Winemaker Journal: December 2009 Jeff Herinckx What's happening at the winery? We've still got lots of white wine fermenting in the tanks. There are several tanks of Pinot Gris and also some Marechal Foch. I am working on finishing the Gewurztraminer and the White Riesling by stopping the fermentation through cooling. Since I want to leave a little sweetness in both of these wines this year, I'm stopping the fermentation while the sweetness is still there. This process will also result in a lower alcohol wine. This is also a good opportunity to cold stabilize the wine at the same time. After that, I'll heat stabilize it and filter it. One tool that I used to stop the fermentation in the White Riesling was the addition of cream of tartar to the tank once the tank was cooled to 28-30 degrees. This is the same cream of tartar that's used in baking. The cream of tartar binds to the tartaric acid that naturally occurs in the wine. It then coats the inside of the tank, which speeds up the cooling process. The cream of tartar is expensive, but it is cost effective in the long run because I don't have to cool the tanks for as long as I would without it. Regarding the small batches that are in small barrels, I'm able to leave those barrels outside overnight and let Mother Nature take care of the cooling before I add the cream of tartar. Some tanks need more time to ferment. It is getting cold in our building and once the temperature reaches 40 degrees, fermentation will stop. I'm putting jackets on the tanks to warm them back to about 60 degrees in order to keep fermentation going. Some of our tanks, which are 6000 gallon tanks, are outside. As the temperature drops, it becomes more difficult for us to speed up the process. How do we choose which yeast to use? Years ago, we almost exclusively used yeast called Premier de Cuvee. It's primarily used in champagne and is a very fast acting and cold fermenting yeast. In recent years, we have experimented from year to year to find the right yeast for each wine. Yeast selection is important because not only does the yeast facilitate the fermentation process, but it also imparts flavors (such as tropical fruit, for example) to the wine. We typically split a lot of wine from the tank and use two different yeasts on the two halves in order to find a preference. We usually use four or five different yeasts per year. This year, we did use some Premier de Cuvee, and those tanks are done. I try to avoid the presence of natural yeast in the fermentation process; there is always a chance that it could cause the fermentation to get stuck. Natural yeast isn't an issue in our white wines because the yeast that we add is so much more aggressive. When we crush our red grapes, we add some SO2 right then in order to shock the fruit into not fermenting until we want it to. The grapes are often at 60 degrees when we receive them, and they could begin to ferment immediately if we didn't manage that part of the process. Pinot Report We received Pinot Noir grapes from six different sources this year, but the lots that we received from individual vineyards are small compared to past years. This year, the largest percentage of all of our Pinot grapes that came from one source is 15%. We feel that this diversity in the origin of the fruit will give us more opportunity to blend in the absolute best way. Regarding the Pinot that is currently in the winery, I can report that all of the 2009 is now in oak. All of the 2008 is out of the barrels and has been blended. We also held tasting trials for the 2008 and, during this process, identified some wine that we'd like to sell as bulk wine. By removing that wine from the others that have been blended, we hope to make an even better Willamette Valley Pinot than we ever have. The 2008 will be the next Pinot that we'll release, but that probably won't happen for another eight months or so. There won't be a reserve wine in 2008, but we think there may be in 2009. Right now, based on preliminary tasting, both vintages offer features which will continually improve our Pinot, with the '09 vintage having the greatest potential to be our best ever. What we're doing in December Wine will continue to ferment and cold stabilize during the month of December. I'll be finishing the Gewurztraminer, White Riesling, and Niagara. The Pinot Gris may be done in December and we'll have a taste trial for it to see if we want to sell it as bulk wine. We'll also be busy working on some remodeling projects in the tasting room: some new paint and general maintenance. If all of that is finished, I may take a short vacation at the end of the month. Of course, that depends on what is happening with the wine! That's it for now...talk to you next month. Jeff Herinckx Home | Our Story | What's New | Wines
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