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.

Getting closer to all sorts of things.

 Since my last update the rosé blend has been decided and the light fining we decided upon has been done.  Currently the wine is settling in barrel and on Wednesday will be racked to tank to start cold stabilizing.  It came back protein stable which was a nice treat, so no fining there and I can immediately turn on the chilling after I get the wine moved.  The whites I moved two weeks ago are still chilling but haven't stabilized as fast as I would have liked so I'll be adding cream of tarter, yes, like what you use in baking, to help speed up the process.  The cream of tarter particles seem to cause the tartaric acid in the wine to precipitate out.  I think by providing a surface for the tartaric to cling to besides the walls of the tank.  It would be great if I could start filtering next week and be ready to bottle in the beginning of April before the weather starts warming up. 

The sparkling wine on the other hand hasn't been cooperative at all.  I still don't have a consistently successful way for getting the yeast out of the bottle.  It just seems all too messy for one!  I'll just have to keep trying though because labels are in the works and we want you to have this lovely stuff!

The labels are coming along nicely.  We had a great meeting last week with our designer Cindy and our label company and we really hope you like what we have created.  If you are in the tasting room in the near future ask to see the new mock ups.  There are two below for the rose and the sparkling wine.  We are always glad to have another opinion to add to the mix.

And last but not least Sue, our new Marketing Director, and I have joined a research group at OSU (Oregon State Univ.) and are learning a new way of evaluating wines.  It has been surprisingly difficult to break my old patterns to follow their protocol but I think there are some benefits to tasting wines the way they are having us.  Flip side being I wouldn't want to do it all the time nor do I think it would be a good way in all circumstances.  What has been more interesting and educational for me is the spiked wines.  Last week we were presented with 12 wines that had been spiked with something, i.e. black pepper, raspberry, cherry, green pepper, canned beans, mushrooms, flowers, and we were expected to identify the spiking agent.  Harder than it sounds, especially when you have no idea what the possibilities are.  I had just recently done a similar experiment and found I did better this time than last.  One of the most interesting wines I thought was spiked with cigar tobacco which I identified as cedar.  Close but no cigar!  Ha ha.  One of the interesting things about aromas, which you'll know if you read Proust, Remembrance of Things Past, is how strongly it is linked with memory, ahh those petites madeleines.  Ergo smells generally cause a memory to occur and then you have to sort through the memory trying to identify the smell.  Quite interesting when you are trying to do it consciously.

We got another dusting of snow this morning.  Isn't it lovely.

No excuses (from me)

I apologize for not writing these last three weeks, I think my writing mojo wasn't flowing.  I have been busy, both in the winery and at home and maybe that is part of the reason I haven't wanted to sit down and write.  So here it is Saturday morning and Mary, Karri and I are on I-5 on our way to Portland to meet with Cindy our label designer to talk labels, pick colors and hopefully get closer to the finish line.  We have both the rosé and the sparkling to release and I think Mary is holding out for the new labels in order to force us into getting these labels done.  You might even get to have the 2008 Vintner's Blend if we get the new labels and imagine, the 2008 Dunn Forest also waiting in the wings.

I've also been working on the neck freezer and I think it is going to work.  There is a picture of it iced up on our Facebook page here.  I froze a single bottle last week and if I had been a little more patient it would have done the job.  I've been having a go-around in my mind about the financial sense of renting a refrigerator storage unit to chill the bottles before trying to freeze the necks for disgorging.  The advantage would be two fold, first we should lose less wine because of the reduced pressure due to the chilled bottles and I think the neck freezer will work faster meaning the disgorging should go faster.  Weighing those advantages against the cost of the rental is the financial question.  Decisions, decisions . . . of course if the refrigeration company would get back to me with a quote it might be easier to decide!

Two weeks ago we had our annual pinot noir tasting up at Montinore that was interesting and educational as always.  There was definitely a theme to the 2011 wines of bright acid and rich fruit.  It is hard to tell what the acid will do as the wines continue though ML (malo-lactic fermentation) but I think there are going to be some beauties.  In my barrel room a few of the barrels have nearly finished ML and they taste lovely, lots of spice and rich fruit with moderate alcohol and nice acidity.  This lot might be a little soft in the acid department but until the rest of the barrels finish I won't be addressing that issue.  The rosé is lovely and I am excited to get it bottled.  I think one of the advantages to haveing barrel fermented the wine, which I can now see in hindsight, is that I was able to use a variety of yeasts and now I have a definite opinion on the yeasts if we decide to do another rosé.  Some produced a more floral, fruit driven wine while others have a more earthy, spicy character all of which adds to the overall complexity of the wine.

