Next Steps for our Red Wines: Pressing and Malolactic Fermentation

On November 6, I wrote about the Details of Our Red Grape Fermentation, beginning with harvest on October 21 and ending on November 4 with the hydrometer reading which indicated that our wines had fermented to dryness.
The three varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Barbera spent the next few days, until November 8 in the half ton bin for the next step which was pressing the juice from the grapes.
Unlike making white wines where the grapes are pressed and the juice is fermented, the red wines are fermented with the berries intact in order to extract the color from the skins. It is a bit tricky getting out the juice and berries from a half ton bin, but the crew at Jonathan Edwards have this down to a science. Initially, the juice is removed from the half ton bin, leaving only the skins in the bin.

Then the skins are put into the press where the wine was then pressed and put into totes.

The wine spent from November 8 to November 16 in the totes. On November 16, Zak, whom you see in the above photos cleaned some oak barrels for us and the wines were transferred into the barrels.
When all was said and done, we have one barrel of Cabernet Sauvignon, one barrel of Cabernet Franc and a barrel of a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (25 gallons), Cabernet Franc (20 gallons), and Barbera (14 gallons). On November 17, we inoculated the barrels with our bacteria, VP41 using the MBR method. Each barrel received 2.5 grams of VP41 hydrated in 15 mL of water at 68 degrees F.
Now it is another waiting period, while the VP41 transforms malic acid into the mellower lactic acid.

Gratien and Meyer Cremant de Loire for the Holidays

We have now had this Gratien and Meyer Cremant de Loire Brut Rose twice. It is a sparkling wine made from 100% Cabernet Franc grapes using the traditional champagne method. The color is a salmon pink and the flavors are of strawberries and raspberries. We had this with antipasto appetizers and it paired very well.
It is a very nice sparkling wine and perfect for Thanksgiving and at a price point of $16.99 you will not break the bank purchasing this for the holidays.

Vineyard Cleanup

Harvest is over and that is a huge relief but there are still many things to do in the vineyard. One of our major concerns was bringing in the botrytized and rotten Chenin Blanc that was left in the vineyard after harvest.
Although we brought in our last varieties, our red grapes on October 21, our Chenin Blanc fell victim to the rains that came before harvest and every bout of rain brought more degradation in the quality of the grapes such that when harvest time came around on October 17 and 18, we asked our crew to pick only the best clusters and clean the slightly flawed clusters. They did that to perfection and we ended up with 2-1/2 tons of quality grapes. However, that meant that the Chenin Blanc that were not harvested were still hanging in the vineyard.
Yesterday, marked the milestone when all of the botrytized grapes were removed and the grapes that were not too affected were bagged with organza wedding bags for a late harvest dessert wine.

A little historical background: We have been using organza bags to protect our ripening grapes since our first crop of Chenin Blanc in 2016. Now that we have a fully producing vineyard, we do not bag the entire vineyard and use side netting, but we do try to dedicate a few clusters to producing a late harvest dessert wine. This year, we have a bit more than a few clusters so it will be exciting to do a final harvest of wedding bags later this year.

Details of Our Red Grape Fermentation

We harvested our red varieties, Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc on Friday, October 21, 2022. We brought the grapes to Jonathan Edwards Winery where it was destemmed and the must was put into half ton bins. The must was allowed to macerate until Monday, October 24, 2022 when it was inoculated with yeast.
On November 4, 2022, we took hydrometer readings for the Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc and verified that the fermentation went to completion.

The pre- and post-fermentation values for the reds are:

Variety		Brix	pH	TA
Barbera	Pre-fermentation	22.5	3.0	NA g/L
Barbera	Post-fermentation	-1.5	3.11	9.1 g/L
Variety		Brix	pH	TA
Cabernet Sauvignon	Pre-fermentation	21.0	3.26	NA g/L
Cabernet Sauvignon	Post-fermentation	-1.0	3.34	8.4 g/L
Variety		Brix	pH	TA
Cabernet Franc	Pre-fermentation	22.0	3.27	NA g/L
Cabernet Franc	Post-fermentation	-1.5 - -2.0	3.34	6.5 g/L

Next steps, pressing! Stay tuned.

