the amount of Opti Malo and 1.5 times the bacteria. The chromotography indicates the same activity.

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You know the routine, Fred... stir, keep your temps in range and look for activity. If it doesn’t kick off with what you have in the carboy after a reasonable amount of time, you need to think of next steps.