According to our tests, Ms. Merlot finally finished Malolactic Fermentation in March. Thanks for taking your sweet time, red.
Now we're racking again - moving the wine out of the barrels, cleaning the barrels, then putting it back. It's kind of time intensive, and I was able to skip out on this round by being extraordinarily busy at work. Jill and Bob took care of it. (thanks, guys).
We still need to do the lighting wiring (still pretty dark in our space), and a little water sealing. I think I have a plan for the sealing.
By the way, I will probably abandon this blog in view of making a Facebook page for the winery. If you're on facebook - search for "Seven Bridges Wines." If you're not on Facebook, you need to be. You can be as active or as silent as you want, but it makes communication ridiculously fast.
Things are going to be quiet at the winery for awhile, at least for the wine. If we had an '07 vintage we'd be bottling it now.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
STILL the Merlot
Got test results back this week (no, not that kind...)
The.Merlot.is.still.not.done.with.MLF.
Seriously, Ms. Merlot - I bought you heaters, I even placed you lovingly in front. Bob built a door to keep in the warmth so your little bacteria would be happy to reproduce, but you STILL WON'T FINISH.
Would you please HURRY UP?
please?
The.Merlot.is.still.not.done.with.MLF.
Seriously, Ms. Merlot - I bought you heaters, I even placed you lovingly in front. Bob built a door to keep in the warmth so your little bacteria would be happy to reproduce, but you STILL WON'T FINISH.
Would you please HURRY UP?
please?
Monday, February 2, 2009
Now I lay thee down to rest
Things are actually going pretty well right now.
The heaters did their job and the MLF fermentation is complete on everything except perhaps the Merlot. We ran tests on all the barrels about 10 days ago and 12 of them said MLF was finished (all the malo acid had been converted to lactic - see below), except for Merlot. We only have one barrel of Merlot, the reason which is sort of a funny story that illustrates the delicate balance of Kevin's optimism with Bob and Jill's less rosy outlook.
It is a lot of paperwork to establish a winery. First you need Federal approval to produce alcohol (they want their tax money) and State approval as well (they want to be sure that it is produced in a safe environment, and they want their money as well).
So, I probably should have applied a little earlier for the Federal License than I did, and definitely should have applied for the State license before I did. But, I was optimistic that we'd get the licenses before the grapes were ready, while my partners were a little less skeptical.
We got our Federal license on September 15 (woohoo!), but didn't get our State license until October 9th (less woo...). The problem is that the Merlot grapes were ready sometime in late September. I'm smart enough to not tick off the same agency from which we were seeking license, but we weren't sure what to do with 3000lbs of Merlot grapes that we had contracted for when they became ready before the State license came in.
Merlot jelly anyone? I've heard it goes well with the crow that Jill and Bob forced me to eat.
We decided to make half of the wine as "home" wine (meaning that we can never sell it), and put the other half into cold fruit storage until we were licensed. It was about 12 days or so between the time we got the Merlot and we got the license.
When we finally got the license we pulled the fruit out of storage and started to crush it, then learned why cold storage isn't a great idea. About 5-10 percent of the fruit had mold on it, so we threw away that part. (Moldy Merlot jelly anyone?).
The rest of the grapes were ready soon thereafter so everything then got fermented at the same time (although we keep all the different kinds of grapes separate -- we'll blend at the end).
After fermentation completed, we pressed the wine off the skins and put it into barrels, then added the MLF starter (it's really freeze dried bacteria, but I didn't really want to write that). So, after warming it up (see below), the MLF has completed. On everything but the Merlot.
It's always the friggin' Merlot.
Hopefully, by now, the Merlot has completed its MLF and now we can add the Sulfite (preservative), then put the barrels down to rest for the long barrel nap, during which it will hopefully acquire some of the oak taste that gives wine its depth.
We're using a mixture of French Oak and American Oak, and I'll write about that sometime later.
Anyway, pretty much there's not much going on at the winery. The wine will sit, we will clean and organize the winery, then plan how many grapes (and what varietals) we're going to get for 2009.
Rest well, my little vino.
The heaters did their job and the MLF fermentation is complete on everything except perhaps the Merlot. We ran tests on all the barrels about 10 days ago and 12 of them said MLF was finished (all the malo acid had been converted to lactic - see below), except for Merlot. We only have one barrel of Merlot, the reason which is sort of a funny story that illustrates the delicate balance of Kevin's optimism with Bob and Jill's less rosy outlook.