Vintage 2022: Summary of Our Yearly Harvest Statistics

The 2022 vintage is in and it is time to sumarize the statistics of that harvest and append it to the harvest of the previous years. Here are the yearly numbers at harvest for comparison:

Variety	Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA	Lbs	Gals
Auxerrois
	September 23, 2019	19.6	3.23	7.35 g/L	636	50
	September 17, 2020	19.0	3.07	7.5 g/L	1670	133
	September 28, 2021	18.0	3.25	7.5 g/L	1638	130
	September 25, 2022	20.0	3.16	7.1 g/L	3097	248
Chenin Blanc
	October 14, 2019	21.6	3.15	13.5 g/L	3930	305
	October 11, 2020	23.3	3.09	12.1 g/L	8201	655
	October 17-18, 2021	20.4	3.17	14.6 g/L	6200	496
	October 16-17, 2022	21.0	3.07	8.9 g/L	4901	392
Chardonnay
	September 28, 2019	21.5	3.17	9.4 g/L	291	26
	September 24, 2020	23.5	3.0	10.0 g/L	1136	80
	October 3, 2021	20.4	3.28	8.2 g/L	2625	210
	October 2, 2022	22.5	3.05 - 3.11	7.5 - 8.9 g/L	2306	185
Cabernet Sauvignon
	November 3, 2019	19	3.25	11.1 g/L	332	30
	October 22, 2020	22.4	3.08	10.7 g/L	888	80
	October 24, 2021	20.1	3.07	10.4 g/L	561	45
	October 21, 2022	21.0	3.26	- g/L	~1300	104
Cabernet Franc
	October 26, 2019	23	3.23	11.3 g/L	377	32
	October 22, 2020	23.3	3.27	11.3 g/L	872	80
	October 24, 2021	19.8	3.20	7.4 g/L	402	32
	October 21, 2022	22.0	3.27	- g/L	~1200	96
Barbera
	October 21, 2022	22.5	3.00	- g/L	~600	48

For this year, the table includes Barbera for the first time. The table does not include the titratable acids (TA) for the Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Barbera. We ran out of reagents to do this test. The post fermentation will have the TA values. The table also contains approximate values for the weight of the Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Barbera. The approximate weight will be back calculated from the number of gallons at press time.
The table also contains a range of values for the Chardonnay to reflect the values that came from the two stainless steel barrels that the must went in to.
All in all, we feel that with the exception of the Chenin Blanc, our crew brought in very clean grapes with the Auxerrois, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Barbera giving us the best yields so far.

2005 Rene LeClerc Gevrey Chambertin

We are already in November! The harvest is in and fermenting away. We have had a chance to exhale a little and have friends over for food and wine. This past Saturday, my husband made his duck with berry sauce with a side of wild rice. To pair with the meal, he brought out this 2005 Rene LeClerc Gevrey Chambertin. Duck and Pinot Noir go together so well and this pairing was no exception. I truly enjoyed drinking this wine, it opened up with soft berry fruit and had such a silky finish.
We had a wonderful evening with our friends, eating and drinking made the time pass! Our friends enjoyed the wine as well so I decided to dig a little deeper into the wine that my husband pulled up from his cellar.
I found this page, Domaine Rene Leclerc – Pas de Chêne Pour Moi s’il Vous Plaît written in January 20, 2013 by Christopher Massie. On that post, I learned that there are two brothers, Philippe and Rene. They maintained the same domaine until in 1976, they split the domaine located in Gevrey due to their adherence to stylistic differences in their winemaking. Philippe uses new oak and ages his wines from 18 to 24 months and Rene eschews the use of new oak. Rene believes in long cool fermentations with minimal handling of the wine. In 2002, Rene's son, Francois joined the team and began using 100% used oak barrels. What did this do to the wines? It is laden with fruit!
I told my husband how much I liked this wine and he said that it was a village wine! If a village wine can taste this good, what must a premier cru taste like?