WineMaker's Report on the First Vintage,  2001

11/22/02  CV2 acidity checked now 1 week after acid adjustment.  TA is 6.6 g/l and pH 3.8.  Acidity is right on target down from 7.8 g/l and pH is a little high up from 3.36.   Gary Bacon and I tasted it along with a bottle of CV3 that Gary brought over and we both agreed the CV2 is now better than CV3.  His sincerity in making this system is evident by his willingness to trade anyone bottles of CV3 for futures of CV2.   All tasting was done after degassing the wine.  Surprisingly CV3 still had significant CO2 in it.   A half case of CV3 went for $225 at the Addison School Auction to Ed and Kathy Hickey.  ($37.50/bottle)

The Chardonnay was racked off of its lies, all three carboys.  pH is now 3.13 up from 2.95 at picking and TA is down to 10.95 g/l from 12.46 g/l at picking.  These changes are expected in fermentation.  Acidity is still very high and it tastes quite sour.  Alcohol content is low at 11.3% measured for the first time. 

Pear wine alcohol content came out 11.7% and Plum wine alcohol came out a whopping 15.3%.  The plum wine has very little taste but warms you all the way down.   

I also added .99g/l of Potassium Carbonate to Barrel CV2 to reduce its acidity from 7.8 g/l to 6.7g/l.   There was some foaming as expected.   I have not yet measured the acidity post addition.   

11/13/02  Tasting with Gary, Carmen Gary and I like CV2 better than previously even without acid adjustment but, not as good as acid adjustment test.  Looks like ML has improved CV2 some.   TA measurement shows a drop from 8.2g/l to 7.8 g/l and a pH rise from 3.24 to 3.36.  The clarity improvement we saw a few days ago is consistent with these changes.  I believe that CV2 still needs an acid reduction though a smaller one than I first planned.   

 In degassing the wines for the titrations it is clear to me that they still have very much CO2 in them which no doubt affects the tasting results.   I tasted the wines after degassing and they are much less astringent/acidic due to less carbonic acid.  They should always be degassed from now on before tasting.   

CV2  7.8 g/l TA     3.36pH                            Targets for Dry Reds, (Jackisch)  .6-.7 TA,  3.4-3.6 pH.  

Unanimous assessment that acid reduction is a success.   Acid reduction done only on the one test bottle at this point. 1.01 g of Potassium Carbonate added to one 750ml bottle. 

11/8/02  Planned acid adjustment for CV2.  Target reduction from 8.2g/l to 6.7g/l, a 19% reduction.  CV1 had 7.1g/l TA.  

11/7/02  Tasted CV2 from last year.   It is still sour but now clear and no off odors suggesting the ML fermentation may have done some good.   The improved clarity is a big improvement. 

10/25/02  Later in the day I reinnocculated barrel CV2  of 2001 cab with ML bacteria and nutrients.  This wine has too much acidity which I am trying to mitigate by reducing the Malic acid to Lactic.    I also innoculated Lot D of this year's Cab with ML bacteria and nutrients.   I need to get more to innoculate the other lots. 

Last Update 11/08/03  M.H.