Copyright 1999
Chapter 18
RED WINE: A CASE HISTORY
Carignane grapes are widely grown in France, Spain, California, Italy and Chile. Carignane is not a well-known variety because it is seldom bottled as a varietal wine. However, Carignane grapes produce more red wine than any other grape variety. Carignane wine is often blended with wines made from other grapes varieties because it is astringent. In France, Carignane wine is the primary component of vin de pays. In California, it is the major component in "Hearty Burgundy" and in most other red jug wines. Sometimes, Carignane grapes are called "poor mans grapes" because they produce such large quantities of unremarkable, red table wine.
When Carignane is grown in southern California, the wine often lacks color. However, California Carignane wine can be quite astringent, and the winemaker must handle the primary fermentation carefully. When properly fermented and aged in wood for a few months, Carignane can produce a robust, friendly, red wine. Obtaining Grapes
A local grape grower was contacted the third week in June 1993. Arrangements were made to purchase a half ton of Carignane grapes for $125. In early October, the grower left a message saying the Carignane fruit was ripe. He said his crew would start picking at daybreak the following Saturday, and the grapes could be picked up any time after 6:30 a.m.
Finding the block of Carignane vines in the dark was difficult, but the darkness did not bother the picking crew. The bed of a pickup truck was lined with a large sheet of 4-mil polyethylene, and a half-ton of Carignane grapes was dumped directly into the bed of the truck. The grapes were loaded by 6:45 a.m. They had been off the vines for just a few minutes, and the grapes felt cold.
GRAPE PROCESSING
Crushing started shortly after 8:00 a.m. A small, power crusher-stemmer was placed on top of a half-ton plastic fruit bin, and the crusher and bin were carefully washed and drained. The truck was backed close to the crusher-stemmer, and the grapes were unloaded with a long handled fork directly from the truck into the crusher-stemmer. Thirty-five milligrams per liter of sulfur dioxide were added as the grapes were being crushed. The fruit bin was about 2/3 full when all of the grapes had been crushed. Crushing, including washing the equipment before and after, took about an hour.
Testing Fruit
After the equipment had been washed, a small sample of juice was tested. The juice was measured with a short range hydrometer, and the sugar was 23.8 Brix. The titratable acid was 0.56 percent, and the pH was 3.73. The measured data showed the sugar content was fine. However, the acid content of the grapes was low, and the pH of the juice was too high. In previous years, Carignane grapes from the same vineyard always had TA values ranging from 0.55 to 0.60 and a pH of about 3.8, so the low acidity was not a great surprise.
Adjust Fruit
About seven ounces of tartaric acid was dissolved in a little water and added to the grapes. After the acid addition, the titratable acid measured 0.67 percent, and the pH value of the juice had dropped to 3.64. Grapes from this vineyard had been slow to ferment in previous years, and the juice was considered low in nitrogen. Four ounces of diammonium phosphate were dissolved in a little water, and the DAP solution was stirred into the fruit to give the yeast a little extra nitrogen.
Add Yeast
After lunch, a 500-gram package of dry Pasteur Red yeast was opened, and 120 grams of dry yeast were weighed out. The temperature of 800 milliliters of water was adjusted to 98 degrees, and the dry yeast granules were slowly stirred into the warm water. The yeast was stirred several times until the mixture became smooth and creamy. After standing for about 25 minutes, the rehydrated yeast was added to the crushed Carignane grapes.
FERMENTATION
The grapes showed definite signs of fermentation the following morning. By evening a cap had formed, and the cap was gently punched down for the first time. For the next several days, the cap was punched down three or four times each day. Fermentation was monitored carefully. Each afternoon the temperature was measured, and the sugar content was checked with a hydrometer. Juice was tasted for astringency and carefully smelled to make sure hydrogen sulfide was not developing. On the sixth day after crushing, the hydrometer read 4 Brix. The color of the new wine was light, but a noticeable amount of astringency had developed. It was time to press.
