Just under the wire!

So I wrote last month I would post once a month and I managed to bring this one down to the last day.  Not a a good start!  However, the month has been productive and educational.  A plus in my book (pun intended.)

I started off with filtering the white wines to get them ready for bottling.  I use a pressure leaf filter with diatomacous earth (DE) to get them from settled but still cloudy to sparkling.  The wines are not sterile at this point so I still need to maintain sulfur dioxide levels (SO2) which works as both an anti-oxidant and an anti-microbial.  It's great when one chemical will do two things.  I use a blend of grades of DE, hence the color differences.  It starts out as a very fine dust and forms a cake when it gets wet and is under pressure creating the filter.  The screens inside the filter housing are just there to catch the DE and to start the cake forming.  I find it fascinating that it works.

We had some great tartrate formation this year in the Gewurztraminer.  Here it is starting to lift off the door when I started cleaning.  It doesn't always come off this easily, usually it glues itself and only hot water and elbow grease get it off but sometimes you get lucky.  Transitional art and easy clean up.

I also attended a Riesling tasting this month with other Oregon winemakers.  I love it when I get the chance to sit down and taste what other people are doing and to hear how they are making it.  I tasted a few beauties that I will definitely be looking for in a few months.  We were tasting unbottled samples and many were still not filtered as well which does mean the wine will change before it is on the shelf but regardless there are some great 2012 Rieslings on the way.  The feedback from my piers is invaluable as well as seeing/tasting how my own wine compares to others: is it drier, sweeter, bigger, more acidic, more delicate?  What about fruit flavors or floral aromas?  Some of the things I am looking at when I taste Riesling.  Thanks to Penner-Ash Cellars for the lovely facility.

In the vineyard the crew has finished pruning and done most of the tying down.   It looks like we might have pinot blanc this year too which would be exciting.  Look at those happy grafts!  I always like how tidy the vineyard looks after pruning and Riley thinks it's great for running.  As my dad would say, the vines are all potential.  Here's to a great growing year.

Let Bottling Begin

 

 
I have been spending the last month getting the whites and the rosé ready for bottling, which will start this week.  We have also been putting a lot of hours into our new labels including building the pages where the QR codes will be directed.  My understanding is that the page the QR code leads to is also under the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) regulation so until we have those written we can't submit the new labels for review.  We are almost done with those for the first labels we are having done so I hope to get the labels submitted soon for review.

I've also been disgorging more of the sparkling wine.  It's getting easier if not any faster.  Barry came by and help for a little while and that was good.  One bin down and 6 to go!  It really is at most a two person job but I'm planning on having a few disgorging days at the winery when anyone who is interested can come out and see the process and try disgorging a few bottles.  I'll post on Facebook when I set those days so if you are interested in getting notified make sure you are a fan of Airlie Winery. If you look closely at the bottle you can see the yeast beads frozen in the neck.  When the black crown seal is removed the pressure in the bottle pushes out the plug of ice and all the yeast which is caught by the upside down plastic box.  Remarkably effective.

Since I last wrote I've racked the rosé to tank and cold stabilized it as well as all the other whites.  Cold stabilization takes between two and four weeks even with the help of cream of tartar and I was glad we had as many cold nights as we did over the last month.  It helps keep our electricity bill down.  The next step after making sure the wines are cold stable is to start filtering.  I use a pressure leaf filter with Diatomaceous Earth (DE) to bring the wine from pretty well settled, it looks slightly cloudy, to brilliant, sparkling clear.  It isn't actually sterile at this point, the DE doesn't create that uniform of a filter medium but it is close and should go through the next two filters during bottling just fine.  After filtering everything I added a small amount of sugar to the rosé to round out the mouth-feel and reran all of my lab work.  During cold stabilization the wines throw tartaric acid which can cause a shift in pH as well as titrateble acidity. I also checked all sugars again.  It really is a fun test because of all the colors.  And speaking of colors while checking the total SO2 in the rosé the Sodium Hydroxide turned the wine green and then the Sulfuric Acid turned it pink again.  White wine just turns yellow and then back to white, still interesting but not quite as dramatic. And who thinks chemistry isn't fun?

I've also been attending the twice weekly meetings at OSU for the sensory panel.  That has been interesting though time consuming and I'm glad tomorrow is the last meeting.  For the last three sessions we have been evaluating Matt's research wines and I'm curious to hear about the wines and what he is hoping to find out.  He didn't tell us anything about the wines, to not bias us, so I don't know what characteristic differences he is hoping to find but the wines certainly are different.

On the home front Chad has been taking care of more dinners with my bi-weekly meetings and here is a picture of his beautiful Fragrant Fish soup, courtesy of Eating Well.  We also finally got the bathroom walls tiled this past weekend.  Now to grout them and put the sink and toilet in.  The pedestal for the sink is just sitting there because I wanted to see where the basin hit on the wall.  I'm really pleased with how it came out and can't wait for it to be done.

