Cellar Craft yakima merlot

[patc]

Hi All,


I'm about to start this showcase merlot and noticed that the grape pack seems like the sugar in it is starting to crystalize a little so instead of it being like jam it seems a lttle dried out if you will but i can clearly see that the sugar has crystalized somewhat, the other thing is when i slightly squeeze the bag i am not getting resistance kinda indicating it is not sealed completely?Anybody else experience this?

 

[ibglowin]

Nope, not with mine,

I would think it would still end up OK once its in the primary.

 

[patc]

Interesting, maybe i"ll give george a call just in case. Also i'm starting to think that maybe the winery being about 58 degrees currently might have something to do with it as i have not put the heater on yet

 

[ibglowin]

Say what?

You should have warmed everything up to ~70 degrees beforehand. I am sure it will be fine as long as things are warmed up via one way or another.

 

[patc]

No worries, i have not even begun yet but that is the temp that it normally is in the winter without the heater; corner basement bathroom/fermenting room!!!! seems to run about 60-64 in summer.

 

[patc]

Well,warmed up the fermenting room to about 7o degrees and put the grape pack in hot water for about 20 minutes and Viola!!! grape pack back in shape, so it was clearly the cold that did it. Well merlot on the way!!!!!

 

[ibglowin]

Excellent.

FWIW:
I have this one bulk aging currently. I added 2 oz med toast french oak chips about a month ago. There was just zero oak expression from the sawdust that came in the kit. Need to give it a stir and another taste test.We are about 3 months old ATM.

 

[patc]

Thanks for the info, i will be sure to taste an add oak BTW i have been checking out a lot of wineries on line in washington and they seem to oak there merlots with a mixture of french and american some 75% french 25% american ect. i will have to do a little more research but i am def into oaked merlots!!!!

 

[patc]

O.K. closed my primary fermenter up around day five and agitated it a little twice a day, transferred to secondary at day 12, squeezed the @#$% out of the grape pack, specific gravity is at .996 is there any harm in sticking with the week to two week secondary fermentation or should i check SG for two consecutive days now and if the same degass and stabilize now?

 

[v1rotate]

I would leave it in the carboy at least another week before stabilizing, Seagrape. No point in rushing it and it won't oxidize with all that CO2 in suspension.

 

[ibglowin]

Don't rush it, let it sit on the lees until ~ day 20 then transfer off, degass, clarify, stabilize.

BTW I tasted my CC Showcase Merlot last night after adding the 2 oz of French Oak about 3 weeks ago and wow, what a difference. There was zero oak expression and now have a nice hint of vanilla and more zing. Good addition for sure.

 

[patc]

Don't rush it, let it sit on the lees until ~ day 20 then transfer off, degass, clarify, stabilize.

BTW I tasted my CC Showcase Merlot last night after adding the 2 oz of French Oak about 3 weeks ago and wow, what a difference. There was zero oak expression and now have a nice hint of vanilla and more zing. Good addition for sure.

O.K will do on waiting and thanks for the input with the oak addition, i have decided to add 1 ounce of french and 1 ounce of american house toast cubes, and will taste along the way, this is going to be fun!!!!!! Also i saw that you wrote you have the vinbrite filter i plan on starting to filter my wines (you know the sediment thing) how long does it usually take to filter your reds and have you clogged any filters to date?

 

[ibglowin]

Make sure you start with all the fines and sediment racked off the bottom. It has been taking approximately an hour to filter a red, only like 30 min for a white.

It seems to slow down quite a bit about half way through so when you can, lift the carboy up even higher with an all juice bucket or something to increase the head pressure and then when you get close to the end make sure to tilt the carboy and put the tip in the low end so you can get almost everything down to the last drop. What you don't get filtered is your "taste test" sample along with anything left over after bottling!

 

[patc]

Thanks Mike! I will let you know how it goes!!!!!