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I recall a conversation with Eric Fry, winemaker at The Lenz Winery on Long Island. Eric was talking about science and winemaking. He asked, “If the data indicates there is something off with the wine, but the taste is good, will you do anything to the wine?” He then contrasted with, “If the data indicates that the wine is fine, but the taste is off, will you do anything to the wine?” Eric relies on his palate to make decisions. In his case taste trumps data.
Winemaker DJ Leffin at Vint Hill Craft Winery had a similar reaction to adding tartaric acid to our barrel of Cabernet Sauvignon. Although data from Virginia Tech indicated that the acid level was too high, deciding how much acid to add was based on taste rather then data. We added one gram of tartaric acid at a time to a liter of the wine and noted the taste. It was decided to add three grams per liter of tartaric acid. However DJ explained that he would add two grams, then taste again before adding the third gram.
With the first two batches of wine I made from wine kits I relied entirely on the directions that came with the kit. I didn’t make any other decisions. Currently I am thinking of getting some mother to turn my first wine kit wine into vinegar. The second wine I made from a kit was a sweet dessert Riesling. The sugar really helps to mask faults, so I’ll let that be. With gaining experience at Vint Hill Craft Winery and Tin Lizzie Wineworks, I feel more comfortable in collecting data. However, I too like to taste the wine and perhaps rely on the taste.
What do you think? Does taste trump data?
Recent lab work at Vint Hill Craft Winery started me thinking about doing lab work at home. If adding tartaric acid to the wine at Vint Hill improved the aroma and taste, could it do the same for my wine at home? If adding aging tannins improve the tannins in the wine at Vint Hill can adding aging tannins help at home?
First, I would need to purchase equipment and supplies. Tartaric acid was simple. A short trip to Maryland Homebrew was all that was needed to pick up a two-ounce container of tartaric acid. Aging tannins proved to be much more difficult. Most wine and beer supply stores do not carry aging tannins. Winery supply stores sell large bags of these substances. I would rather not purchase something that would last a decade or two. For equipment, I was interested in buying a pH meter and a scale that could measure a hundredth of a gram. Amazon.com was my best bet.
The Hanna HI 9813 is an instrument that measures pH. Basically, turn it on and stick the probe in the wine and read the pH. This particular meter was made in Romania. For the scales, I purchased the Escali Liberta. This is a pocket-sized scale. It can measure grams down to the hundredth. It is quite small. The scale part is about four square inches. It is for measuring small quantities. I decided to purchase the model that included a 50-gram weight so I could calibrate the scale. This particular scale allows you to place a container on the scale. The scale will then subtract the weight of the container and accurately measure the weight of the substance you put into it.
Later this week, I can don my white lab coat, if I had one, and “play” lab technician.
The only definitive thing learned about topping off is to do it. Whether you are a winemaker at a winery or at home, toping off barrels and carboys is a necessary task. There were different opinions on what to use to top off. Many wineries have excess wine after fermenting in bins and filling barrels. This excess wine is often placed in a variable capacity tank or a carboy. It can then be used for topping off barrels. Depending on the size of the winery, they may have tanks or carboys for each varietal wine they are making. So a Zinfandel in a barrel will be topped off with a Zinfandel. Smaller wineries may not have the space and may place all the extra wine in one container. This generic blend is used for topping off.
There are other practices also used. One is to use a wine that is closest to the wine you are making for topping off. This wine could be purchased at a wine store or perhaps be from a previous vintage that you made. You can also top off with distilled water that has the same pH and sugar level as the wine. But water should be a last resort.
Of course if you have extra wine to use to top off, once some of it is used the container that it is in has to be topped off. Rather than topping off you can simply put the remaining wine in another smaller container. Another possibility is to add sanitized marbles to the container to raise the liquid level. I like the idea of using a previous year’s wine assuming that you are trying to create a similar taste profile. You can simply drink the wine that is left over from topping off.
If you have other ideas please share.
We tasted our Cabernet Sauvignon from the barrel at Vint Hill Craft Winery this week. The Cab was certainly in the direction of what I wanted. There was fruit on the aroma and taste. There were no hints of vegetative aromas and tastes. There were tannins on the finish. After withdrawing a liter of Cab we went to the lab for analysis and tasting.
Using a liter of the wine simply makes the math easier. Substances added to wine are added based on the metric system. Math calculations using the metric system are easier. One either multiplies or divides by ten or powers of ten. We received the results of analysis done by Virginia Tech University on our wine. The pH measured 4.17 while the malic acid measured 0.047. These results indicated that secondary fermentation was completed and acid additions would need to be done to lower the pH. Tartaric acid would be added to the wine, so we tasted the wine after adding tartaric acid.
Since we had a liter, we measured one gram of tartaric acid and dissolved it in the wine. We tasted the wine and immediately noticed an enhancement in the fruit and a softening of the tannins. We then added a second gram of tartaric acid to the liter and tasted it. The procedure continued until four grams of tartaric acid was added to the wine. The taste profile that I liked best was at three grams per liter.