Riesling in filtered!

I just finished cleaning up from filtering the Riesling!  Let me clarify, finished cleaning up the equipment, not myself.  I'm feeling a little gritty and damp but otherwise happy to have the cold stabilizing done.  The last wine left to deal with in the sparkling base but I'm trying to coordinate with another winemaker on that wine so it gets own schedule.  I also tasted through the barrel room this week and am pretty happy with everything.  I even think two of my four lagging ML barrels are almost done.  They are starting to taste a little less tart and better balanced.  I'm interested in watching the pinot develop this year.

The only other exciting thing to happen this week is that we got snow!  And I got a snow day and what you may ask did I do on my snow.  Why paint the laundry room of course.  Isn't that what most people do?  Actually it was one of those jobs hanging over my head and now it is done except behind the washer and dryer and I'll get there when we pull them out to put down the new flooring.  Fun projects in the Clark household.  Today at the winery the sun is shining full force and it is beautiful, almost like a post card.

2 down 1 to go

I was able to filter the Pinot gris this week and it worked out very well.  You can see how nicely the cake formed on the screen.  The screens are not filled to capacity, when they are there are solid cakes of DE between each two screens rather than the semi separate cakes that you can see in this picture.  The other tank is the mixing tank or dosing tank.  A supersaturated solution of DE and wine is mixed in that tank and then slowly dosed into the main body of wine on its way to the screen.  That is what I am watching in the lower sight glass, there is also a stainless steel flapper in the sight window which gives me an idea of how fast the wine is being filtered and a guess at the pressure as the pressure gauge no longer works.  So the Pinot gris and Gewürztraminer are filtered and sitting quietly and I moved the Riesling to the small tank that I showed you last week and have the chilling turned on there.  I hope that next week I'll be able to filter it.
Last week I didn't show you pictures but I did also check the free SO2 on the whites.  I do this using the Ripper Method.  It is faster than the Aspiration method I use for the reds but is still based on a color change.  I avoid using this method for reds because the end point is when the color is a medium to dark purple it is hard to see.  One thing I always find interesting when running rippers is that I first add a 25% solution of sulfuric acid to the wines and the pH shift can cause a color change.  Pinot gris and Gewürztraminer are the usual culprits but this year the color in the sparkling base gets more intense which is the pink wine on the right and the Pinot gris just shifts a little, the second from the right.  I didn't get any change in the Gewürztraminer for a change.  I titrate with iodine, you can see it starting to cause the color change in the close up shot, and when I reach the end point there is a formula to calculate how much free SO2 is in the wine.  I have to admit that I have a cheat sheet so off the top of my head I can't remember the formula.

Not much else to report, I am doing a tasting at the W. Salem Roth's tonight, Friday, February 18th, from 3-6pm if you care to drop by for a taste and a chat.

Our new red living room walls!

GT is filtered!

While I must admit that this week didn't go quite as planned I am very happy that I at least filtered the Gewürztraminer.  I thought I would filter all three whites on Tuesday after the wines passed their cold stability tests but instead the Riesling and the Pinot gris both failed so those plans went out the window, or should I say roll-up door as I don't have a window.  Then while I was cleaning the filter and setting it up the wires that connect to one of the light bulbs in the sight-glass broke off and as they were already almost too short before they were definitely too short afterwards.  So Wednesday Barry brought me some more wire and today I rewired the light.  And it works!  Yeah!

So after that brief detour this morning I got the filter up and running and raced through the tiny amount of Gewürztraminer I have.  I decided to filter the GT because I want to put the Pinot gris in the smaller tank and see if I can get it to finish cold stabilizing.  Normally I would have waited to do all the wines in a row so I only have to clean the filter once and I loose less wine.  Since I wasn't able to filter everything after filtering the GT I moved the PG to the smaller tank and restarted the chilling.  Hopefully it will cold stabilize in the next few days.  I  did remember to take a picture of the filter after I was done but unfortunately the cake was already sliding down the screens when I opened the top.  In a normal run I use a lot more DE and so there is a layer 3/4" - 1" thick completely covering the screen that I have to rinse off.  This time as soon as I shut the filter off the DE started sliding off the screen by itself.  I do collect the DE, rather than letting it go down the drain, and dump it out in the ivy.  It is a great slug killer and also it doesn't then clog up our septic system.  And don't worry that is not wine sitting in the filter but water which I use to push out the last of the wine.  So hopefully next week I'll be able to filter the two other wines but I'm not holding my breath.

