ferment or not ferment

[rrawhide]

Hi



A winemaker (from scratch!!!)friend of mine offered me a carboy each of
merlot and syrah juice when he presses later this year. His
question was : do you want it before or after fermentation?
hummmmm!!!!!!!!? I think after - what do you all think? He
just turned commercial and has about 500 syrah vines and 300 merlot
vines. He is in central California. Thanx for your advice.

rrawhide

 

[Wade E]

Thats a tough 1 as I dont know his procedures, have you ever tried his
wines? Is there anything you would do differently. Does he have big
barrels?


Edited by: wade

 

[rrawhide]

Paul Roozen is my friend and he has 500 merlot and 300 syrah
vines, He has a 24 x 35 winery that he keeps at 65 degrees.
He has about 25 french oak barrels and only 8 are full. (55
gallon) He had 0 merlot last year because of the bird
damage. But he has 3 - 55 gallons barrels of syrah. He
offered me a bottle (carboy) of syrah and a bottle (carboy)
of merlot when he pickes and presses this year. His web site is
www.deparowines.com. He lives about 6 miles from me. I
helped him with the 1st and 2nd year harvest and had a great
time. Then a divorce and messed him up and stuff and lost track
of him. Stopped by today and picked up up a couple of 6 gallon
carboys that I loaned him a couple of years ago and had a barrel taste
of the 2005 syrah. Really pretty good. Please check out
his web site and see what you think. I would like to have the
juice but I need our advisel

Thanx

rrawhide

 

[masta]

Since you would need a press if you got the must (destemmed and crushed grapes) before fermentation and most likely have to make some adjustments I would opt for the post fermentation. Having a friend who owns a winery is awesome and I am sure you can learn plenty from him on the entire process.

 

[grapeman]

I would take it after fermentation also to get the deeper color you will get that way. Unless you have a good press like Masta says, you won't be able to press it yourself after it ferments on the skins for a while. You are indded lucky to live close to this guy. Help him and he can help you.

 

[NorthernWinos]

I checked out your friends Web Site http://www.deparowines.com/






I liked the look of the vineyard...I had heard that people plant roses at the end of the grapes rows. When I saw that on a TV show I did it and watch them as they are also susceptible to some of the same diseases as grapes and use themas an indicator as to when to spray...However...I planted disease resistant roses....so they are just pretty out there.

Hope you share your experiences with us...You have a great source of information that we are all hungry for.