Fall 2023

Generic Info 🔗

Grape Crush and Purchase: 9/30/23

Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon (144lb), Merlot (144lb); Lodi, CA - Crybaby

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Vintners: Alex Gordon and Brian Pearson

2023 Plan 🔗

Plan is to primary ferment, and then do extended maceration. The goal is 22 days from crush to press, including EM.

Be on the lookout for weird smells or colors. Wait for primary fermentation to pretty much stop before adding malolactic culture. Primary is done when specific gravity is less than 1.030.

We’ll inoculate with Malolatic culture as primary fermentation is slowing down. Once the cap completely drops, we’ll press.

Primary Fermentation 🔗

1. Press grapes
2. Adjust titratable acidity; check pH and brix.
3. Add sulfites, lallzyme
4. Add yeast and nutrients
5. Punch down cap every 12h

Malolactic Fermentation 🔗

7. At fermentation completion (Specific Gravity below or at 1.00) add malo nutrients. This should be 1-2 weeks post inoculation.
8. A day later add malolactic starter culture

Extended Maceration 🔗

1. Continue punch downs every 12h.
2. After each punch down, spray CO2 blanket.

2023 Notes: 🔗

Overall, we’re not super happy with the quality of our wine this year, although this was our first vintage so we’ve spent a lot of time learning this year. The wine is not faulted, I’m sure of that, but it is low quality.

The CS has very little fruit characteristics. Mostly alcohol and tannins. The oak is noticeable, but it’s still unbalanced given the lacking fruit characteristics.

The Merlot has a dominant characteristic that I describe as yogurt. I see this most frequently in young Sangiovese’s (especially those of Montalcino). There is some fruit, and it’s a little more balanced, but it’s still hot and relatively linear.

Other notes:

• The choice of yeast for the CS was poor. RC212 was not designed for CS, and is designed for medium and light reds. CS is a full body red. We made this choice based on a recommendation from a home-brew store. If you’re struggling with yeast selection, the fermentation handbooks from Scott Labs (a new one every year) are excellent.
• We did Malolactic Fermentation before we pressed, essentially during extended fermentation. We waited until no fermentation activity was detected before we pressed, but we still saw some activity during the spring. We believe this was because we had not pressed yet, and pressing exposed the yeast to additional nutrients.
• The quality of our grapes was poor. These were clearly overripe, high brix grapes, from a mediocre producer. Even doing everything perfectly, you can’t make gold from lead.

Tanks 🔗

Calculations and Additions 🔗

Data and Timeline 🔗