Yesterday was our annual pinot tasting at Montinore.  A smaller group than some years which was nice as we had more time to discuss each wine and energy to focus right to the end which was nice as I happened to have the last wine of the day.  Luck of the draw!   We tasted 2010 pinot that is currently in barrel and may or may not be done with ML.  A difficult time to taste wine as it can be very disjointed but at the same time finding faults or possible problems now gives the winemaker time to start addressing them and generally the earlier the better.  The discussions are always interesting and I was glad to get some feedback on my wine.

The last picture is of the GT before I started filtering.  Those are tartrate crystals floating on the surface.  Don't they make beautiful patterns, fractals in nature.

Happy Dance and mournful dirge!

All the pinot noir is out of barrel and in tank! Yeah, happy dance!

Just starting!

3800 gallons to the top.

Let me be slightly more accurate:  the 2009 Willamette Valley is blended and in tank and the 2009 reserve pinot noir has been racked into neutral oak barrels to age another year and be bottled in September 2011.  I was able to rack 80 barrels in 2 days which was a lot of staring at the racking wand and waiting on the pump.  I like to use a pump to get the wine out of barrel because I think that it does a cleaner job and is easier on the barrels.  I have used a piece of equipment called a bulldog's pup which allows me to pressurize the barrel with nitrogen gas and force the wine out with no moving parts.  While I think that is the gentlest way to move the wine I don't think it as good at separating the settled wine from the lees and it is much harder on the barrels.  The pressurization of the barrels and then sudden release, especially if the seal fails on the bulldog, tends to warp the heads and make the barrels more likely to leak in the future.  That combined with the lack of control made me switch back to using a pump a few years ago.

I must admit that I ended up fining some of the pinot barrels with copper in order to remove some reductive aromas.  I consider reduction a flaw and one that can usually be addressed by the winemaker, so while I don't like having to make additions to my wines I will when necessary.  I consider fixing flaws when possible an essential part of good wine making.  I am trying to put the best wine I can on the market not the wine that has been handled the least.  If the two happen to agree that is wonderful but as I have mentioned before they don't always.  So after fining the barrels with copper to clean them up I then wanted to remove some of the copper, I would love to remove all if the copper but I'm not sure that is even possible and doing would be hard on the wine.  Removing the copper will not cause the reductive aromas to come back and I prefer to bottle a wine with minimal residual copper.  This means that after using the copper to treat the reduction I added yeast to the treated barrels to remove the copper.  This leads to yet another step, the yeast needed to be filtered out of the wine before mixing those barrels into the main blend.  The advantage of doing it this way is that only about 10% of the wine is filtered rather than 100% which goes back to my point that I like to be hands off when I can.  I spent Thursday morning filtering the treated barrels through a pad filter.  I'm sorry I forgot to take a picture when it was loaded but I will when we are bottling so you can see the filter in action.  The pads are 40cm square and go between the black plastic plates on the machines.  It is just like it sounds, the wine is pumped through the paper pads which trap the sediment and comes out clean on the other side.  The pads are available with different pore sizes so I can filter out only what is necessary and not any more.  I then sent a sample of the filtered wine off to a lab to be tested for residual copper and if I am happy with the number I'll mix the treated wine back into the main lot. 

Sebastian cleaned the barrels for me this time, the only reason I could do the job in 2 days instead of 4 and why the barrel room looks so nice and tidy.  He also reset the barrels for me so I was able to burn the sulfur wicks today like I did for the foch and chardonnay barrels protecting the barrels until we start cleaning them for the 2010 vintage.  Speaking of which . . . you all need to start sending us your sunny and warm weather!  We are still very behind and while today is warm, pushing 90F, earlier in the week it was definitely not warm.  We did get about 1/2" of rain on Monday which was a nice drink of water but what we really need is warmth.  The foch is starting to change color, a process called veraison, but is not nearly far enough along and there is no color any where else in our vineyard.  We are still about 2 weeks behind and I'm getting a little nervous!  Okay so maybe the mournful dirge is a slight exaggeration but still more ripening weather would be good.

On a happier note I am off on vacation next week to Victoria BC with my husband to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary so Mary has kindly agreed to write next week's blog.  I can't wait to see what she decides to share with you.

I think fall is coming already!

I know it has been a while since I updated you on my life as a winemaker and I have no excuse but I hope you will forgive me.  I thought I would get to tell you that I went into the vineyard after returning from Ohio to find green grapes turning red before my very eyes but there was nary a one.  Well that's not quite true I found three on a shoot that had gotten partially broken in the wind.  When a shoot get damaged the vine does everything it can to get the fruit ripe before the shoot dies.  It is very interesting to see, I'm sorry I didn't have my camera with me to show you.  I also spent some time last week hauling out the DE filter, remember from the spring, to clean and setup for filtering the foch and the chardonnay.  I built a new handle for stirring the DE in the mixing tank and it worked very well so I am feeling good about that.  It needs some modification and some dressing up but all in all I consider it a success.  Sorry you can't see that either, I just didn't have my camera anywhere useful!

