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Dan Busy at Work in His “Cellar”
Home winemakers are permitted by federal regulations to make 100 gallons of wine per year for a household with one adult, and 200 gallons of wine per year for a household with two or more adults. If my arithmetic is correct, then that 2-or-more-adult household that makes the legal allowance needs to be prepared to drink or give away 14, 5-ounce glasses of wine per day, every day of the year, to leave room in the cellar for next year’s wine! Whew! Well, naturally, most folks are not going to consume or give away that much wine in a year, so the federal allowance is quite generous. Nonetheless, I know (and you may also know) several folks who routinely make more than the federal allowance…often MUCH more! But let’s assume you are a reasonable person living in a reasonable household in which only 100 gallons of wine per year will be consumed, or given away as gifts, or served to friends at parties, etc.
If you are making wine primarily from kits, then the math is straightforward. You will need to make about 17 6-gallon kits each year to meet your needs. That means you’ll be making wine on the average of once every three weeks. Wow! You had better get busy!
But what if you are a winemaker who prefers to get your fruit straight from the vine? Well, then, this coming harvest be prepared to pick, crush, and press between 1200 and 1600 pounds of grapes. That’s how many you’ll need to make 100 gallons of wine. If you plan to buy that many grapes, you’ll almost certainly need to order them in the next several weeks, because most vineyards commit their expected harvest before Spring is out.
But then, perhaps you aren’t so “reasonable,” or you really do socialize a lot, or you are trying to get ahead of your consumption patterns so that you can stock up your wine cellar and be able to save lots of bottles until they are actually ready to drink some years hence. So we’ll go back to what the law allows and suggest that you plan on making 200 gallons per year, which is 34 kits (one kit every week-and-a-half), or a grape harvest of nearly 3000 pounds! Be sure to have a couple dozen carboys handy, not to mention a place to store them, age them, cold stabilize them, etc.
Last year (2002 vintage), I made about 80 gallons of wine. This year (2003 vintage) I have made, so far, about 120 gallons. Folks who visit my house are astounded by the fact that there are carboys literally everywhere, and yet I am making just over half what the law allows. Does this mean me and mine are consuming 7 or 8 glasses of wine per day? Well, certainly not! However, between Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, calling gifts when invited to parties or dinner, beverages for our own entertaining at home, and stockpiling in the cellar for future enjoyment…well I think that’s just about right.
If you seem to not be able to “save” wine to drink when it’s mature, or you find yourself paying real money for grocery store wine that’s not as good as your homemade, just because you’ve run dry, well now you know why. Get off your duff and crank up that winery!
Ed writes:
I have been keeping a close eye on my Pinot Gris and I have
discovered that I must have made a HUGE error when I started the wine.
Somehow I must have botched the math and added way too much acid at the beginning. The
wine has been resting on lees since primary fermentation (I started it 2 days after the
pressing). I bought a new Acid Test Kit, and yesterday I tested the wine. It measures
.9% tartaric and it tastes as sour as sour candy. Considering that every guide I have
seen recommends no more than .75% in white wines, I have a problem. So this begs the
question ... How do you remove acid from finished wine ?
Ed,
You didn't make a "HUGE" mistake. First of all, whoever wrote that white
wines should not exceed TA=7.5 must have been from California. Wines
routinely exceed that number--often going as high as 1.2, 1.3, and
higher--in Italy, Alsace, Loire Valley, Champagne, Germany's Rhine Valley,
etc.
I agree with you that a TA of 7.5 is probably more appropriate for this
particular wine, from this vineyard, this year. So here are some approaches
to consider.
1. Do nothing. Your TA of .9 tastes "sour” now, but that will definitely
soften some as the wine matures.
2. Consider sweetening the wine slightly. This particular pinot gris will
respond well to about .5-1.5% residual sugar. That will enhance fruit and
mouth feel, and go a VERY long way to reducing the sharpness of the wine's
acidity. This would be my main recommendation: Add a bit of sugar syrup
after clarifying the wine, and then add a touch of sulfite and a little
potassium sorbate to keep the sugar from fermenting. Bottled "wine
conditioner" combines sugar syrup and sorbate, and it works well. Go lightly!
3. Remember that the TA will probably fall and the Ph will rise as the wine
matures in bulk aging. Your present reading of .9 will likely come down to .8
or .85 if you do nothing at all.
4. The easiest and safest way to reduce acidity is to blend the wine; say,
for instance, with a low-acid kit wine from California!
5. You could always consider malolactic fermentation if you haven't already
added too much sulfite. Buy a good culture and some nutrient, dump it in,
keep the wine warm (about 70 degrees) for two or three months, and watch the
TA fall, while your wine gains smoothness and complexity of flavor and aroma.
6. You should cold-stabilize your wine. Leave it somewhere where the temp
will remain in the 30-45 degree range for about a month. This will
precipitate potassium bitartrate and lower your acidity somewhat.
7. Last and most dramatic choice is to use chemicals to reduce acidity. The
two most commonly used are calcium carbonate ("chalk," or "lime") and
potassium bicarbonate. The former is purchased from your winemaking supply
store as a solid powder, while the latter is usually in liquid form. If you
need only a small correction, calcium carbonate is the way to go. In
excessive quantity, it will leave a "chalky," or earthy flavor in the wine
that doesn't taste right. The potassium bicarbonate works more quickly and
leaves no residual taste, but it is harder to control and predict.
In either case, stir your wine vigorously to run off the carbon dioxide
before adding carbonate. Otherwise, you'll have a wine volcano on your hand,
and a hell of a mess to clean up.
In either case, use only very small amounts of the chemicals, wait several
days, then taste and test. If more acid neutralizing is needed, add a bit
more. Be careful not to overshoot, or your wine will end up lifeless,
flabby, and unhealthy.
Rather than reviewing a single wine of the month this month, I thought I’d introduce the Virginia Wine of the Month Club (http://www.vawineclub.com/)! The club is run by The Virginia Company, an outfit that specializes in selling Virginia products through their store in Stanardsville, as well as through their large online catalog (http://www.thevirginiacompany.com/). By joining the club, you will receive either one bottle of Virginia wine each month, for a cost of $14.95 plus shipping and handling, or two bottles for $24.95, plus sipping and handling. It’s a good way to get to try some new Virginia wines each month.
Also, see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CentralVirginiaWinemakers/
Copyright 2004 L. Daniel Mouer