A 2020 Cab Franc journey with fellow WMT member
- Thread starter NorCal
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MLB = Malolactic Bacteria. If I have good grapes, as in none or very few raisins or bad looking grapes and I plan to do MLF, then I will go light, to no K-Meta at crush time. Particularly, if I am going to co-inoculate. I want to give the MLB every chance it can to work. With CH16, you are probably going to be okay, but it really is a probably.
Sounds right to me, there are always different approaches. Personally if the grapes are in good shape I would usually skip the sulfites but 50 ppm is a very well accepted practice. The only thing I might have recommended would have been to use more than one yeast but that's just me.
@crushday you may have gotten the 50 ppm SO2 addition during crush from me, which is my standard protocol. I usually opt for sequential mlf, versus co-inoculation. If I were doing co-inoculation I would do less SO2 or none, depending on the quality of the grapes.
The biggest reason I wait to do MLF after alcoholic fermentation (AF) has been completed, is that it takes a few months longer for the MLF to complete. Having the wine protected by the CO2 generated during MLF for those two months avoids an SO2 addition, which when you see how much SO2 will be necessary to manage a higher pH wine, you will appreciate.
Another note, it will be interesting to track your pH. I have had some wines that no matter what I did, it would came back really close to my original pH number. You will be tempted to adjust acid post ferment. I simply wouldn't do it or if you did be very, very careful. While you can throw a pound of tartaric acid in the must pre-ferment, even 10% of that post ferment could make the wine undrinkable. A fellow home winemaker (won't name names) threw out an entire vintage due to adjusting acid post ferment to a number.
The biggest reason I wait to do MLF after alcoholic fermentation (AF) has been completed, is that it takes a few months longer for the MLF to complete. Having the wine protected by the CO2 generated during MLF for those two months avoids an SO2 addition, which when you see how much SO2 will be necessary to manage a higher pH wine, you will appreciate.
Another note, it will be interesting to track your pH. I have had some wines that no matter what I did, it would came back really close to my original pH number. You will be tempted to adjust acid post ferment. I simply wouldn't do it or if you did be very, very careful. While you can throw a pound of tartaric acid in the must pre-ferment, even 10% of that post ferment could make the wine undrinkable. A fellow home winemaker (won't name names) threw out an entire vintage due to adjusting acid post ferment to a number.
Envious of that full test panel from the lab!
(Yeah I know I could but would be overkill for a smaller scale solo act like myself).
Curious if any of you are basing your nutrient regimen/dosage specifically to the YAN? And if so what is your protocol?
I know that when yan is in healthy range it’s the standard dosages. For me that’s FermK 1g/gal. 1 full dose at start. 1 dose whenever I catch it near the middle. (Also see it written as 1/2 dose & 1/2dose.)
I ask b/c I think 112mg/L YAN falls under that “ideal” range and wondering if you guys account for that or if you’ve found it’s not necessary to be that particular with it.
(Yeah I know I could but would be overkill for a smaller scale solo act like myself).
Curious if any of you are basing your nutrient regimen/dosage specifically to the YAN? And if so what is your protocol?
I know that when yan is in healthy range it’s the standard dosages. For me that’s FermK 1g/gal. 1 full dose at start. 1 dose whenever I catch it near the middle. (Also see it written as 1/2 dose & 1/2dose.)
I ask b/c I think 112mg/L YAN falls under that “ideal” range and wondering if you guys account for that or if you’ve found it’s not necessary to be that particular with it.
NorCal, this is profoundly helpful. THANK YOU!!
Nuff said by the others, right on track.
In the throws of fermentation - starting to smell really great.
@NorCal and @JamesdNorcal - how is your wine coming? I'm estimating moving to secondary in about 7-9 days. My temps are hovering right at 75.
During secondary I'll be blending some of the Cab Franc with the other wines I have going right now. I have 30 gallons of Livermore Merlot, 20 gallons of Livermore Cab and 20 gallons of Petit Verdot from Rattlesnake Hills all fermenting (started August 23). All these were frozen must.
From all these grapes here's the wines I'm planning (Avante yeast used throughout):
Cab Franc with 2-4% Petit Verdot (@NorCal's suggestion)
100% Petit Verdot
100% Livermore Merlot
100% Livermore Cabernet
60% Livermore Merlot, 40% Livermore Cabernet
Blending the same percentages of the 100pt wine with the description provided by NorCal last summer.
Cab Franc 64%. 39 gallons
Merlo 24%. 14 gallons
Cab Sav 8%. 4.5 gallons
Petite Verdot 4%. 2.5 gallons
@NorCal and @JamesdNorcal - how is your wine coming? I'm estimating moving to secondary in about 7-9 days. My temps are hovering right at 75.
During secondary I'll be blending some of the Cab Franc with the other wines I have going right now. I have 30 gallons of Livermore Merlot, 20 gallons of Livermore Cab and 20 gallons of Petit Verdot from Rattlesnake Hills all fermenting (started August 23). All these were frozen must.
From all these grapes here's the wines I'm planning (Avante yeast used throughout):
Cab Franc with 2-4% Petit Verdot (@NorCal's suggestion)
100% Petit Verdot
100% Livermore Merlot
100% Livermore Cabernet
60% Livermore Merlot, 40% Livermore Cabernet
Blending the same percentages of the 100pt wine with the description provided by NorCal last summer.
Cab Franc 64%. 39 gallons
Merlo 24%. 14 gallons
Cab Sav 8%. 4.5 gallons
Petite Verdot 4%. 2.5 gallons
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
Any particular reason you want to blend in secondary? In a perfect world, I'd wait until a month or two before bottling. That way, the wines have had some time to age and your results over the long haul are more likely to resemble what you had during blending trials. Don't get me wrong - I'll probably take a similar approach this year with my Super Tuscan, so I have sufficient wine to fill my larger barrel. My preference would be to wait though.
That last blend is 60 gallons, whatcha gonna put that into?
I have a brand new 59 gallon barrel sitting empty and waiting. I'm going to watch over this with great diligence so I don't over-oak with a new barrel.
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Very good question. I'm following in the footsteps of master garagiste, NorCal, who attempted this blend last year with great personal satisfaction. Adjudication still pending as he missed the fair this year. Also, I don't have enough barrels at the various volumes to accommodate the amount of wine I have ear marked for the blend if aged separately. That 59 gallon barrel has been standing in the unemployment line too long!
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
I hear ya! Not being 'big players', sometimes we have to make sacrifices to accomodate our container inadequacy.
Just punched down...this smells glorious. My senses are on overload right now...
In the back, Merlot. Middle is the Cab. Front, PV. Mrs. Crushday made the covers to help mitigate fruit fly activity. However, I interestingly don't have any fruit flies right now...
Merlot before punch.
Cab before punch.
PV after punch. I love how "inky" the PV is...
#1 Cab Franc punch
In the back, Merlot. Middle is the Cab. Front, PV. Mrs. Crushday made the covers to help mitigate fruit fly activity. However, I interestingly don't have any fruit flies right now...
Merlot before punch.
Cab before punch.
PV after punch. I love how "inky" the PV is...
#1 Cab Franc punch
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
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If you would like some, I can try to capture some of the ones I have and I don't have anything fermenting right now, but they seem extra thick for some reason.
“I know!- I’ll crush the grapes in the basement & hose down in the corner at the sump pump. Genius!
tHiS WiLL bE sO mUcH mOrE cOnVeNiEnT!”
I can smell it from here! 
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