Pressing
A homemade hydraulic basket press was used to press the Carignane pomace. The fermentation mass was transferred from the plastic fruit bin directly into the press basket with a three-gallon plastic bucket. Much of the liquid ran through the press as the basket was being filled, and an eighteen-gallon container caught the liquid coming out of the basket. A small magnetically-coupled transfer pump and half-inch plastic tubing were used to transfer the wine from the press sump into a pair of 42-gallon polyethylene drums.
Pressure was applied slowly to reduce the quantity of foam appearing between the slats at the bottom of the basket. The pomace cake was broken up twice, and three press cycles were needed before the pomace was acceptably dry.
This press has a 1/3 ton capacity, so two partial press loads were needed. All of the press wine was added to the main batch, and the half ton of Carignane grapes produced about eighty gallons of wine. Including the time needed to wash the press before and after and to clean up the mess, the pressing operation lasted almost four hours.
Completing Fermentation
Since the wine was nearly dry, foam problems were not anticipated, and the plastic drums were sealed with fermentation locks. A wine sample was taken every day, and the Brix was measured with a "plus and minus five degree" short range hydrometer. After the wine had been in the plastic drums for eight days, the hydrometer read -1.7 Brix. After ten days, the reading was -1.6 Brix, and after 13 days, it read -1.7 Brix.
Hydrometer readings had been less than -1 Brix, and the readings had remained steady for several days. The hydrometer readings suggested fermentation was finished, so the residual sugar in the wine was measured with a Clinitest tablet. The measurement showed less than 1/4 percent sugar remained in the wine, so fermentation was complete.
CELLAR WORK
Twenty days after the yeast addition, the wine was dry, and it had started to clear. The Carignane wine was racked for the first time into a 12-year-old, 60-gallon oak barrel, two glass carboys and a one-gallon jug. Most of the gross lees had settled out, and care was taken not to disturb the muck. Seventy-one gallons of new wine remained after the first racking.
ML Fermentation
Malolactic fermentation started spontaneously in the barrel just as it had in previous years, but the wine in the glass containers showed no evidence of ML activity. After two weeks, 10 gallons of wine was withdrawn from the barrel. Wine in the glass carboys was pumped into the barrel, and the carboys were refilled with the transferred wine. After three more weeks, a paper chromatogram showed no malic acid remained in the wine in any of the containers.
Post Fermentation SO2 Addition
Sulfur dioxide had been added when the grapes were crushed, but very little of the initial SO2 remains after primary fermentation is complete. The absence of malic acid meant malolactic fermentation was complete, so a standard post fermentation addition of 50 milligrams of sulfur dioxide per liter of wine was made to all of the containers. After another week, the fermentation lock on the barrel was replaced with a silicone rubber bung. For the first six weeks, the barrel was topped up each time the wine was tested or handled.
2nd Racking
About four weeks after the first racking, all of the wine was racked into a large, temporary container. The barrel and both carboys were washed and then refilled with wine. A sample was tested, and the measurements showed the wine contained 24 milligrams per liter of free SO2. The titratable acid was 0.61 and the pH was 3.70.
Oak Chips
Ten ounces of loose oak chips were added to the 60-gallon barrel on January 22, and a small sample of wine was removed. The sample was measured, and it showed: color = ok, clarity = ok, aroma = ok, taste = ok, SO2 = 21 milligrams per liter, TA = 0.60 and pH = 3.70.
A sample of wine was taken from the barrel on February 25. The sample was measured, and the results were: color = ok, clarity = ok, aroma = ok, taste = ok, SO2 = 16 milligrams per liter, TA = 0.58 and pH = 3.73. The free SO2 content of the wine was getting too low, so 20 milligrams per liter of sulfur dioxide was added.
3rd Racking
The Carignane wine was racked for a third time in early March. All of the wine was racked into a large temporary container. The barrel and the carboys were washed and then refilled with wine. More than a gallon of Cabernet Sauvignon wine was needed to top up the second glass carboy.
