August 16, 2014

Today , a full 48 hours after arrival of the Vino Superiore frozen musts, these Sangiovese have thawed to a toasty 16°C (61°F) and are ready for some serious action. By the time I measure a whole bunch of parameters, it will be time to inoculate. So it’s been a very busy day in the lab.

2011 Sangiovese

2013 Sangiovese

I get my first glance at the “goods” and the color of these Sangiovese as I finally open the buckets. The 2011 is lighter than I expected but I’m totally excited with the 2013. The color is rich, deeply tinted, and the grape solids are just as dark. There seems to be much more color to be extracted from both musts, so I’ll definitely opt for some color extraction enzymes, e.g. Color X.

The first step was to measure what I would call “dashboard parameters”; these will tell me if there is any tweaking required and will serve as guide during fermentation. The following table summarizes my test results:

Table 1

The Brix and PA are just where I like them. I much prefer the older style of wines and Chianti that weighed in at a light 12.5 to 13% alcohol.

Acidity of the 2011 is just a touch lower than what I would like, so I added about 1 g/L tartaric acid to bring TA to about 5.2.

Free and total SO2 for the 2011 came in at 180/260 mg/L, so I discounted such high numbers as I suspect there was some interference with the tests. I need to investigate this further to determine what the source of interference could be. I measured SO2 with a Vinmetrica SC-300 unit. But I opt to forgo any SO2 additions here … just the kinda of mood I was in today.

I used Color X at a rate of 100 mL per ton in both musts, which works out to approximately 2.3 mL per bucket.

2011 Sangiovese

2011 Sangiovese

2013 Sangiovese

I cleaned and sanitized larger pails to hold the musts and allow room for expansion and cap during fermentation. I transferred the musts to these pails. Notice the much deeper color of the 2013 vintage.

Then time to prepare the yeast and yeast nutrients. I would have preferred a BM-like yeast, such as BM45 (BM=Brunello di Montalcino), but it is hard to source in small packets. So I chose one of my favorites: Lalvin RC-212.

I first dissolved some Go-Ferm in water at a rate of 30 g/hL, which works out to approximately 1.5 tsp per bucket. Water temperature was around 41°C (106°F), just ready to rehydrate the yeast. I gave the yeast a good 15 minutes to rehydrate and gain some momentum, and then inoculated the musts.

Lots of stirring in between.

Only thing left to do is to place a lid with a bung and fermentation lock, and sit back and wait for fermentation to start. I also placed a floating thermometer in each bucket to monitor fermentation temperature to make sure it does not get too hot and out of control.

As I’m making these batches in my kitchen, it will smell very nice in the house soon enough. I must admit I’ve never made wine in such small batches. It’s usually 800-1000 L (200-250 gal) in the garage. So this is all very exciting. I have even ordered a new #20 stainless steel basket press from my friends at Bosa Grape to handle this small “job.”

It’s been an exhausting day but well worth it knowing that in 18 months I will be drinking some awesome wine.