Winemakers' Daily Notebook for 2001 Production
Pick day scheduled for 6 October 2001. Grapes are from Maloy O'Neill Vineyards in Paso Robles, California.
Shannon
Maloy O’Neill Vineyards
4560 Creston Road
Paso Robles, California 93447
Joaquin 805 441 6766
Bins for shipping are from Ann at Macro Plastics (800-845-6555). Emery Freight will transport from San Jose Airport to Austin.
Estimates:
Attempting to estimate 2001 number of gallons of must and final wine for 1000 pounds of grapes...based on earlier years. 2001e is the estimated yield. Note that numbers from previous years are sparse and somewhat imprecise. First colum uses maxima to be conservative.
| 2001e | 1999 | 1999m | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | Fred | RLS97 | |
| pounds | 1000 | 838 | 308 | 198 | 68.6 | 2000 | 730 | |
| gal. must | 115 | 92 | 32 | 57 | 22.5 | 7.5 | 84 | |
| gal. must/lb. | 0.115 | 0.110 | 0.104 | 0.114 | 0.109 | 0.115068 | ||
| gal. wine | 84.985 | 68 | 18 | 36 | 4.3 | 160-170 | 55 | |
| wine/must | 0.739 | 0.739 | 0.563 | 0.632 | 0.573 | 0.654762 | ||
| gal. wine/lb. | 0.081 | 0.081 | 0.058 | 0.063 | 0.080 | 0.075 | ||
| per 1000 pounds | 81.14558 | 58.44156 | 62.68222 | 80 | 75.34247 | |||
For ordering chemicals:
Assume 1000 pounds of grapes - 500 pounds to each of Austin and Redwood City.
Estimated gallons of must (from above): 58 gallons (each location)
Per quantity chemicals to be ordered:
Pasteur red yeast -- 3g per gallon, mixed in water first. Add Superfood 2grams/gallon -- sprinkled directly into must. Superfood added 1/3 pick day, and 1/3 each of next two days.
viniflora will be added directly to must (per WL). 1/2 packet per PFC (packet assumed to handle 60 gallons/must). Leuco adds directly to must also -- .3 g/gallon
To order
| Pasteur red (gr) | Superfood (gr) | Vinaflora (packets) | Leucofood (gr) | |
| Total | 345 | 230 | 4 | 34.5 |
| RWC | 172.5 | 115 | 2 | 17.25 |
| Austin | 172.5 | 115 | 2 | 17.25 |
Friday, October 5 PM (California)
Pick day. Fred and David rent a truck and drive to Paso Robles the night before. Load 2 macro bins filled with grapes. Drop off one macro bin at Emery for transport to Austin. Take other macro bin to Redwood City for crush. (Richard notes: 65 gallons of must in Redwood City)
Saturday, October 6, 12pm (Austin)
Grapes arrive via Emery Freight at Austin airport cargo terminal. Transport macro bin in the back of Mike Pav's pickup truck. Placed crusher/destemmer adjacent to pickup and directly placed from macro bin into crusher. Half filled PFCs with must. Cleaned macro bin then placed macro bin in winery and transferred from PFCs to bin.
80 gallons of must.
65 degrees F temperature of must. Ambient air temperature in winery is also 65 degress.
24.5 degrees Brix -- measured with hydrometer.
Added 40ppm SO2 (note that expiration date said 2000!)
5pm Sat October 6th (Austin)
Added enzyme (?) to must and punched down.
8pm Sun Oct 7th (Austin)
Process to add 240 g Pasteur Red yeast. Added to 2.5 liters water at 98 degrees F. Followed Wine Lab notes and waited 5 minutes then mixed slightly, then waited another 10 minutes...Must temperature was 66 degrees - this is a (hopefully minor) flag that it is less than 68 degrees - minimum temperature of must to avoid shocking and killing the yeast. I added a small amount of must to the yeast/water mixture to bring the temperature down to 90 degrees. Then added yeast/water to must. Also added 80 g of Superfood.
Sun Oct 7 Background Notes from David (Austin)
Fred, please scream if I have corrupted any of your description: Most of the color and flavor for Cabernet grapes is in the skin, more specifically in big molecules that are phenolic rings with 5-7 rings. These molecules are not very soluble in water. They are soluble in alcohol, but there is not much alcohol in the wine at the point we are extracting color and flavor.
Most of the skin, like most of the grape, is made up of a sugar called cellulose. To break down the cellulose, and do so in a way that doesn't cause anything noticeable to be added to the wine, we use a cellulitic enzyme. Enzymes are large proteins that catalyze reactions among proteins.
As such, they only speed up reactions that happen naturally anyhow. We don't need to worry about excess enzymes because the yeasts will eat them as food.
