2017 Cab Blends

[stickman]

I have 4 of the 30gal ECO Maturation tanks, usually I rack from one to another, but in the photos above you can see I racked one tank and filled two 54L demijohns. I purchased the first tank in 2010 after my previous two 30gal barrels went neutral, my experience with the tanks so far has been good, I think a barrel is still the gold standard, but the tanks have certain advantages with respect to ease of cleaning, controlled oxygen permeability, new oak of your choice for each batch, and light weight (approx 22lbs). The tanks can be moved full using a dolly, I often shift them around or move them short distances manually by tilting and rolling on the edge, but for the most part I don't have a need to move them long distances when full.

 

[Dom Lausic]

Wow!! @stickman where did you get those great tanks/ferments/storage vessels??

 

[Dom Lausic]

Wow!! @stickman where did you get those great tanks/ferments/storage vessels??

LOL someone beat me to it!

 

[stickman]

It's been several weeks so I made up fresh chems and ran the free sulfite test for these blends. They were at 10ppm free so I added 25ppm additional, I'll probably check again before I bottle. Doing a little tasting and note taking at the same time.

 

[stickman]

Checked sulfite twice during the past couple of days, it's at 22ppm free, added another 15ppm today, just trying to get it up to a reasonable level before bottling.

 

[stickman]

Yesterday I finally got around to bottling the 2017 Cab Malbec, approximately 33 gallons. Did a final sulfite check and it was at 27ppm free, figured it should be maybe 10ppm higher, but rather than adjusting and stirring the demijohns, I just made up a strong sulfite solution (150g in 4L) for rinsing the bottles allowing the residue to bump up the free sulfite. We each walked away with about 6.5 cases, the photo is only my share. There is still 35 gallons of 2017 Tuscan blend to get bottled, need to do that soon. We sampled both wines and they are very enjoyable at this point, really interesting to see the difference between Malbec and Sangiovese in otherwise similar blends, I don't have the palate to completely describe it, but they are completely different with the Tuscan blend having greater complexity and length of finish. We'll see what happens after a year or two in bottle, but I don't think I can keep my hands off of it, I sure will be doing some quality control along the way.

 

[baron4406]

Stickman, your making me thirsty!

 

[SethF]

Yesterday I finally got around to bottling the 2017 Cab Malbec, approximately 33 gallons. Did a final sulfite check and it was at 27ppm free, figured it should be maybe 10ppm higher, but rather than adjusting and stirring the demijohns, I just made up a strong sulfite solution (150g in 4L) for rinsing the bottles allowing the residue to bump up the free sulfite. We each walked away with about 6.5 cases, the photo is only my share. There is still 35 gallons of 2017 Tuscan blend to get bottled, need to do that soon. We sampled both wines and they are very enjoyable at this point, really interesting to see the difference between Malbec and Sangiovese in otherwise similar blends, I don't have the palate to completely describe it, but they are completely different with the Tuscan blend having greater complexity and length of finish. We'll see what happens after a year or two in bottle, but I don't think I can keep my hands off of it, I sure will be doing some quality control along the way.

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What are you using to write on the bottles?

 

[stickman]

@SethF I just use a silver or gold metallic Sharpie, it's listed as permanent, but not much is permanent on glass, it's easily removed with a magic eraser sponge or scotch pad. I don't write on all of the bottles, maybe a couple per case as well as anything that might be different than the main batch. The wine in the 3 gallon carboy was on 3/4" of fine lees the entire time, so I had to make sure to mark those bottles for future reference.

 

[mainshipfred]

You're right about the sharpies. Sometimes I want the markings to stay like a one gallon carboy I placed ml lines at different levels. Put strapping tape over the marks. About a year now and they are still like I first wrote them. I also have marks on larger carboys that are off their intended volume.

 

[stickman]

Finally transferred the 2017 Tuscan blend to the bottling rack, the sulfite test indicated 12ppm free so I added about 18ppm more; I'll do a final sulfite check before bottling to get it in range and stable. I blended most of the 5gal carboy with the wine from the tank so that everything is as uniform as possible for bottling. The tannins have really smoothed out and the wine is rich, and still has a greater length of finish than the Malbec blend. The neighbor will be vacationing in Italy for three weeks so we won't get to bottle this for another 4 weeks or so. The two 2018 cabs will need some quality control attention soon.

 

[stickman]

Just following through with the 2017 Cab Sangiovese blend, tested the SO2 again just to be sure it's holding, it's currently at 21ppm free so I added another 15ppm, the pH tested at 3.59, will be bottling this hopefully in a couple of weeks, pulled a cork and used 2016 Sangiovese as top up wine. Since I made up fresh chems I'm also testing the 2018 Cab blends at the same time, will post in the other thread.

 

[stickman]

Finally bottled the Tuscan blend, looking back a couple of posts, I estimated 4 weeks or so until bottling, yea, more like 4 months, anyway, the wine is really enjoyable right now, the fruit, tannins, and oak have all integrated nicely, nothing over powering. A total of about 18 months in tank and 5 months in demijohn, my neighbor had been asking about when we were going to bottle, he admitted to thinking that somehow the wine had spoiled and I was afraid to tell him, but after tasting he was just blown away. No additional sulfite added since the last dose, just rinsed bottles with sulfite solution and deliberately left the residue, the photo is my share of the 14 cases bottled.