Tim F
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 28/1/08
- Messages
- 645
- Reaction score
- 7
I want to make a big Shiraz this year and one of the links I found when researching was this talk from Max Schubert about how he makes Grange. I am following that article as much as possible to see if I can come up with something like Grange of my own Seems like the main points are:
Start with good grapes
Control fermentation temperature to lengthen skin contact
Heading down boards and rack & return used to increase skin contact/extraction
New French oak for 12-18 months
I started today by picking some nice grapes at McLaren Flat - probably the best I've seen in the few years I've been making wine. pH was 3.46 and TA about 7g/l so I didn't need to add any acid at all. 27 Brix which is maybe on the high end but quite a bit lower than my last few wines. The grapes were from 17 year old vines and in great condition.
I crushed/destemmed about 200kg and ended up with about 175l. Added SO2 and now it is sitting overnight. Check out the new destemmer.
The first step was rigging up some kind of cooling. I got some good ideas from a thread here recently but grape season came much quicker than I expected so my cooling isn't as good as I wanted. But my brother in law is a marine biologist and said this same setup is used to cool large aquariums - we'll see how well it works. Basically I have a large water barrel with a powered immersion chiller in it and a pump to pump the water through poly pipe coiled around the fermenter. I wrapped some foam insulation around the outside of that. Feel free to laugh Next time I will either have a mini coolroom with air con, or some kind of stainless heat exchanger, or a fermenter that fits in my chest freezer.
Tomorrow I'm pitching the yeast, using Vinters Harvest R56 which should be interesting - it is supposed to be complex but preserve fruit character. Next step is to make something to hold the cap down for the next 2 weeks - I was going to use a sheet of HDPE from Bunnings but they don't stock it any more so back to the drawing board.
Start with good grapes
Control fermentation temperature to lengthen skin contact
Heading down boards and rack & return used to increase skin contact/extraction
New French oak for 12-18 months
I started today by picking some nice grapes at McLaren Flat - probably the best I've seen in the few years I've been making wine. pH was 3.46 and TA about 7g/l so I didn't need to add any acid at all. 27 Brix which is maybe on the high end but quite a bit lower than my last few wines. The grapes were from 17 year old vines and in great condition.
I crushed/destemmed about 200kg and ended up with about 175l. Added SO2 and now it is sitting overnight. Check out the new destemmer.
The first step was rigging up some kind of cooling. I got some good ideas from a thread here recently but grape season came much quicker than I expected so my cooling isn't as good as I wanted. But my brother in law is a marine biologist and said this same setup is used to cool large aquariums - we'll see how well it works. Basically I have a large water barrel with a powered immersion chiller in it and a pump to pump the water through poly pipe coiled around the fermenter. I wrapped some foam insulation around the outside of that. Feel free to laugh Next time I will either have a mini coolroom with air con, or some kind of stainless heat exchanger, or a fermenter that fits in my chest freezer.
Tomorrow I'm pitching the yeast, using Vinters Harvest R56 which should be interesting - it is supposed to be complex but preserve fruit character. Next step is to make something to hold the cap down for the next 2 weeks - I was going to use a sheet of HDPE from Bunnings but they don't stock it any more so back to the drawing board.