Last year I convinced my friends David and Jamie to go in on some grapes with me to make wine. Well, “some” might be an understatement. We purchased 250 pounds of Sangiovese, enough to make roughly 18 gallons of wine. Or, in other words, six and a half cases. It was a really fun process. Lots of work up front and at the end, with some check ins throughout the year.
We decided to do it again this year, but this time increase our production. We knew we wanted to make something else, and probably do two different varietals this year, both for variety and so we could do some blending. So, I contacted the wine maker we purchased our grapes from last year and ordered, well, 600 pounds of grapes! We opted for 300 of Malbec and 300 of Cabernet Sauvignon. So, last week the Malbec came in and we got started.
Wine making is pretty straightforward. You crush the grapes (done for us by the winemaker), add yeast, stir them periodically, then press the juice out. After what’s called the primary fermentation (the conversion of sugar to alcohol by yeast) is finished, you do a secondary fermentation using bacteria to convert malic acid to lactic acid (called malolactic fermentation, or, in the wine world, ML). Then, it’s just aging. Red wine is typically aged for a year or more on oak. We don’t have space for a barrel, so instead we use glass bottles called carboys with chunks of oak added in.
Why oak you ask? Well, twofold. For one, it adds complexity of flavor. Oak from different parts of the world adds different characteristics to the wine. American oak, for example, adds hints of vanilla, and Hungarian oak adds peppery flavors. In addition, aging in oak increases the tannins in wine, a key component for longevity. Tannins are what cause that dry sensation on your pallet when drinking a red wine and are key to keeping wine good over the years. (Incidentally, in beer making, hops add the tannins, and India Pale Ale – IPA – was originally created to have high tannins so it stayed fresh during the long shipment from Great Britain to their colonies in India, thus the extreme hoppiness.)
In any case, enough about the process. Last month we decided to bottle our Sangiovese in order to make room for the 2015 vintage coming in. It took most of an afternoon, siphoning the wine out of the carboys into the bottles, spraying a small amount of argon and nitrogen into the top (to displace the oxygen so the wine lasts longer), and corking the bottles. It may sound like a lot of work, and it is, but it is also a lot of fun. In the end we had enough wine that we’ll each take home two and a half cases and all we need to do now is label it.
Bottling the Sangiovese
Shortly after we bottled the Malbec came in. I picked it up from Woodinville in two food grade plastic garbage cans and David came and helped me unload it. He had to run to beat traffic home and Jamie wasn’t able to make it, so it was up to me to pitch the yeast. It’s a bit of a process to pitch yeast. You have to heat water to a certain temperature, add nutrients, let it cool for a bit, add the yeast, let it activate, add some of the grape juice, let it cool some more. This is all to acclimate the yeast to its new environment so it doesn’t get shocked and go dormant. In all it took me probably two hours to get the yeast ready and pitched (winemakers call it “pitching yeast”, although I don’t know the origins of that phrase). Then it was just a matter of time.
On this last Sunday we pressed the grapes. Last year we had waited until the primary fermentation was complete before pressing. That meant we had to do it on the wine’s schedule and we were pressing one weeknight until almost 10pm. Waiting is common practice, but not 100% necessary. If you have the color and flavor you want earlier it is perfectly reasonable to press and let the primary finish in tank (or in our case, carboys). So this year we opted to do things on our schedule. The color was already looking beautiful due to some enzymes added during the crush that increased color extraction, and the flavor was nice as well. I can tell you, crushing during the day is much more pleasant than late at night in the cool fall evening.
So, now that we have the grapes crushed there is around 21 gallons of Malbec bubbling away in my basement. In about another week it will be ready for ML and we’ll be well on our way to our 2015 vintage. In the meantime the Cabernet should come in and we’ll do it all over again. Like I said, a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.
Almost done. That’s 19 of the 21 gallons bubbling away.
Malbec ready to be pressed
R checks out the grapes ready to be pressed. She was enthralled by the process.