It is a lot of paperwork to establish a winery. First you need Federal approval to produce alcohol (they want their tax money) and State approval as well (they want to be sure that it is produced in a safe environment, and they want their money as well).
So, I probably should have applied a little earlier for the Federal License than I did, and definitely should have applied for the State license before I did. But, I was optimistic that we'd get the licenses before the grapes were ready, while my partners were a little less skeptical.
We got our Federal license on September 15 (woohoo!), but didn't get our State license until October 9th (less woo...). The problem is that the Merlot grapes were ready sometime in late September. I'm smart enough to not tick off the same agency from which we were seeking license, but we weren't sure what to do with 3000lbs of Merlot grapes that we had contracted for when they became ready before the State license came in.
Merlot jelly anyone? I've heard it goes well with the crow that Jill and Bob forced me to eat.
We decided to make half of the wine as "home" wine (meaning that we can never sell it), and put the other half into cold fruit storage until we were licensed. It was about 12 days or so between the time we got the Merlot and we got the license.
When we finally got the license we pulled the fruit out of storage and started to crush it, then learned why cold storage isn't a great idea. About 5-10 percent of the fruit had mold on it, so we threw away that part. (Moldy Merlot jelly anyone?).
The rest of the grapes were ready soon thereafter so everything then got fermented at the same time (although we keep all the different kinds of grapes separate -- we'll blend at the end).
After fermentation completed, we pressed the wine off the skins and put it into barrels, then added the MLF starter (it's really freeze dried bacteria, but I didn't really want to write that). So, after warming it up (see below), the MLF has completed. On everything but the Merlot.
It's always the friggin' Merlot.
Hopefully, by now, the Merlot has completed its MLF and now we can add the Sulfite (preservative), then put the barrels down to rest for the long barrel nap, during which it will hopefully acquire some of the oak taste that gives wine its depth.
We're using a mixture of French Oak and American Oak, and I'll write about that sometime later.
Anyway, pretty much there's not much going on at the winery. The wine will sit, we will clean and organize the winery, then plan how many grapes (and what varietals) we're going to get for 2009.
Rest well, my little vino.
Monday, January 12, 2009
The heaters REALLY heat!
So, if you've been following along, it was really cold in the winery and we installed some heaters last week. They did a pretty quick job of raising the temperature from 54 to about 60 degrees, but the temperature stopped rising.
Maybe it's becuase we didn't have a door separating the cold area from the area we aren't heating. I had hung a blanket across the doorway, but it didn't even cover the entire doorway, so it wasn't doing much good.
On Saturday Bob built and installed a "door." It's in quotes because really it's just two pieces of plywood coupled together and attached to a pair of wheels. It actually operates pretty well by just sliding it across the opening.
What it lacks in elegance is made up for by its function - the room is now a blissfully warm 71 degrees - warm enough to encourage our little bacteria to convert all the malic acid into lactic acid, which should give our wine a "rounder, less sharp" taste. Malic acid is a main acid of apples, while lactic acid is a main acid of milk. If we were making a white wine, we'd leave the malic acid in the mix, but we think red wines taste better with it out. After MaloLactic Fermentation (MLF) completes, we can sulfite our wine, lower the temperature (that should be easy to do), and start planning for our 2009 harvest.
Maybe it's becuase we didn't have a door separating the cold area from the area we aren't heating. I had hung a blanket across the doorway, but it didn't even cover the entire doorway, so it wasn't doing much good.
On Saturday Bob built and installed a "door." It's in quotes because really it's just two pieces of plywood coupled together and attached to a pair of wheels. It actually operates pretty well by just sliding it across the opening.
What it lacks in elegance is made up for by its function - the room is now a blissfully warm 71 degrees - warm enough to encourage our little bacteria to convert all the malic acid into lactic acid, which should give our wine a "rounder, less sharp" taste. Malic acid is a main acid of apples, while lactic acid is a main acid of milk. If we were making a white wine, we'd leave the malic acid in the mix, but we think red wines taste better with it out. After MaloLactic Fermentation (MLF) completes, we can sulfite our wine, lower the temperature (that should be easy to do), and start planning for our 2009 harvest.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Basking in the RADIENT GLOW!!
HEAT!
