Ready for round 2, 2017 marechal foch crush

[Smok1]

Hand picked 270lbs of marechal foch today from montey creek ranch winery. Now that the syrah and merlot are in the secondaries time to fill the fermenters back up

 

[Boatboy24]

Great looking grapes.

 

[Ajmassa]

Hope your deck isn't stained purple by now. Unless you kept your operation indoors.
I'm curious what you thought of the local grapes compared to the Pia. The more I research Pia the less I'm inclined to purchase again. In the picture they at least look very very healthy and fresh (im assuming that pic is just hours after picking, not days or weeks in a warehouse before a road trip like non local)

 

[Smok1]

Hope your deck isn't stained purple by now. Unless you kept your operation indoors.
I'm curious what you thought of the local grapes compared to the Pia. The more I research Pia the less I'm inclined to purchase again. In the picture they at least look very very healthy and fresh (im assuming that pic is just hours after picking, not days or weeks in a warehouse before a road trip like non local)

Was my first purchase of PIA grapes and my first thought are, no way that crate weights 36 lbs, i wish i woulda weighed it before i unpacked it but i know theres no way i can cram 36lbs into those crates now, 27lbs max, trust me, i tryed it today, overflowing at 27lbs, couldnt fit no more in, and i used my very accurate $400 refrigeration scale to weigh the new grapes in, 2nd i wasnt very impressed with the numbers, PH was high, really high, 3.9/4.0, which tells me the grapes were over ripe, 3rd, those crates are crap, leaked grape juice all over the place on a 3000 mile trip, (but as you can see i reused them as i didnt have anything else to put my new grapes in so i shouldnt complain about that) but all in all, we only have one place in canada im aware of that can grow big reds like cab sauv and syrah, osoyoos, canadas only legit desert, and getting grapes from there is a no go for the home wine maker, commercial winerys own the rights to those grapes outright, so as dissapointed as i am comparing to quality of PIA compared to local ( where i can go and test brix/ta/ph and pick when ready and crush when ripe) i will definitly be ordering california grapes next year because im a sucker for a good syrah or cab sauv.
But yes these grapes are fresh of the vine, i picked them myself today, took me 2 hours to pick 270lbs. They look great, next week frontenac noir will be ready, week afrer that frontenac gris, so i will get a few more batches in before the seasons up, best part is the price, grapes look great and there only asking 1$ a kg.

 

[Smok1]

So numbers are in, im running two seperate batches, approx 60 liters in each fermenter.

Batch1 rc212/rehydrated w/goferm w/fermaid k as the nutrient/ vp41 mlf w/ optimalo. Granular medium toast american oak and medium french oak chips.

Batch1 71b-1122/rehydrated w/goferm w/fermaid k as the nutrient/ vp41 mlf w/ optimalo. Granular hungarian oak and french oak chips.

Brix:25
Ta:0.9
Ph:3.4

Brix is a bit high for the rc212 alcohal threshold but should be close enough with nutrients to get it dry, im doing a batch with 71b-1122 for its acid metabolizing skills, ta is a bit high but was expected as most grapes grow locally are high acid, Colder climate/shorter season. The MLF should bring down the acid a bit and smooth things out.

 

[Stressbaby]

Maybe you or someone else could answer this for me - what is the point of using 71B if you are going to MLF the wine anyway?

 

[Smok1]

Maybe you or someone else could answer this for me - what is the point of using 71B if you are going to MLF the wine anyway?

71b doesnt perform MLF, it just metabolizes some of the malic acid, and is in fact one of the best yeasts lalvin makes to promote MLF.

This chart is from scottlabs website showing which yeasts best promote/compatible with MLF, as you can see 71b is in the forefront of mlf compatability.

From what ive been reading the 71b will reduce the malic acid 10-20% ( leaving 80% of the malic behind ) so the idea would be one batch at the end of mlf will have 20 less lactic acid give both batches there own particular taste.

 

[LoveTheWine]

Nice looking grapes! Hope to harvest my own Foch grapes this week (Vancouver Island home grown) Those are really good numbers and you should end up with a great wine.

I've used 71B on Foch grapes with similar numbers in the past. Combined with MLF after it produced an excellent wine. Soft, not tannic and not too acidic.

 

[Smok1]

Nice looking grapes! Hope to harvest my own Foch grapes this week (Vancouver Island home grown) Those are really good numbers and you should end up with a great wine.

I've used 71B on Foch grapes with similar numbers in the past. Combined with MLF after it produced an excellent wine. Soft, not tannic and not too acidic.

Thank you, thats good to hear. I got the 71b idea from one of the estate winery winemakers here, ive tryed there foch and its great. Promotes mlf and reduces the high acids we see here in our grapes up north.

 

[LoveTheWine]

Thank you, thats good to hear. I got the 71b idea from one of the estate winery winemakers here, ive tryed there foch and its great. Promotes mlf and reduces the high acids we see here in our grapes up north.

Hows your Foch doing??

Harvested my Foch grapes Yesterday. Really was an off year for them due to spring arriving really late and lots of rain in April. Verison was 3 weeks late (mid Aug) and once mid Sept hits the sun is low and the rain starts. 1/2 the clusters had a lot of shot and unripe grapes mixed in with ripe grapes which had to be carefully sorted by hand. Looking at the weather report we are only going to get rain and +12c highs this week so I had no choice but to harvest. Normally I harvest in late Sept.

My numbers this year were pretty bad:
-21 brix, (normally 22-23)
-3.2PH (this is normal)
-12 g/L TA (normally 9 g/L)

I had to add sugar this year and brought it up to 22.1 brix
Harvested about 100lb and split the batch in two. One is fermented with 'Lalvin71B' and the other gets 'Renaissance Andante', both of which reduce Malic acid during fermentation.

I will also do MLF and chill the wine later to drop acid out.

 

[Smok1]

Both femented dry, 71b sg 0.992, rc212 0.998, color is very nice dark dark purple, so dark its almost black, my hands were stained purple for two days after cleaning my press. color extraction was superior to my california grapes, i may be blending a bit into my merlot and syrah to get some color back into them. I started mlf today vp41, after letting it sit a couple days and rackjng off the lees. Smells great, looks really promising. I think the brix was 25 when i started. The 71b was definitly the stronger finisher, the rc212 i had to give an extra bump on the nutrients when it started to smell like h2s, but i gave a 1/2 dose of fermaid k and smell went away right away and it finished off dry. I ordered the renisance avante but i havent tryed it yet.