Monday, November 24, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
MCV FARM NEWS - 11/7/08 - We're All In.
Morning ya'll,
Well, it has been a while since I have written the news and I apologize. Harvest is officially over as we have picked all of the fruit. It was an interesting vintage as Mother Nature gave us a complex and nuanced year. It was the year of all weather events. The good news is that our low yields have given us nice ripe fruit. The heavy spring rains during flowering of the reds greatly reduced the crop size. These rains at the time seemed to be a negative, but the reduced crop led to increased ripening. I have been quite happy and surprised by the numbers of the fruit this year.
The white wine fermentations are now finished and await preparation for bottling. We will begin clarifying the white wines and filtering them in the next several weeks. We have some really nice white wines and I am quite excited about the return of Sauvignon Blanc. The 'SB' is showing lots of nice intense tropical fruits. We will begin offering futures on the this wine in the tasting room. We will discuss 'futures' during our staff meeting this evening and on Sunday evening.
The red's that came in latest such as the Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot are still moving along. As I mentioned in a previous email the reds are fermented with their skins and seeds. As the fermentation moves along large amounts of Carbon Dioxide(CO2) are released by the yeast. This large amount of CO2 pushes all of the skins and seeds to the surface of the tank. The skin and seeds form a cap that literally floats above the fermenting juice.
Well, the skins and seeds in the cap have lots of valuable compounds that lead to flavor, color, and structure of the wine. So we need to get those good things into our fermenting wine. So, we utilize two main methods for obtaining these goodies.
The first is a punch down. A punch down occurs when we literally "punch down" the cap into the fermenting wine. This is done anywhere from 1-4 times per day depending on how active the fermentation. The second method is the pump-over. A pump-over occurs when we gently pump juice from the tank over the cap. This action gently washes the skins and seeds of there valuable compounds. This is also done 1-4 times per day depending on how active the fermentation.
Cheers,
Juan.
Well, it has been a while since I have written the news and I apologize. Harvest is officially over as we have picked all of the fruit. It was an interesting vintage as Mother Nature gave us a complex and nuanced year. It was the year of all weather events. The good news is that our low yields have given us nice ripe fruit. The heavy spring rains during flowering of the reds greatly reduced the crop size. These rains at the time seemed to be a negative, but the reduced crop led to increased ripening. I have been quite happy and surprised by the numbers of the fruit this year.
The white wine fermentations are now finished and await preparation for bottling. We will begin clarifying the white wines and filtering them in the next several weeks. We have some really nice white wines and I am quite excited about the return of Sauvignon Blanc. The 'SB' is showing lots of nice intense tropical fruits. We will begin offering futures on the this wine in the tasting room. We will discuss 'futures' during our staff meeting this evening and on Sunday evening.
The red's that came in latest such as the Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot are still moving along. As I mentioned in a previous email the reds are fermented with their skins and seeds. As the fermentation moves along large amounts of Carbon Dioxide(CO2) are released by the yeast. This large amount of CO2 pushes all of the skins and seeds to the surface of the tank. The skin and seeds form a cap that literally floats above the fermenting juice.
Well, the skins and seeds in the cap have lots of valuable compounds that lead to flavor, color, and structure of the wine. So we need to get those good things into our fermenting wine. So, we utilize two main methods for obtaining these goodies.
The first is a punch down. A punch down occurs when we literally "punch down" the cap into the fermenting wine. This is done anywhere from 1-4 times per day depending on how active the fermentation. The second method is the pump-over. A pump-over occurs when we gently pump juice from the tank over the cap. This action gently washes the skins and seeds of there valuable compounds. This is also done 1-4 times per day depending on how active the fermentation.
Cheers,
Juan.
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