We have also been working on the Seven blends so that I can get the wines together and ready for bottling.  Mary and I have tasted through several ideas and I think we are getting close.  Just down to a little tweaking now.  Then of course there is all the normal work that goes on in the winery this time of year, checking MLs, topping barrels, the rosé is pictured above, stirring the chardonnay and admiring the visiting wild life, pictured at top.  I love the reflection of the great blue in the pond.  Unfortunately I couldn't get any closer and you can tell I was maxing out the zoom capability on my camera but hopefully you still get the feeling of peace.

(Monday morning)  The meeting went very well and I am really excited about the new labels.  We have the font narrowed down to probably 3 choices and picked out potential colors for the varietals.  Each varietal will have its own color and then the specialty wines; port, rosé, and sparkling wine will also have their own colors.  I think the collection as a whole is really striking and I'm looking forward to seeing the label on the shelf when compared to other wineries.  Very exciting!

Back at the house, our newly painted bathroom, tiling the floor and walls is next.

Did you hear about the rain?

If not, here are a few pictures.  All the rain we didn't get in December appears to be coming down in a rush.  Or at least it was yesterday which combined with the melting snow made for some exciting waterways.  Yes, we had snow last week too and it was so pretty.  Snow around here is great because it never seems to last for long so we don't have that ucky gray slushy mess that is that part of snow you want to go away, we just get the fluffy white stuff which quickly melts when the weather shifts back to rain.  At the winery, we actually had a moment of concern that our pond could overflow but fortunately the rain stopped, well at least slowed down, and the levels are dropping again.  I have to admit though driving through puddles almost to my bumper was kind of thrilling. (I drive a little car so reaching my bumper isn't too hard.)  No, I didn't drive down the closed road.

So back in the winery, trying to stay dry. I finally borrowed a neck freezer from Anne Amie winery that hadn't been used in umpteen years and after getting it home, plugged it in.  And guess what it still works!  I don't yet if it will chill as cold as I need it to but the chiller worked.  Now I need to find out what ratio of glycol to water I should use and then run the machine to find out how cold I can get the solution.  Now the reason I am so excited about this neck freezer, and you should be too, is that this is the next step in getting the sparkling wine ready for sale.  The bottle is inverted, allowing all the yeast to collect in the neck of the bottle.  Normally this process, called riddling, takes several month but because I used the encapsulated yeast, (remember those beads I was so excited about back in April?) the process takes less than a minute.  The inverted bottle is placed in the rack on the freezer and the wine in the neck is frozen.  The bottle is then partially inverted, the crown seal removed and the pressure in the bottle ejects the frozen plug of wine which contains the yeast leaving a clear bottle of wine behind.  The bottle is then topped and resealed and after getting a label is ready for sale.  Woo Hoo!  So that's why I'm excited about such a dilapidated looking piece of equipment which worked! 

I've also started the blending trials for the pinot gris, after we get that closer to settled then I'll start on the seven blend.  I put together my first blends on Saturday in conjunction with a small filming I was involved with, more on that later, and we tasted on Tuesday.   Mary and I were quite happy with how the wines are showing and a few more trials should hopefully have us with a solid blend.  Then after knowing about how much of the single varietal wines I want to bottle I'll start on the seven blend.  This year we have lots of pieces, though still only seven varieties and so I was feeling a little more overwhelmed about my starting point but I am looking forward to the trials.  I am especially interested to see how the Viognier from Southern Oregon fits in.

 So back to this little bit on filming.  Three Crows is a local company making films about the wine industry and they were doing a segment on blending.  So David came out on Saturday and filmed me while we talked about the whys and hows of blending.  Of course I wanted to know all about what he does and how it does it so it made for some interesting conversation.  Next he wanted some action shots and I figured I might as well get some work done while he was doing that which is why I went ahead and set up the first set of trials of the pinot gris.  It was very informal and fun.  I'm looking forward to seeing the finished film and I'll be sure to let you know when you can see it.  Here is a link to piece they did last year on Mary and Airlie.  It's a nice little vignette and very short. 

