Well it’s official. Rosé is stuck just short of dryness. She struggled the whole way but still was somehow able to power thru the majority of the sugar.
Time of death : 1.003 SG
too low sg/too high abv to realistically restart it to finish dry. Been there. Done that. On a 2017 Tuscan at 1.002. Ph adjustment. Rack. Lysozyme. Rack. Rice hulls. Step feeding a starter. Etc etc. It’s a whole lot of work for a very low probability of success. Plus this is such a small amount of wine. Haven’t used the heat pad or anything for about a week and it’s starting to darken up & clear nicely.
I learned recently that Washington state had an abnormally high amount of sluggish fermentations this year. To the point that even the pros had been contacting Scott’s Lab for advice. My red mountain cab was definitely sluggish. But with some wmt advice & a little extra tlc helped bring it to fully dry. The rosé however lacked a ton of those nutrients the cab had from no time on skins—- probably the main contributing factor.
It tastes great. Right on par with many commercial rosés I’ve had. Better actually. I just prefer dryer. Which when buying blind off the shelf dry rosé def aren’t the norm. But I’ve got some Malbec rosé dry as a bone I can blend it to help out. Putting both out in the shed for cold stabilization soon. First some lysozyme, so2, and racking. Confident it will be delicious.
In the pic here is Fall’s rosé on the left- and spring’s on the right for comparison.
