Juice

Sangiovese Punchdowns

Sangio Sorting

On Monday night the grapes for my yet-to-be-named wine arrived at the winery.  As many of you already know, the grapes I'm using for the base of my wine are from Stolpman Vineyard in the Ballard Canyon area of the Santa Ynez AVA.  (I'm sure there was a better way to write that last sentence but whatever)  In short the grapes kicked ass.  One of the key features was that the berries were tiny and bursting with an intense flavors.  Kind of like the intensity knob had been turned up a notch or two.  We really didn't need much sorting as there was very little raisining and no mold. 

We destemmed the grapes but didn't crush as we're opting for a whole berry fermentation.  Whole berry fermentation should help use preserve some of the aromatic complexity and freshness.  

At Crush the grapes were at 24.6 brix, with a pH of 3.68.  The pH is a bit higher than I would like and will only go higher after malolactic fermention because malic acid is stronger than lactic acid.  Bacteria who use the malic acid for energy turn it into lactic acid during this process.  These bacteria are called lactic acid bacteria.  Go figure. 

Now the little lovlies are sitting in cold room. Marinating in their own juices.  Slowly moving towards their ultimate destiny of becoming an absolutely stunning wine.