Wine 2022 – Update #01
03 October 2022
This fall’s plan thankfully lacks the churn last year’s fall grapes did. Everything is straightforward.
In past years I’ve made “field blends”, mixing different grapes and fermenting together to produce a blended wine. This has some risks, as I don’t know for sure what I’m going get, but I research grape qualities and make informed decisions, and it has worked out.
Ideally, the grapes should all be fermented separately and blended based upon bench testing after 6 to 12 months of bulk aging. This doesn’t work for me as I lack space and have 54 liter (14.25 US gallon) barrels that need to be kept full. So I field blend.
This year we’re trying something a bit different — we are purchasing 8 lugs of Grenache (Rhone grape), which will be fermented is 2 batches (lugs are 36 lbs so batches are 144 lbs each). One will have Lalvin RC-212 yeast while the other will have Avante yeast. These will be combined post-fermentation and barrel aged for roughly a year. Using 2 yeasts produces different characteristics and a more complex wine.
While this is happening, I will also be fermenting a field blend of Syrah, Petite Sirah, and Mourvedre, which are Rhone grapes. These will be carboy aged for the year, and will be blended into the Grenache after bench testing.
At blending time we will blind taste the Grenache blended with varying amount of the blending wine (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%). The favorite one will decide what ratio of the blending wine is mixed into the Grenache.
That’s Barrel #1. Barrel #2 will received 8 lugs of Tempranillo (Spanish grape), which will be handled identically to the Grenache, fermented in 2 batches, combined, and barrel aged in Barrel #2.
At bottling time, we’ll do the same type of blind tasting with the blending wine. While these grapes are not typically blended with Tempranillo, I expect they’ll work fine. And if the plain Tempranillo wins the taste test? We bottle the Tempranillo on its own and any remaining blend is bottled as-is.
This is an interesting experiment.
Speaking of experiments, I’m purchasing two Finer Wine Kits — Tavola Merlot. The pomace from the Grenache will be added to one and the pomace from the Tempranillo will be added to the other. Instead of making a second run wine from the pomace, I’m experimenting to see how much difference the pomace from different varieties affects a Merlot kit.