Morning Ya'll,
I apologize for the delay in writing, but things have been "full-on" in the last two-weeks. As of today we have almost all of the white wine grapes in the winery. The only thing we have left in the vineyard are Semillon, a touch of Riesling for Himmel and a tiny bit of Viognier to be co-fermented with Syrah.
Once the grapes are picked they are brought to the winery and are quickly pressed. The juices are collected in tanks and are allowed to settle for 36-48 hours at 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Any solids such as grape skins and pulp will sink to the bottom of the tank much like pulp in O.J. The clean juice is then 'racked' (winemaker way of saying transferred) to another tank where I allow the juice to resettle again for another 48-hours before being racked a second time. This now very clarified juice has some yeast nutrient and yeast added to commence fermentation.
The yeast we use comes in a form much like the yeast that you would purchase for bread making. There are many yeast strains to select from each having unique properties. There are many different types of yeast but, there are yeast that are specialized for winemaking. We could not use bread yeast to ferment wine.
A winemaker's yeast is his greatest friend during fermentation and it is my job as a winemaker to make sure they are happy while they are doing there job. Unhappy yeast will let you know they are unhappy by not working efficiently, creating off-aromas, and/or quite possibly just refusing to work. Yeast are people too!
My job once the juices are 'inoculated' (Fancy winemaker way of saying the yeast has been added) is to see that the yeast are happy. I will taste the individual fermenting juices up to several times a day to just make sure that all is going well with the ferments. In addition we are monitoring the temperature of the fermentation and its Brix reading. Remember, Brix is the measure of sugar in the juice and as fermentation proceeds the yeast are consuming the sugar and creating alcohol, carbon dioxide and heat as by-products. So, I am looking to see that there is a slow and steady decrease in brix as the yeast breaks down the sugars.
So, I am relying on the lab for there numbers as well as my palette for detecting yeast unhappiness. Ironically enough different yeasts have different needs/personalities. Some like warmer temps., some like colder temperatures, some have high nutrient needs, some have medium nutrient needs, some have low nutrient needs, some like to ferment white grapes, some like to ferment rose', some like to ferment red wine, some are high alcohol tolerant, some only tolerate lower alcohol, some are slow workers, some are medium paced workers, others are fast workers, some do not mind working with others, some like to work by themselves, some are French, some are Australian, Some are German, etc... You can really begin to see some20of the parallels here between yeast and people. So remember, Yeast are people too!
As always please feel free to ask any questions and if anybody is interested in visiting the winery I would like to make myself available for a tour on Monday morning of next week (Oct. 13). I know it is a big weekend for us on the farm but I am sure some of you would be interested. I was thinking earlier than later perhaps 9A.M. or 9:30A.M.? If anybody is interested just shoot me an email. Talk with ya'll shortly.
Cheers,
Juan.
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