The following description of the specific enzyme we used comes from the Scott Laboratories website (http://www.scottlab.com/):
Scottzyme Color Pro
1kg $60.00
30kg $30.00/kg
Recommended for early to market red and white wines. Scottzyme Color Pro is a specialty pectinase with protease side-activities. These side-activities are important for helping breakdown the cell wall of the red grapes to gently extract more anthocyanins, polymeric polyphenols and tannins. This gentle extraction creates wines that are rounder in mouthfeel, bigger in structure and with better color stability. The effect on color is similar to Color X, yet tannin extraction is lower and the resulting wine is smoother. Color Pro helps reduce perceived "veggie" qualities.
For red varieties that are lower in anthocyanins and higher in seed tannins, lower doses of Color Pro are recommended. For "big" reds with mature seeds, we recommend using higher levels of Color Pro. Color Pro is also used in white winemaking for settling and clarifying juice. The improved clarification helps lead to more compact lees, less fining, cleaner fermentation and easier filtration of the wine.
David
Mon Oct 8 8am (Austin)
Fermentation has begun. Gentle cap. 68 degree must. 23.75 brix. Punch down.
Wed Oct10 8am (Austin)
84 degrees must
Wed Oct 10 8pm (Austin)
2.25 Brix (!), 86 degree must (!).
Added 2 packages Viniflora Eonos. Added 24 grams Leucofood. Added extra 26 grams Superfoood
Friday, October 5, 9 am - 7 pm (Redwood City)Fred and I drove down to Paso Robles last night in a 17' truck. Joaquin and a helper from O'Neill Vineyard loaded two MacroBins with roughly the same amount of grapes, very roughly 500 pounds each, as eyeballed by Shannon. We dropped one bin off at Emery Freight in San Jose and proceeded to Redwood City.
Fred and I tasted 9-10 of Shannon O'Neill's wines, which we were generally impressed with. Two (a Cab and a Petite Syrah) were very good. Several did not have as much varietal character as the market expects, two of which were Neuvo Beaujolais-like in how light they were. Most of these (all?) were from last year, where the sugar was low due to lack of sun in September. The key to making a good wine from Paso Robles grapes, at least in lighter years, is extraction. Note that the Redwood City hydrometer reading was 25.5 degrees, so this should be less of a problem this year. Shannon, who is a very thoughtful winemaker, makes his wine differently than we have in several ways, mostly to increase extraction. In any case, this year is a chance to make a slightly different wine with some new techniques. Based on discussions first with Shannon and later among, Fred, Richard, and me, the basic process is:
1.1 Crush and destem. (Fred and I transferred the grapes from the MacroBin first to PFCs or grape bins and then into the crusher destemmer, putting the must back into the MacroBin.)
1.2 Ferment in the MacroBin (increasing surface-to-volume ratio). Its top replaces the translucent plastic and twine with clip.
1.3. Add 40 ppm SO2.
1.4. Punch down.
2. 4-6 hours later add a cellulitic enzyme (the 4-6 hours allows the SO2 to settle down).
3. 24-36 hours after adding the enzyme, add the yeast and yeast food. Shannon uses 3 parts of the Superfood the first day, 2 parts the second, and 1 part the third.
4. Add the ML bacteria and Leucofood after the sugar level has gotten down to 5 degrees Brix, which is what most wineries do. (The French often do ML fermentation in the barrel.)
As before:
A. Punch down twice a day until the yeast has been going for two days, once a day thereafter. It may be skippable while the must is soaking at the start, but it can't hurt.
B. Measure sugar and temperature every day. I used the hydrometer for the initial reading so I could compare the result with subsequent measurements.
C. Do later steps as before.
We got roughly 67.2 gallons of must (44" x 44" x 8" = 9 cu. ft = 67.2 gal).
We added 40 ppm SO2 (67.2 x 4 x .08 = 21.5 g.).
Must is at 68 degrees Farenheit. Ambient air temperature is 65 degrees.
Must is at 25.6 degrees Brix measured with hydrometer.
Friday, October 5, 10:30 pm (Redwood City)
Added the ProStar enzyme.
The grape juice is muddy brown colored.
10 am Sat 10/6 (Redwood City)
Punched down.
7 pm Sat 10/6 (Redwood City)
Punched down. No cap yet.
The grape juice is now plum colored.
6 pm Sun Oct 7th (Redwood City)
I added 201.67 g. Pasteur Red yeast, adding it first to 100 degree water (what a pain), then adding grape juice, and then added the yeast/water to must. Also added 67.2 g. of Superfood.
Must is at 65 degrees Farenheit.
Must is at 25.7 degrees Brix.
