Wine Thief

We sampled some wine for the first time tonight with our 

beautiful new wine thief from Jennifer and Brian.

First Racking

It was time tonight to do the first racking - taking the wine off the dead yeast 

that has settled to the bottom of the carboys.

First, Brad had to carefully weigh the sulfite to add to the wine. It had to be measured to the gram so he used a balance scale for accuracy.  The sulfite stabilizes the wine and kills bacteria.

Here we are preparing for the siphoning process.  In the picture below you can see that the dead yeasts have settled at the bottom of the carboy. 

 

                                          

                                     This is what's left at the bottom of the empty carboy.

                

                                     Topping off the transferred wine (a trick we learned in Woodinville)
             

Blending Experiment

Tonight we set up a very organized and systematic blending experiment.  After reading about mixing cabernet sauvignon or merlot with our sangiovese to achieve a more full bodied wine we arranged an experiment by blending in increments...100% of our Soldato Sangiovese, and then an 80/20 blend, 60/40, and 40/60.

Problem:  The tasters (that's us) are supposed to spit after each sample.  We can't figure out how to do that!  We tried every possible scenario, but we are simply unable to taste without swallowing!  (Don't judge until you've tried to do it)  I honestly don't understand how it's done, because until the wine hits the very back of my mouth, all I get is the sensation of wine, but not the taste.  However, being reasonable people on a Monday night, we tasted only the tiniest of samples from each blending!  Trust me...:)

The verdict:  After analyzing our notes taken during each tasting, our conclusion is that our Soldato Sangiovese stands alone.  When we added the cabernet sauvignon we lost the earthiness associated with the sangiovese and felt it compromised the wine. The addition of merlot was a disaster all around.

The bottom line:  We set out to make a Tuscan style red and we're sticking with it.  We like our wine!!

Lees

It's a new word for me.  Until today, I had no idea what stirring the lees meant, but this afternoon it happened at my very own house!  Lees is the dead yeast and sediment that settles at the bottom of the carboys, which hold the wine at this point.  During this second fermentation, stirring the lees up from the bottom promotes further activity (malolactic fermentation). This is a good thing.  Lucky for us, the carbon dioxide made for a little spillage, which we caught in a big pasta bowl placed underneath the carboys.  We poured most of it back in, but had to try a tiny taste.  It has changed a lot, and we were both very pleased that the wine is softening during this fermentation.  Our granddaughter Rian noted that the glass "smelled like a raspberry".  I guess the future of our wine making adventure is intact if our grandchildren are learning right along with us!!

The fermentation lock comes off
and the dowel goes in.

Two of our grandchildren observe
as the stirring begins to produce results.

This is the overflow that we caught for later sampling.

PRESS!

We're tired!  Tonight we were at 1 BRIX and it was time to press our fermented Sangiovese.  The process took longer than we thought, but with all our effort we extracted every bit of the juice from the MUST.  Our press resulted in 7 gallons of wine, which will eventually equate to 36 bottles.  If it's good, we'll wish we had more.  If not, we've got a lot of ho-hum wine on our hands!  You'll notice in one of the photos that we are toasting our vintage with a tiny bit of the wine. It has some wonderful characteristics. It is still quite fruity, but not at all sweet and the grapes seem to promise a good outcome.  On to malolactic fermentation and continued vigilance!  

The press

Extracting the last of the juice

Reminiscent of my days as the daughter of a raspberry farmer!

Working the press

Sangiovese

Getting ready to crank the press

Toasting the press and the vintage.  Cin Cin!

The fermentation locks are in place, and malolactic fermentation begins.

The wine settling in to its home for the next year.

2 BRIX

The winemaker and his tools

Two Brix as measured this evening means the press is on for tomorrow or Wednesday.  At the rate the sugar content is now falling, we think it will be tomorrow.  This will be the most exciting step so far!

Punching Down

Morning Wake Up

12 hours with yeast and the wine/laundry room smells like a bakery!  The aroma is powerful but not bad.  Punching down has now begun because the yeast bubbles at the top and needs to be redistributed several times each day.  It also pushes the skins back down and distributes them among the juice.  

Now I just have to resist the urge to get out some good olive oil and have a nice hunk of bread.

Yeast. It's not just for bread!

The crushed grapes reached 68 degrees this evening so Brad measured Brix and Total Acid at that temperature.  He liked the numbers so tonight the yeast was "pitched".  Thus, the journey from grapes to wine begins officially this evening!

Soldato 2010 Sangiovese

Winemaking chores for Sunday, December 5th

Stirring the must to distribute the grape skins

Cleaning, cleaning...this time the fermenter

Moving crushed grapes to the fermenter

Measuring the Brix level of the warming juice

Winemaker's notes

Checking acid level

The temperature is just about right for fermentation to begin

New name.  Soldato.  That's it.  Plain and simple.