‘20 Spring wines (w/ crush pics)

[Ajmassa]

2020 Chilean wine season has commenced!

I’m always exhausted after the work from a crush wknd Despite having extra help on Friday for once I was still left with all the prep and the cleanup. You frozen must guys don’t know what you’re missin! Lol
I may have been slightly overzealous with my order, but I was antsy since it’s been a while—fall ‘18 I did 2 big batches (1 at a time). A Paso Robles cab sauv clone#8. And recreated the ol’ family blend Went au natural with muscat Alicante & OVZ. Those wines are bottled and in rotation.
All in all was a fantastic weekend with the family. And all agreed to grow this spring crush day into a bigger annual family event ‘@JohnT style’ w/ more fam & friends and some proper food—though the burgers & dogs on the grill did hit the spot. And so did my ‘18 Chilean malbec we enjoyed while working. (Btw John the C/D still goin strong. She’s old and needs some convincing but she’s a workhorse!)

 

[Ajmassa]

The good

Crush went amazing!
-Cold & rainy but the NJ weather cooperated enough to work outside. Plus I had some help from my dad and brother who came by for the day.
-The Chilean fruit was in impeccable shape (as always). VERY impressed. I had some scrambling early to set up, but otherwise a fantastic day, a successful Chilean crush, and quality time with the fam

The bad
-Grapes arrived much earlier then I was told and I was not fully prepared.
-Yeast & so2 reagent order wouldn’t arrive in time. Had some leftovers but was light, unrefrigerated and expired.
-day before crush, crusher/destemmer was not starting. Took it all apart. Then took the motor apart. Not something ya wanna do the night before.
-totally forgot that I had split my press block it’s last use. The rosè called for pressing day 1 so had to build a new one night before too.
-double checked my ph’s w/ my 2nd meter. Consistently off >.10 Which to trust? No clue. Need fresh buffers to be sure. (Adjusted off higher #)
-chest freezer could not fit the PV grapes & CS/CF juice like I wanted. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. Wasn’t even close. Lol. More work but gotta roll with the punches.
-Had a full weekend! Friday crush. Saturday was my birthday and Heather made plans all day (Was a great time). And obviously Mothers day Sunday left less than ideal time to dedicate to the wine.
-making rosè is new for me. Should have researched more. Juice was dark coming out of the crusher already w/ zero time on skins. Pressed right away but still looked super dark. Disappointed that it might just not be meant to be.

 

[ceeaton]

AJ, you know that those earwigs add a flavor note that the most sophisticated palete won't be able to pinpoint!

Joking aside it looks by your images that it was a very successful crush! Looks like fun for sure.

 

[NorCal]

Great post and pics.

 

[Bubba1]

Looks great ....I have family named Massa but there all from Brooklyn who knows could be related

 

[Ajmassa]

Some hiccups are to be expected. Especially when not fully prepared. But in the end these were all just minor pains in the ass. We picked up grapes around 9am. Home around noon. Crushing by 2pm.

The rosè was the main thing taking me out of my comfort zone. Still tho, I kept the dark juice separate before taking action. Next day added opti-white & ft blanc soft & transferred to glass from the 10gal brute. Looks like I rushed to judgement. I cold crashed the 2nd carboy that had the bottom murky gunk and it separated well. It was looking lighter like it may work out as planned just as I was advised by the wmt boys. The extra skins were split up between the Malbec, CS/PV & CF/PV. Sunday night I racked again and pitched d47 sprinkled on top. Ended with x2 5gal carboys 80% filled.

I hit everything with 30ppm so2 at crush to be safe since I knew my time would be limited this weekend. But was cool out and the must stayed nice and cold anyway. I added enzymes, & made my adjustments late friday night. 3.6 or bust!

Saturday morning I tossed in some opti-red & ft rouge. My Malbec’s Avante yeast was expired, unrefrigerated & light (called for 30g had 23g) So Sat night I rehydrated & did 2 rounds of a starter before pitching. CS & CV got RC-212. All 3 around 60°. In hindsight I could have waited another day. But didn’t wanna take a chance with only 30ppm so2 added. Going to try to stretch time with some frozen jugs.

Malbec was already looking like ink by lag phase. Really excited for this one. High hopes for the juice/PV too. Full disclosure: I mainly just wanted another wine to run through the new 50L barrel (~4mos) so the Malbec would get more barrel time as a 2nd run (~8mos.)

Sunday night saw caps beginning to form. I let em be. Full caps this morning. Then 1st punchdown, nutrients and lactic bacteria! And also seeing a hint of activity on the rosè which is 24hrs behind the reds. LFG!

The #’s (with both ph meters)

Malbec
-30gal of must (3gal from saigneè, ~18%)
-3.83/3.7ph 4.05TA (ta test using lower meter) adjusted to 3.66/3.5ph using 1.25g/L tartaric addition
-Brix 22° bumped to 24° (No snitche
-Lallzyme exv, opti-red, 1/2 dose FT rouge
-Avante yeast
-VP41 malo

CabSauv w PV & Malbec skins
CabFranc w PV & Malbec skins
-11gal of must each
-Each with 6 gal of juice, 36lbs PV, 2ish gal of pressed malbec skins and identical #’s
-3.6/3.71 ph adjusted to 3.5/3.61 ph with .75g/L tartaric addition
-22% Brix° to 24%
-Lallzyme exv. Opti-red. Ft rouge
-RC-212 yeast
-VP41 malo

Rosè
Pressed 8lugs for 10+ gal. Kept 9ish.
Down to 8 gal after cleaning
-3.5/3.61ph Brix 21. No adjustments
-Opti white. Ft blanc soft.
D47 yeast

 

[Ajmassa]

AJ, you know that those earwigs add a flavor note that the most sophisticated palete won't be able to pinpoint!