Soft glowing rays are, this very instant, warming up our fermentation room. Temperature is a chilly 54 degrees, but I'm hoping it warms up quite a bit over the next few days. 70 would be great, but there's lots of thermal mass in our room (8" concrete floors, walls, and ceilings, not to mention 14 barrels of beautiful purple liquid) so it may take awhile to take the chill off.
I'm not going to say too much about the spark show other than 3-phase electrical panels can be confusing...
Thankfully Cam knows his stuff and sorted it all out for us.
Soft glowing rays are, this very instant, warming up our fermentation room. Temperature is a chilly 54 degrees, but I'm hoping it warms up quite a bit over the next few days. 70 would be great, but there's lots of thermal mass in our room (8" concrete floors, walls, and ceilings, not to mention 14 barrels of beautiful purple liquid) so it may take awhile to take the chill off.
I'm not going to say too much about the spark show other than 3-phase electrical panels can be confusing...
Thankfully Cam knows his stuff and sorted it all out for us.
Monday, January 5, 2009
It's always something...
January 5, 2009. No heat yet.
The heaters were delayed in Portland's Blizzard '08 and we finally got them about a week ago. I've been busy with end of year stuff at work and we also had to do a complete inventory for the Feds so much of our winery time was spent doing paperwork. Also, the state had a paperwork snafu and did not give us notice that we had to fill out more paperwork for them (and pay the annual fee for 2009) by 12/31/08. So, I took a few hours off work, met Jill and Bob at the winery (who were doing the end of year inventory) and went down to the state office to pay the fee on time. The good news is that we're still in compliance with all the proper agencies - federal, state, and local.
The bad news is that it took away time from getting the heaters installed.
Bob got everything installed and wired this past weekend, by himself because I wasn't feeling well. On Saturday night he called me (sick on the couch) to help him track down the correct breaker that supplies the winery sub-panel.
I helped him locate the correct one, and he double-checked that all his wiring was correct and that all the breakers were off. This was the first time we were energizing the sub-panel from the main panel. He then slid the switch to ON...
ZAP! POP! SPARKS A'FLYIN' EVERYWHERE!!!
Yes, our luck continues into 2009! The main wires from the main power feed to the breaker have a short in them, and, when Bob energized the breaker, he got a bonus free spark show!
Bob was spent so he just left everything off and went home. I went over the next day with a meter and determined that one of the hot 240 volt wires is connected to ground somewhere, and that we'll have to have someone pull new lines for us.
I don't really have the heart to write about the 3000 gallon lake that appeared in our pit Thursday night into Friday morning. It has been raining here like it's Portland and our outside pit drain was clogged. The upside is that we have an increadible friend who happens to be our landlord who helped us unclog the drains and pump out the water. Dan has reached superstar status in our book.
If it continues like this, 2009 is going to be an exciting year for us!
The heaters were delayed in Portland's Blizzard '08 and we finally got them about a week ago. I've been busy with end of year stuff at work and we also had to do a complete inventory for the Feds so much of our winery time was spent doing paperwork. Also, the state had a paperwork snafu and did not give us notice that we had to fill out more paperwork for them (and pay the annual fee for 2009) by 12/31/08. So, I took a few hours off work, met Jill and Bob at the winery (who were doing the end of year inventory) and went down to the state office to pay the fee on time. The good news is that we're still in compliance with all the proper agencies - federal, state, and local.
The bad news is that it took away time from getting the heaters installed.
Bob got everything installed and wired this past weekend, by himself because I wasn't feeling well. On Saturday night he called me (sick on the couch) to help him track down the correct breaker that supplies the winery sub-panel.
I helped him locate the correct one, and he double-checked that all his wiring was correct and that all the breakers were off. This was the first time we were energizing the sub-panel from the main panel. He then slid the switch to ON...
ZAP! POP! SPARKS A'FLYIN' EVERYWHERE!!!
Yes, our luck continues into 2009! The main wires from the main power feed to the breaker have a short in them, and, when Bob energized the breaker, he got a bonus free spark show!
Bob was spent so he just left everything off and went home. I went over the next day with a meter and determined that one of the hot 240 volt wires is connected to ground somewhere, and that we'll have to have someone pull new lines for us.
I don't really have the heart to write about the 3000 gallon lake that appeared in our pit Thursday night into Friday morning. It has been raining here like it's Portland and our outside pit drain was clogged. The upside is that we have an increadible friend who happens to be our landlord who helped us unclog the drains and pump out the water. Dan has reached superstar status in our book.
If it continues like this, 2009 is going to be an exciting year for us!
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