First Time Winemaking - Shiraz

[DJR]

Hey all,

After many years of homebrewing i'm going to give something pretty different a bash. Going to do a Shiraz with some grapes from the Hunter.

Should be going up to pick 30-40kg of Shiraz from Broke from 15yo vines in a weekend or two, and will be doing a pretty simple one:

- Just food trodden/hand de-stemmed fruit, aiming for about 30% of the stems on and about 30% whole bunch fermentation
- Going to split the batch between 1x VR21 yeast and the other not sure, maybe just Pasteur or Prisse De Mousse
- Fermenting the first week or so in stainless, then rack to a glass carboy or two
- Wyeast malolactic culture added as soon as Pat gets it in on next order - probably about mid March
- Will plunge the cap by hand in the SS pots with an SS potato masher
- No real pressing, just free run and a bit of muslin cloth wringing to get some of the pomace juice out

Going to keep it pretty simple to start off with, I dont have a basket press or a crusher/destemmer so I pretty much need to. The kids can have a go at foot treading Some whole bunch, stem, and split yeast should keep it interesting.

Pat gave me a few supplies today, the yeast, campdens, pectinase and some french oak mini-staves

Wish me luck, i'll keep some updates flowing as I get stuck into it. Been meaning to do this for a while but by the time I think about it vintage is over or wrapping up. This year I'm in early.

 

[freezkat]

Lalvin LV-1116 is a pretty fool proof yeast. Not real fast but it has a very high alcohol tolerance and it's temp range is generous. Generally used for white wines. I think it would be great in a Cab.

I've use it in a Barley Wine (with the aid of some Beano amylase), Zinfandel, Strawberry/Rhubarb,and a Gewurztraminer.

http://www.lalvinyeast.com/images/library/ICV-K1_Yeast.pdf

I am very confident in it. I did use DAP yeast nutrient in all of those wines.

I used fruit for the Strawberry/Rhubarb in a strainer bag for about a week. Squeezing and stirring everyday till all there was left of the fruit was fibers. I could have made paper with it.

 

[Greg.L]

If this is your first go at wine you should keep to the KISS principle. Just have one batch, do primary for a week and rack it into glass carboys with no headspace, for ageing and MLF. 40kg is too small to be splitting into separate batches.

Greg

 

[pokolbinguy]

if you dont have a press you will have a hard time getting much volume from 30-40kg. about 20-25L I will assume

 

[DJR]

if you dont have a press you will have a hard time getting much volume from 30-40kg. about 20-25L I will assume

Yeah, I figured the press run is going to give a lot more yield than just free run, happy with a lower yield , presses are expensive Thankfully the grapes won't cost much so i don' mind only getting a case or two out of it.

 

[DJR]

If this is your first go at wine you should keep to the KISS principle. Just have one batch, do primary for a week and rack it into glass carboys with no headspace, for ageing and MLF. 40kg is too small to be splitting into separate batches.

Greg

KISS definitely.

The blending/ splitting was just in primary, will combine it at the first racking from SS to a glass carboy, not going to do entire thing as split. Just want to be able to use small vessels before separating the fruit. Point noted though thanks

 

[Greg.L]

KISS definitely.

The blending/ splitting was just in primary, will combine it at the first racking from SS to a glass carboy, not going to do entire thing as split. Just want to be able to use small vessels before separating the fruit. Point noted though thanks

You do need plenty room in primary, it is surprising how high the cap rises once the bubbles get going. splitting it is better than having it going over the top.

 

[gap]

I will be interested to see how this goes. Having a supply of
Hunter Shiraz is certainly a good start.

Regards

Graeme

 

[DJR]

Getting closer to picking, I have kind of worked out which yeast to use on the 2nd part of the must, I have ordered 1 10g pack of SIHA #8 Burgundy and 1 10g pack of Enoferm BDX from Ibrew. I will probably use the BDX.

Should get the 5 day warning call soon from the viticulturist to go grab my fruit off one of the rows.

 

[Muggus]

Getting closer to picking, I have kind of worked out which yeast to use on the 2nd part of the must, I have ordered 1 10g pack of SIHA #8 Burgundy and 1 10g pack of Enoferm BDX from Ibrew. I will probably use the BDX.

Should get the 5 day warning call soon from the viticulturist to go grab my fruit off one of the rows.

I used BDX for a Shiraz last year. It was like 3 years out of date - from the freezer at work! Did a good job though, damn happy with the results.
Gone totally "natural" with this years batch...

Much word on the Shiraz out there at Broke? We picked a bit here at Pokolbin yesterday, can't say it was anything special though...lucky to be 11B

 

[Greg.L]

Much word on the Shiraz out there at Broke? We picked a bit here at Pokolbin yesterday, can't say it was anything special though...lucky to be 11B

I think there will be a lot of disappointing grapes around this year, especially on and east of the ranges. The warmer inland fruit will be the best, and I expect SA will be looking better. Eastern NSW has been very cool and wet, I don't think mudgee will be much better, and Orange has hardly been above 20C.

 

[pokolbinguy]

Unfortunatley the bulk of stuff in the hunter at the moment is shizenhousen.

 

[Muggus]

Unfortunatley the bulk of stuff in the hunter at the moment is shizenhousen.

Yeah. Even just cruising past the vineyards, there's hardly one in decent nick. Pretty dire for reds; bit reminisant of 2008.
The whites that were cropped low and came off before that big rain event could be alright though.

 

[DJR]

I haven't asked actually what brix they are now and what they think they will be getting - and yeah, it doesn't sound too good with the rain.

I wonder if the Hilltops region has fared OK as a plan B?

 

[Greg.L]

The hilltops has seen quite a bit of rain and storms, but would be better then the hunter. Cowra should be ok. At least this year everyone was out spraying in time because last year was wet as well.

 

[drsmurto]

Grapes are looking good down here, I'm tasting some tempranillo after work to see if i like it.

Still trying to source some sangiovese but having no luck.

 

[DJR]

Word is the current crop is at about 10 Baume, had me a bit worried as I asked about Brix but anyway, they are aiming for about 12 baume/22 brix before picking. Might be another couple of weeks. Time will tell.

 

[hughyg]

Word is the current crop is at about 10 Baume, had me a bit worried as I asked about Brix but anyway, they are aiming for about 12 baume/22 brix before picking. Might be another couple of weeks. Time will tell.

With the weather Im seeing up there you'd be hard pressed to get any more ripening. Im guessing there isnt much leaf coverage on the vines.

 

[Muggus]

With the weather Im seeing up there you'd be hard pressed to get any more ripening. Im guessing there isnt much leaf coverage on the vines.

Yeah, seconding that.
If you can get a look at the vines that might help.
If they're saying 10B now, and you wait a couple of weeks, if there's no functioning leaves on the vines, that will go nowhere, or, even worse, go up just due to dehydration and concertrate the "unripe" sugars/characters within the grape. Never good.

 

[Greg.L]

It's possible to keep the foliage fairly healthy if you spray regular with the right sprays, and can get on the wet paddocks. It makes it worse if your neighbours have lots of mildew. I'm lucky I don't have a lot of vineyards nearby, the worst thing is when people give up on their vineyard and just leave it to spread disease spores around.