Joking aside it looks by your images that it was a very successful crush! Looks like fun for sure.

Earwigs! That’s it. We weren’t sure what those buggers were called.
It definitely was fun. But when Heather eventually finds out how much $ I spent might be a little less fun. Shoot 1st ask questions later!

 

[Ajmassa]

Looks great ....I have family named Massa but there all from Brooklyn who knows could be related

Interesting. I’ll send ya a PM soon

 

[ceeaton]

Earwigs!
...
But when Heather eventually finds out how much $ I spent might be a little less fun. Shoot 1st ask questions later!

Yeah, earwigs, I think they should be made the State pest, or I mean bug. We gottem everywhere. I set sticky traps in the Fall in the basement, they get under the vinyl siding and into the basement. Find them in every nook and cranny.

Yes, I've learned over the years to get pre-approved before I spend more than $100, it has made my life much easier, LOL.

 

[stickman]

Looks good!, but @ceeaton beat me to it, I always thought the earwigs provided some additional mouth feel.

 

[mainshipfred]

Looking good AJ, I bet that Rose will turn out just fine.

 

[Ajmassa]

Looking good AJ, I bet that Rose will turn out just fine.

Supposed to be an afterthought ‘extra’ wine, yet all my attention been spent on it. I guess that’s a good thing tho, means everything is going nice and smooth.

and the house smells amazing

 

[ibglowin]

Fruit looks really good. I have seen many a post on crappy unripe Chilean fruit in years past. Hard to believe you got this done during a global pandemic.

You may want to add some tartaric to the rose' It should be really crisp so may need to drop that pH way down to get that required zing.

Perfect day for a crush weather wise!

 

[mainshipfred]

Fruit looks really good. I have seen many a post on crappy unripe Chilean fruit in years past. Hard to believe you got this done during a global pandemic.

You may want to add some tartaric to the rose' It should be really crisp so may need to drop that pH way down to get that required zing.

Perfect day for a crush weather wise!

I didn't get any Chilean this year but years past they have always been really nice, better than some of the Cali grapes I get.

 

[cmason1957]

@Ajmassa just my opinion, I would not worry about that rose. It looks just wonderful to me. Almost the same as what I got this year. It looks dark in the carboy, even now, but in the glass it looks wonderful.

 

[Johnd]

@Ajmassa , did you toss your press skins back into the red wine fermenters?

 

[Ajmassa]

Fruit looks really good. I have seen many a post on crappy unripe Chilean fruit in years past. Hard to believe you got this done during a global pandemic.

Perfect day for a crush weather wise!

Exactly! The must kept nice and cool and even got a little help rinsing down the driveway afterwards as the rain picked up.
I do feel fortunate to have all positive experiences with Chilean grapes. I did ‘17, ‘18 and now ‘20. All stellar quality. I’ve read about many frustrations but I have consistently been impressed. Knock on wood.

The pandemic certainly was felt to a degree.
-Grape ETA window given was off leaving me to scramble
-I was on the horn for 2 days trying to wheel & deal to speed up my deliveries. Had to make due with old yeast
-The pickup times were restricted and scheduling was a pain. But it also was the reason I had some willing and able bodies to spend the day with too.
not bad for not even being sure this woulda been possible 5 weeks ago

 

[ceeaton]

@Ajmassa just my opinion, I would not worry about that rose. It looks just wonderful to me. Almost the same as what I got this year. It looks dark in the carboy, even now, but in the glass it looks wonderful.

Hmmmm. sounds like another Craig is doing some carboy tipping...maybe Craig means "thoust who thrivests tipping thee carboy"?

Sorry, got too much idle time on my hands.

 

[Ajmassa]

@Ajmassa just my opinion, I would not worry about that rose. It looks just wonderful to me. Almost the same as what I got this year. It looks dark in the carboy, even now, but in the glass it looks wonderful.

Yes. And thanks again for the insight in the saignee thread. When I transferred it I really got a better sense of the color. Being almost exclusively red wine this rosè is new territory for me. My gut reaction was wrong, just seemed dark. And remember that’s with absolutely zero skins time

You may want to add some tartaric to the rose' It should be really crisp so may need to drop that pH way down to get that required zing.

good catch. I overlooked the ph factor. Was comfortable with low brix. But didn’t think to adjust ph down. I pitched yeast last night. Very slight activity on the surfaces.
I’m not against tossing in maybe .5-1.0g/L tartaric right now to hone in better. Not ideal but still prefer to do it now rather than later. Yeast is resilient. I bet I could add some now and not disturb or stress it too much.
what do you think?

 

[CDrew]

Great pictures! Just a couple of comments:

You are lucky your dad is young enough to help you. Mine is in his 80s and I'm sure would pitch in but not the stamina you need for all day wine making.

Your Rosè looks perfect. I think you hit the color perfectly. You may have to protect the color with a bit of sulfite right after fermentation. And Keep any mixing tools that might have MLB from your other wine away from it. I think that's why my rosè went through MLB. I compensated by adding a bit of Tartaric at the end. And, I think the spousal approval thing will be pretty assured once she tries the rosè. You got that.

Earwigs: They are everywhere in California grapes. Those and spiders, other bugs, small lizards, garter snakes etc. That is the Terrior! They are unidentifiable after fermentation so, if you've ever had wine from California anyway, you've been drinking Earwig and spider juice.

Volume: That's a lot of wine! Excellent work.

Avante: That the same stock I sent to you and Fred? If so, it's well traveled!