2010 Vintage
Harvesting the grapes

Since our own vineyard was just planted this year. we had to once again purchase our grapes. We made the drive to Honey Flow Farm, located in Dryden, MI. It is a you pick vineyard with good selection and pretty high quality grapes. The only bad thing is that timing is everything if your not there first thing, others will have to rows picked clean. Prices are okay and the good thing is that you pick the grapes so you can take your time and be choosy about the grapes you select and pick out poor quality fruit so that you only pay for the fruit you want. This year my mother in law came with me to pick. Lori is almost always helping out in our wine making, I personally think it is because she knows we pay in samples of our wine! This year we picked Frontenac for a dry red, St. Pepin for a dry and sweet white, and out of wives assorted family members backyard vineyards we picked some concord.
Sorting and Cleaning/Desteming and Pressing

After we arrived home with the grapes we worked into to cool evening and picked through each cluster removing unripe grapes and other foreign matter. Most winemakers skip this part unless clusters are very poor. I figured that I work with such small batched why not use ultra clean/premium grapes. At the same time we clean the fruit we also remove the grapes from the stems. This whole process goes relatively quick. The 2 bushels of Frontenac took only about 45 for the two of us to go through. After we clean the grapes, we then transfer them to the crusher. My crusher is all Stainless steel ans uses rubber roller to gently crush the grapes. After crushing the grapes are places in a primary fermentor where other chemicals are added. and sugar is checked and adjusted if needed. No adjustment for sugar was needed this year. the growing season proved to be good.
The overview
Up to this point here is a listing of what has been done to each variety.
Frontenac:
-Grapes picked
-Cleaned and destemed
-Crushed
-Placed in primary fermentor and Campden tablets added to kill wild yeasts and prevent oxidation.
-24 hrs later Pectic enzyme was added
-24 hrs Yeast was added. I used Lavlin RC-212
-Allowed wine to ferment to a S.G. of 1.010 ish
-Used grape press to press wine off skins
-Placed fermenting must in a secondary
-next step is racking.
St. Pepin:
-Grapes picked
-Cleaned and destemed
-Crushed
-Used grape press to press juice.
-Placed in primary fermentor and Campden tablets added to kill wild yeasts and prevent oxidation.
-Checked sugar levels, adjusted if needed.
-24 hrs later Pectic enzyme was added
-24 hrs Yeast was added. I used Lavlin 71B
-Allowed wine to ferment to a S.G. of 1.010 ish
-Placed fermenting must in a secondary
-Next step is racking.
Concord: (Rose' Style)
-Grapes picked
-Cleaned and destemed
-Crushed
-Used grape press to press juice.
-Placed in primary fermentor and Campden tablets added to kill wild yeasts and prevent oxidation.
-Checked sugar levels, adjusted if needed.
-24 hrs later Pectic enzyme was added
-24 hrs Yeast was added. I used Lavlin 71B
-Allowed wine to ferment to a S.G. of 1.010 ish
-Placed fermenting must in a secondary
-Next step is racking.
Frontenac:
-Grapes picked
-Cleaned and destemed
-Crushed
-Placed in primary fermentor and Campden tablets added to kill wild yeasts and prevent oxidation.
-24 hrs later Pectic enzyme was added
-24 hrs Yeast was added. I used Lavlin RC-212
-Allowed wine to ferment to a S.G. of 1.010 ish
-Used grape press to press wine off skins
-Placed fermenting must in a secondary
-next step is racking.
St. Pepin:
-Grapes picked
-Cleaned and destemed
-Crushed
-Used grape press to press juice.
-Placed in primary fermentor and Campden tablets added to kill wild yeasts and prevent oxidation.
-Checked sugar levels, adjusted if needed.
-24 hrs later Pectic enzyme was added
-24 hrs Yeast was added. I used Lavlin 71B
-Allowed wine to ferment to a S.G. of 1.010 ish
-Placed fermenting must in a secondary
-Next step is racking.
Concord: (Rose' Style)
-Grapes picked
-Cleaned and destemed
-Crushed
-Used grape press to press juice.
-Placed in primary fermentor and Campden tablets added to kill wild yeasts and prevent oxidation.
-Checked sugar levels, adjusted if needed.
-24 hrs later Pectic enzyme was added
-24 hrs Yeast was added. I used Lavlin 71B
-Allowed wine to ferment to a S.G. of 1.010 ish
-Placed fermenting must in a secondary
-Next step is racking.
Racking!
Normally I would rack the wines off the sediments and make fine tune adjustments for acid and SO2 levels about 3-4 weeks after fermentation had stopped. Because a of a death in our family I was not in the mood or had the time to touch the wine for almost 2 months. The good news is that I think it added more character to the wine having sat on the lees and also it allowed the wine to clarify thus eliminating the need for a second racking before bottling. Below are some pictures of the racking process and a check of the S.G. of the wine.
Racking of the Frontenac and preliminary tasting notes.
|
|
Tasting Notes For Frontenac:
Nose is underdeveloped and still very young and somewhat yeasty.
Mouth feel is lighter with a heavy fruitiness upfront, the finish is very peppery and dry. I think the wine would benefit from oak (which I am doing) and longer aging. There may need to be some fine tuning with the acid in the wine as well.
I will check the wine in about 4 weeks to see the status of the progress.....although I may have to sample a little before.
Nose is underdeveloped and still very young and somewhat yeasty.
Mouth feel is lighter with a heavy fruitiness upfront, the finish is very peppery and dry. I think the wine would benefit from oak (which I am doing) and longer aging. There may need to be some fine tuning with the acid in the wine as well.
I will check the wine in about 4 weeks to see the status of the progress.....although I may have to sample a little before.
Bottling
The last step is to bottle the wine. I consider myself lucky because I normally have help for this step. It could be done my one person, but I would not recommend it. It is a lot of work, and very hard to do single handed! Here is how I break down the work. I normally handle the racking of the wine to a suitable container to fill from, I also add all chemicals and stir them in, I also fill bottles, place shrink caps on bottle tops, print and attach labels, and oversee all operations. Lori washes everything!!!! And I mean everything bottles, equipment, all to sanitary perfection. She also adds sugar if needed and hands me bottles as I fill. Roy corked all bottles and wiped them down after to remove any spilled wine from the outside of the filled bottles. Below are the steps involved.
Bottling The Frontenac
On April 5th, 2011 we finally bottled our 2010 vintage Frontenac. I forgot to take pictures while we where bottling, however the process was pretty much the same as bottling the St. Pepin and Concord. The only difference being that just before bottling I did not add anything. The wine is a true Vintage style red. I am curious to see how it will age.
Tasting during bottling. Subtle oak with hints of smoke, A very light nose still noticeably young. Very much a fruit forward wine upon first taste with a noticeable higher acid content.
Tasting during bottling. Subtle oak with hints of smoke, A very light nose still noticeably young. Very much a fruit forward wine upon first taste with a noticeable higher acid content.
A Final Note: We are already looking forward to the 2011 vintage wines, and cannot wait to see what this coming year will bring us for grape quality. As the 2010 vintage ages I will post some tasting notes on this page for those to follow this vintage. Salute'