As for the week that just passed it was a little more progressive.  On Tuesday we tasted the pinot blends for the last time and agreed that we had made a good choice so I will start pulling the pinot out of barrel next week at which point there will be no going back.  We are going to hold over the reserve wines, Vintner's Blend and Dunn Forest single vineyard, another year in barrel so I'll rack them to neutral barrels on racks and they will get moved to another room so that when I heat the barrel room in the winter they will remain cool.  I filtered the Foch on Wednesday and the Chardonnay on Thursday.  Both went very well, I think the long settling time while I was gone is making filtering easier, similar to when I left in the spring.  I'll have to keep this in mind for next year.  I was a little worried about the Chardonnay because it failed the protein/heat stability test so I had to add a little Bentonite to the wine after I returned from Ohio and that usually plugs up the filter in a heart beat but this time I skated through with minimal problems.   

I did get out in the vineyard on Thursday and we are starting to see some color change, hopefully we will get some more heat but I must admit that it is feeling rather fall like this morning.  We are full two weeks behind last year and last year our Riesling never got ripe and we left it to rot on the vine so you can see why I might be starting to get nervous.  Having a cool site can definitely be a disadvantage sometimes.  So keep your fingers crossed for some warm weather for us.  Last night I was talking to another winemaker who is nervous because he has younger vines and some of them are starting to shut down which may mean that nothing will get ripe.  According to some research that just came out from Dr. Greg Jones of Southern Oregon University across all the growing regions heat accumulation is 20-30% down from the average which is comparable to the 2007 vintage.  I liked a lot of the wines from the 2007 vintage, so if we get another one like that without too much rain at the end I'll be happy.  The joys of farming.

Last night was the Celebration Oregon at the State Fair in Salem.  It was fun to see friends, taste a few wines and pour our own.  We were awarded 4 bronze medals for the 2007 Marechal Foch, 2009 Riesling, 2008 Seven and 2007 Gewurztraminer.  If you missed the event but would like to try some of the award winners stop by the Hart of the Garden building while the State Fair is going on, they have a tasting room set up where you can see the winners as well as taste some great Oregon wines.

Finally Filtering

I am so sorry.  I wrote this last week, needed a picture from home and then didn't get it posted.  I am filtering Muller as I type and fingers crossed it is going well.  I really hope to be done today.  Then I can set up for bottling.  I also wanted to let you know that the tasting room is now open for business on the weekends.  Saturday and Sunday 12-5pm, if you are going to be early or late give Mary a call first and make sure she will be around: 503-838-6013.  As always we are open by appointment or by chance during the week.  Come out and taste what I have been working on!

Well paradise was wonderful and as always the geckos were fun, the snorkeling great and the hiking breathtaking.  The changes in the landscape on the big island of Hawaii are amazing.  On the walk to the green sand beach if you look left it could be the high dessert of eastern Oregon and then you look right and see the crashing blue-green surf of the Pacific with whales spouting in the the distance.  We didn't visit everywhere we had planned, it was my husband's first time to Hawaii, but instead got caught up in the local way and spent a few days doing nothing.  It was great to see my parents and spend some time with them in their almost complete new home.  My mother has taken cooking on a gas grill to a fine art though I think she might be ready for the kitchen to be finished.  Cabinets were in and counter tops on order so the end is in sight.
Being home is good as well and the kittens were very glad to see us, boy did they grow in a week.  I think they were purring the first 24hrs solid and not having to sleep in the garage, heaven!

Being at home means back to work and I have been in the thick of it.  Filtering has at last started and has been going very well.  I have a sneaking suspicion that vacation may be part of it.  Normally the wines don't get to settle for as long as they did this year and so they are quite clear before I even start. 
I use diatomaceous earth (DE) to filter the wine, the same as is used in swimming pool filters.  The DE builds on the screens inside the filter and eventually forms a cake through which the wine passes.  The particles in the wine get caught by the DE and brilliant (the technical term for very clear) wine comes out the other side.  The wine enters the machine, called a pressure leaf filter, on the right and exits on the left in the picture.  I can filter between 1100 and 2200 gallons on wine in a run which takes about 3-5 hours.  Yes, I agree that is a huge variance in the amount of wine but there are so many factors including I am almost chagrined to admit user error.  In my defense there are 12, yes 12, valves on the machine and failing to either open or close one of them at the correct time can cause the filter to break down and I am sad to admit I still mess something up at least twice a season.  On a positive note I haven't fired any wine onto the ceiling since we had it repainted three years ago.  By break down, so you don't think I am breaking the machine, I mean that the pressure changes enough inside the machine that the cake is cracked and stops collecting the particulates in the wine, ergo it stops being brilliant and starts being cloudy.  Arghh!!!!  The end is in sight though, I should be done Monday or Tuesday of next week.