Our next tasting profile involved adding aging tannins to the wine. Four samples of 100 ml each were drawn from the flask that held the liter of wine. Into each of these flasks 0.01 gram of a different aging tannin was added. We then tasted the wine to get an idea of what the aging tannin would do. Each seemed to enhance tannins at a different time or placement in the mouth. We then blended the wines to determine which of the four aging tannins resulted in the taste we wanted. The aging tannins added included: Tan’Cor Tannin, Tan’Cor Grand Cru, Quartannin and Tanin Plus.
Once again the comment “wine is made in the vineyard” resonates in my head. Yes, this is true, BUT … . The winemaker has a lot to do with the aroma and taste of the wine that consumers will discover when the bottle is open. Every time we added a gram of tartaric acid, the profile of the wine changed. It also changed based on the different aging tannins added. This isn’t the vineyard, this is the lab.
After talking to hundreds of winemakers, one begins to form opinions of winemakers in general. One opinion is that they are unique and different. Winemaker, Kevin Robinson, at Brassfield Estate Winery in Clearlake Oaks, California stated that, “Winemakers are like snowflakes, no two are alike.” After meeting so many winemakers it is safe to say that they are all unique.
Many of the winemakers we met have winemaking roots. Most learned winemaking from their parents or grandparents. Others have deep roots that are multi-generations deep. Some winemakers can trace their winemaking roots back several hundred years.
With the idea of winemaking roots in mind, I thought about my own winemaking roots. My parents did not make wine. Mom only had wine when receiving Communion at church. She just didn’t like the taste of wine. Dad did drink wine frequently, always Manischewitz. When I was a youth, Dad would always let me taste his wine. For a long time I thought wine was sweet. My Grandmother Dowey did make wine as well as her son, Uncle Hun. I don’t remember my Grandmother’s wine. She passed away when I was only eight years old. However, I can remember Uncle Hun.
Orville (Hun) Dowey was born in Carrolltown, Pennsylvania as was my mother and her brothers and sisters. While on a tour of the cellar in his house, I recall Uncle Hun telling me that he could make wine out of anything that had a seed in it. At that time though, I was more interested in the root beer he made. It was simply the best root beer I ever had. Uncle Hun was into making other things too. He and a friend developed a recipe for sausage. It was so good that Oscar Mayer was willing to pay a substantial amount of money for the recipe. As the story goes though, Orville’s friend lay dying in Orville’s hands during World War II and asked Uncle Hun to promise to never share the sausage recipe. He took the recipe to his grave in 1985.
Uncle Hun had to be the favorite uncle on my mother’s side of the family. He had a soft spot for children. However he looked and acted like an ogre and we were certain that he was going to eat us. Eventually we grew out of this love/fear relationship and discovered that he would never hurt a flea let alone a child. As much teasing and chasing that he would do, children always returned a moment later to take more of it. His heart was pure gold.
He made wine to give to the people of Carrolltown for Christmas presents. One citizen reported him to the government for making wine. Since Uncle Hun was not breaking any laws the government let him be. It was always thought that the disgruntled neighbor was upset that he did not receive a bottle of wine at Christmas. He did the following year. One of Uncle Hun’s neigbors liked his rhubarb wine the best. She was heard saying to, “just sip it real slow, and get up carefully.”
Uncle Hun began making wines in 1951 from spring dandelions, rhubarb and strawberries to summer peaches, blackberries and grapes and finally with autumn pumpkins. He used a cast iron food press to crush the fruit and ceramic crocks to ferment the juice. He had a standard recipe for his fruit wines. He simply added three pounds of sugar to one-gallon of juice.
My mother tells me that her brother Orville learned winemaking from their mother. My grandmother learned how to make wine in the old country and later came to the Unites States. I didn’t start to make wine until much later in life. I wish I could have learned from my Grandmother and Uncle Hun.
I’ve been putting off the racking of my wines at home. However since today was another cold day in Maryland, I thought I might as well taste the wines and rack them. The first was a gallon of Zinfandel from the Russian River Valley. Five weeks ago I placed a two-inch oak infusion spiral, heavy toasted French, into the carboy. The aroma was almost leather and there was an oak flavor that yielded to fruit. The infusion spirals worked well on the Zin. There was just a bit of sediment on the bottom of the carboy. I only need a bit of wine to top off. I am using a generic red wine for topping off.
My next carboy had five gallons, or so I thought, of Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon. I bought a new five-gallon glass carboy and was easily able to rack the contents. However there was almost a gallon left. My original carboy must hold six gallons. The light French oak infusion spiral took up some of the volumn so I racked the remainder of the wine in a half-gallon jug and decanted the rest. There was about 1/8 inch of sediment on the bottom of the carboy. Since I had extra wine, I didn’t need to top off. This Lake County Cab had an opague dark purple color and ruby rim. There was a hint of black fruit on the aroma along with a bit of oak. I used a heavy French oak infusion spiral for two weeks and then used a light French oak infusion spiral for five weeks. The taste was very fruit forward with the influence of the oak noticable. The tannins were medium to bold. The wine had a crisp finish. I did not notice any heat on the finish. My long-range plan for this wine is to blend it with Tannat. For a young wine it is pretty good and much better than the Cab I made a year ago from a wine kit.