My backyard after our lovely snow fall and a kitty that wants in please!

Bubbles are in the Bottle

We finally got the sparkling wine bottled this week.  It was far less of a process than I had feared and it is fun to have it in the bottle doing its stuff.  The secondary fermentation should be done in 3 to 6 weeks then I have to figure out how to disgorge the wine to remove the yeast we added and then, finally, it will be ready for sale.  Well, there is the minor issue of a new label and getting it approved but we are working on that.  The process was only slightly more involved then an normal bottling.  It started the day before with me adding sugar to the wine so the yeast would have a food source in the bottle which will create the bubbles.  The bottling itself started with Mary.  She dumped out the glass and then sparged the bottles with nitrogen gas.  Kerrie, our intern, added a set amount of yeast, Rosairo put the bottles on the filler we borrowed from another winery and took them off again.  Next Barry and Guadalupe put a crown seal on the bottles and Sebastian packed them into picking bins so the bottles are laying down for fermentation.  I just stood around and directed and took pictures of course.  The day went very well and it took us about 6 hours to do 200 cases.
Out in the vineyard the sun is mostly shining and our grapes are growing.  It would be nice to get a little more heat but this weekend is supposed to be in the 80s and that will be great.  Here are our clusters: Foch, left and Chard, right.  You can see the little grapes just starting to form and if you look closely at the Foch cluster you can see where Sebastian trimmed off the shoulder, the little side cluster, to help with ripening.
On a side note I will be in southern Oregon next week, a little work and a little vacation so no update.  Mary has promised to take pictures of our clusters so we will not miss a week.  You all have a great week off and I'll write again soon.

Cool Weed

Riley wishing he could drive

We finally tasted the sparking wine!

We got some rain last night and today which is good for the plants that we put in the ground this weekend at the house and great for reducing the pollen in the air but the cooler temperature is not so good for growing grapes. The moderate temperature and higher humidity are also perfect for growing powdery mildew another bane of grape growers and rose enthusiasts both. I did photograph the clusters today, again Foch on the left and Chard on the right.
I also went out last week and looked for some clusters in an earlier stage of development so you can see more how they start.  These are Gewurztraminer.

In the vineyard the guys are cleaning the heads of the vines.  This means they are removing weak canes and some of the leaves from around the heads for two main reasons; one is so that the plant will put more energy into the main canes where the fruit is being grown and the other reason is so that the increased air flow will reduce disease pressure both by allowing more air movement and so we get better spray penetration which in turn both reduces the amount we need to use and makes it more effective.  How was that for a run on sentence?

Last week we finally sat down and tasted the wine at varying levels of bubbles which I created by adding differing amounts of sugar back in April when I made up the sample bottles.  Link to that post is here.  The table was mostly in agreement on how bubbly they liked the wine and now I just need to move forward on getting the wine bottled.  Each of us took a bottle home to finish that night and everyone agreed they liked the wines even more properly chilled and are excited to get it in the bottle.  

I talked to the lab as well and it looks like all the tests are good.  I might need to do a little protein fining so that the wine doesn't go cloudy if it gets left in a hot car and am running those tests now.  I need to filter the samples and then take them home and cook them for 6 hours to see how much bentonite it will take to fix the problem.  The disadvantage to fining the wine is that I will remove color, you can see it sitting in the bottom of the jars, and will change the flavor.  Here comes the tough part of winemaking, how to balance making a more stable wine versus a possibly more flavorful one.  I will taste through the fined wines as well to see when I start noticing a flavor impact due to the fining and then based on the test results try to balance the two sides.

Just to keep you up to date on the home front I got a new custom built herb garden for my b-day.  Chad says it's for me but really I think he was just tired of all the pots of herbs sitting on the patio.  Either way I am very happy to have it and it is just outside the kitchen door so perfect for grabbing what I need.  I even had space to add in a few new ones and I sowed some Thai Basil seeds from my mother.  I hope they come up!