Monday August 8 10:00 am (Redwood City)
A cap is forming, not yet hard, so fermentation has begun. I punched down.
Monday August 8 9:00 pm (Redwood City)
The wine is at 22.2 degrees Brix and 72 degrees Farenheit. I added 44.8 g. Superfood and punched down.
Tuesday, October 9, 10:00 am (Redwood City)
Punched down.
Tuesday, October 9, 9:30 pm (Redwood City)
Punched down. Must at 11.5 degrees Brix and 81 degrees Farenheit.
Wednesday, October 10, 9:00 am (Redwood City)
Punched down.
Wednesday, October 10, 9:30 pm (Redwood City)
Punched down. Must at 3.8 degrees Brix on the 0 - 30 degree hydrometer, 4.8 degrees Brix on the -5 - 5 degree hydrometer, and 80 degrees Farenheit.
Thursday, Oct 11, 8pm (Austin)
Punched down. Must 80 degrees. Ambient temperature 70 degrees.
Thursday, October 11, 9:00 am (Redwood City)
Punched down.
Thursday, October 11, 9:30 pm (Redwood City)
Punched down. Must at .8 degrees Brix on the -5 - 5 degree hydrometer, and 77 degrees Farenheit.
Added two packages vinaflora oenos and 20.4 g. Leucofood.
Friday, October 12, 9:00 am (Redwood City)
Punched down.
Friday, October 12, 9:30 pm (Redwood City)
Punched down. Must at -.8 degrees Brix on the -5 - 5 degree hydrometer and -.4 by Clinitest, and 72 degrees Farenheit. Knowing that we were going to press tomorrow, I sprinkled a little Superfood into the must.
Saturday, October 13, 7:30 pm (Redwood City)
Must at -0.3 degrees Brix on the -5 - 5 degree hydrometer and -.15 by Clinitest, and 71 degrees Farenheit. Ben and I pressed the wine: 42 gallons. I added 40 ppm K2SO5.
Friday, Oct 12, 8pm (Austin)
Punched down. Hydrometer brix is -1. Clinitest is .2. Wine is dry. Temperature of must is 76 degrees. Decide tgo press tomorrow!
Saturday, Oct 13, 10am (Austin) - Press day
Cleaned all equipment. Pressed must (previous estimate of 80 gallons).
We pressed and placed all wine in the stainless steel tank. Computed yield 51 gallons of press wine as follows.
| tank diameter | 28.5 | inches |
| tank radius | 14.25 | inches |
| r2 | 203.0625 | inch sq |
| pi r2 | 637.9412 | inches sq |
| height | 18.75 | inches |
| pi r2 h | 11961.4 | inches cu |
| 1 gallon = 231 cu inches | 231 | |
| gallons | 51.78094 | |
Added approx 30ppm of SO2.
4 Nov 2001 11am (Austin)
Added 40ppm (with fresh K2SO4) to 50 gallons of wine, in stainless steel tank. Intend to rack next weekend.
Wine Lab report - Redwood City -- 2 Nov 2001
Wine Lab report -- Austin -- 2 Nov 2001
17 November 3pm (Austin)
Racked from stainless steel tank to PFC. Transferred portion to 15 gallon French oak barrel. Transferred remainder back to stainless steel tank. Minor amount of sediment (eliminated). NB: some sulfur nose.
Tasting notes 7.05.02
We tasted the Austin 2001, both in the barrel and in stainless steel.
Both had good color: dark plum. Neither had any sulfur or other off problems either in the nose or on the palate. Neither was as full bodied as the Los Altos wines, and neither had a lot of tannin.
The oaked 2001 had good fruit in the nose: cassis, with what struck David as strawberry jam. It tasted quite good, with big acid balanced with its fruit. It had a nice tobacco edge, with a touch of asparagus (not bad).
The 2001 in stainless steel had very noticeable asparagus in both the nose and taste. It had big acid, not balanced by fruit.
THE
WINE LAB
110
Camino Oruga, CA 94558
Phone
707-224-7903 Fax
707-255-2019 Website:
www.thewinelab.com
Laboratory:
nicoleh@thewinelab.com, sunshine@thewinelab.com
ANALYSIS REPORT
Date
Submitted: 7/24/02
Report Date: 07/26/02
Sample
Test
Result
2001
CS
(0C110)
Alcohol, ebulliometer
13.4%
(0C050)
Volatile Acidity
0.074
g/100 ml
(0C010)
Total Titratable Acidity 0.65
g/100 ml
(0C600)
pH
3.73
(0C960)
Free SO2 (a/o)
22 ppm
Total SO2 (a/o)
75 ppm
Signed:
_____________________________________________ Nicole Haller-Wilson, Senior
Enologist