The home winemaker tries to keep the wine in a carboy at the neck to minimize oxygen contact. At times it may be necessary to top off the wine in the container, perhaps due to evaporation but more likely due to tasting it. If the container is small, one option to increase the level of the liquid is to add sanitized marbles. Add enough marbles and the liquid will rise. Of course wine can also be added. Many home winemakers will simply go to their local wine store and purchase an inexpensive bottle of wine to top off their wine.
A winery is dealing with larger volume so using marbles is not likely. Usually the winery has extra wine that can be used to top off barrels. However at custom crush wineries, clients should not assume that the wine used to top off their barrel is the exact same wine that is in their barrel. If a custom crush winery has 100 clients with wine in 100 barrels it would be unheard of to also have the identical wine in 100 carboys to be used for topping off. Wineries have wine to top off with, and it may or may not be the same variety that is in the barrel.
Will topping off a barrel with a different wine make a big difference? Probably not. There is little wine added to the barrel compared to the quantity of wine already in the barrel. That which is added is likely to take on the characteristics of the wine already in the barrel.
Another option used by some winemakers instead of adding wine to the barrels is to add a gas that is heavier than oxygen. It will replace the oxygen in the barrel.
 There are many activities that take place in a winery. One of those activities is topping off barrels of aging wine. Wine in barrels will evaporate. This is referred to as the angel’s share. I don’t know if angels are happier in California with all of its wine regions or Kentucky with its bourbon industry, but in either case there is evaporation. One difference, though, between winemaking and distilling bourbon is that winemakers top off. Law does not permit distillers to top off a barrel of bourbon. It is not uncommon to hear of a twenty-year old barrel of bourbon being opened just to discover that it has all evaporated. To make matters worse, the distillery had to pay taxes on that barrel all those years. Perhaps this is why many bourbons are bottled after eight to 14 years and you pay more for the longer it was aged.
The winemaker will check the barrels and add more wine to the barrel to keep it full. Home winemakers who age their wine in carboys have less evaporation, but may still have to top off. You may have noticed glass carboys at wineries. Often the wine in these carboys is used to top off barrels. Other wineries may keep the wine used for topping off in a variable capacity stainless steel tank.
The reason to keep the barrels topped off as well as the carboys filled to the neck is to reduce the amount of oxygen that can contact the wine. At this point in the winemaking process, oxygen contact is a bad thing. Not all winemakers use wine to top off barrels. Some will use an inert gas that fills the space in the barrel replacing the oxygen.
 Wine Trail Traveler Quarterly Winter 09/10 We just published the winter edition of the Wine Trail Traveler Quarterly. You can view the pdf file here.
This edition’s contents:
From Winery Traveler to Winemaker
Home Winemaking Scene
A Love Affair with Wine
Perfect Locations for your Wedding/Reception
California’s Wine Regions Visited
Images of California
Wine and the Bible
Heartwarming Stories
A Splash of Wine: four recipes
Lovers Leap Blackberry Wine Zucchini Bread
Lemon Fish
Gorgonzola Cheese Dip
Cabernet Sauvignon Pot Roast
Food, Wine and Fun Events
Valentine’s Day Food Suggestions
St. Patrick’s Day
Wine Trail Traveler 2009 Favorites
Partners
I have been very interested in taking courses about wine. The online winemaking class through Washington State University was in a stand and deliver format. The instructor used slides to present the material. The audio included much more information than printed on the slides. If one downloads the pdf of the slide, they can view most of the text for the audio. The class lacks video that would enhance many of the concepts.
Who should take the online winemaking class?
Be forewarned that there is a dose of science and math associated with the content of this class. Of course you could skip those slides, but that could have a negative impact on your learning. The current class would be appropriate for individuals working in a winery, learning the trade from a winemaker. The class will help fill in some of the theory behind concepts. Individuals who are making wine at custom crush facilities, may be interested in the class if the science and math do not turn them off. Home winemakers could also benefit from many of the concepts discussed, however the class is designed for winemakers in wineries and not the home winemaker. The class would be a bit of overkill for wine enthusiasts who want to know how wine is made. It is easy to loose interest with the more scientific concepts and math formulae. However if a wine enthusiast likes the math and science, then the class may be a good value.
I found the best time to take the class was in the fall when I could observe or practice what was talked about in the class. If you do not have access to a winery that allows you to work in the winery, then you will get less out of the class. After I completed the class, I was glad that I took it. Ocassionally the different winemakers I work with had different opinions than what was discussed in the class. However I found this to be positive. I recalled what Kevin Robinson, winemaker at Brassfield Estate Winery in Clearlake Oaks, California told me, “Winemakers are like snowflakes. Each one is different.”
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