WINE AGING
Aging was done in the 60-gallon oak barrel and the two 5-gallon glass water bottles.
The wine was tasted and measured on March 29. The results obtained were: color = ok, clarity = ok, aroma = ok, taste = ok, SO2 = 24 milligrams per liter, TA = 0.58 and pH = 3.71. A wine sample was tested on April 24, and this time the results showed: color = ok, clarity = ok, aroma = ok, taste = ? (wine tasted harsh), SO2 = 19 milligrams per liter, TA = 0.58 and pH = 3.75.
On May 30, the wine was tested with the following results: color = ok, clarity = ok, aroma = ok, taste =?, SO2 = 17 milligrams per liter, TA = 0.56 and pH = 3.70. The oak was starting to show. The wine seemed astringent.
The wine was tested again on June 27. The test results were color = ok, clarity = ok, aroma = ok, taste =?, SO2 = 15 milligrams per liter, TA = 0.58 and pH = 3.74. The wine seemed too astringent at this time. The SO2 was low, so an addition of 20 milligrams per liter of sulfur dioxide was made.
Gelatin Fining
On July 29, the wine was measured again, and it was critically tasted by several people. The measurements showed: color = ok, clarity = ok, aroma = ok, taste =?, SO2 = 26 milligrams per liter, TA = 0.57 and pH = 3.76. Everyone agreed that the oak flavors were good, but four out of five people felt the wine was too astringent.
The wine was tasted several additional times on different days. Finally, a decision was made. The wine was too astringent to bottle, and it needed to be fined to remove some of the excess tannin. About fifty grams of dry gelatin powder were mixed with warm water, and the solution was stirred until smooth. The gelatin solution was added slowly while the wine was stirred continuously. The wine was allowed to stand for ten days, and then it racked off the gelatin lees.
Getting Ready to Bottle
Two samples of wine were removed a couple of days before bottling time. One wine sample was tasted and used for lab measurements. Everything seemed fine, but the pH was almost 3.8. This is not an unusually high pH value for a red wine made from grapes raised in southern California. However, such a high pH value reduces the effectiveness of sulfur dioxide. Therefore, enough sulfur dioxide was added to increase the free SO2 content of the wine to 40 milligrams per liter.
The second wine sample was used to fill a clear 375-milliliter wine bottle. The bottle was tightly sealed with a cork, and the sample was placed in a refrigerator. After two days the bottle was removed and allowed to come to room temperature. After the bottle had been at room temperature for about 24 hours, the sample was carefully examined. The wine showed no haze, and no tartrate crystals were found in the bottle. The wine passed the stability test, so it was declared ready for bottling.
Bottling
The 1993 Carignane wine was bottled on 16 September, 1994. All of the wine was racked into a large temporary container. The wine was pumped from the temporary container through a one micron absolute pad filter and into a two-spout gravity bottle filler. The wine was bottled in clean (previously washed), used bottles. Before being filled, each empty bottle was rinsed with clean hot water and then given a sterilizing rinse with a sulfur dioxide solution.
About two hours were required to rinse, fill and cork the bottles. The next day, plastic heat shrink capsules and labels made on a home computer were applied to the bottles. The bottles were placed in cardboard cases, and extra labels were applied to one side and one end of each case. The cases were sealed with clear tape so they could be stacked easily.
FOLLOW UP
At bottling time the Carignane wine was clear and stable. The wine had a medium ruby color and a clean, nondescript nose. It had the typical "dusty" and "woody" taste of a young, over-oaked Carignane wine. The titratable acid was 0.58. The pH was 3.78, and the free sulfur dioxide was 40 milligrams per liter. Twenty-eight cases were bottled at a cost of $7.39 per case ($0.62 per bottle). After several months, the excessive oak taste had diminished, and the wine had developed a pleasant vanillin bottle bouquet.
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