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Bud Break: Spring in the Vineyard
If you mainly make wine from kits, then you needn’t be concerned about winemaking “seasons,” but for those who also make wines from grapes or other fruit, spring is an active time. Vineyardists are nervous; watching for signs of bud break and that last-minute winter freeze that can kill tender buds—along with hopes for a good harvest to come. In the wine cellar or winery, the reds and “big” whites may be warming up just enough to complete malolactic fermentation, while the fresher, fruitier and lighter whites, blushes, and rosés are nearly ready for bottling. We don’t want to leave these wines in bulk any longer than necessary to clear and lose the awkward aromas of fermentation. Here is a checklist that illustrates how I go about preparing these wines for the bottle.
ü Check total acidity and Ph.
ü Check for clarity. Add finings as needed. If you suspect a persistent protein haze exists, bentonite should be your choice. I find that most wines—especially whites—clear very nicely with the proprietary two-stage finings that use kieselsol and chitosan (Klaro KC or SuperKleer KC).
ü Once the wine is clear, taste it, taste it again, and taste it some more! Make sure that fermentation odors, yeastiness, and “green” flavors are low or non-existent. How do perceived sweetness/dryness, body, acid and mouth feel balance?
ü Decide on a blending strategy as the preferable method for correcting imbalances. If blending is not an option, consider adding sugar or acid as needed. At this point, I would use only minute amounts of lactic acid, if needed, as tartaric would be harsh and unstable. When blending, use small sulfite additions and very “quiet” racking procedures to reduce the risk of oxidation.
ü If adding sugar, remember that you must also add potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate. We home winemakers generally cannot perform a sterile filtration, so we need to use chemicals to prevent digesting of residual sugars by yeasts or spoilage microbes.
ü After any blending or additions, let the wine rest for two or three weeks. If clear, bottle with a small protective dose of SO2.
ü Let the wine rest in bottles for a couple weeks, and then invite me over to sit on your patio or back porch to help you enjoy the first fruits of Spring!
Here’s a separate checklist for kit wine makers:
ü Go pick up a kit or two of the wine you want to be drinking over the summer and make it up now!
At a recent meeting of the Central Virginia Winemakers, viognier wines were being traded around for tasting and comments. I brought one of my 2003 wines, made from grapes grown in Chesterfield County. While I am partial to my own wine, I have to admit that a kit wine overshadowed all the viogniers at this gathering. The wine was the Selection Viognier by Winexpert (formerly Brew King). Rich and full of the variety’s characteristic peach-and-mangoes type flavors, this is a viognier equal to many prize-winning commercial examples I’ve tasted costing $20-30 per bottle! And you can make it at home for about 1/10th that!
If you like viognier, this is an excellent kit to choose. If you aren’t familiar with it, you should be. Back in the early 1990s, there were only a few acres of this grape growing in a tight enclave in the northern Rhone Valley. Today acreage is blossoming worldwide as folks realize what a unique and wonderful wine it makes. Try it, and I bet you’ll like it.
I recently enjoyed a bottle of First Colony Winery’s 2001 Merlot. It was a true treat! The combination of ripe grapes from a warm, dry vintage, and the winemaker’s use of the delestage technique of pumping over the fermenting and macerating must provide a velvety, mouth filling texture. The fruit is full of black cherry tones all underlain by a very distinct aroma/flavor of chocolate. Imagine dark-chocolate-covered cordial cherries.
This was my first taste of a wine from First Colony, a newer winery located just outside Charlottesville. It won’t be my last, however. The ’01 merlot runs about $18 a bottle.
Also, see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CentralVirginiaWinemakers/
Copyright 2004 L. Daniel Mouer