Tying up the vines

 

We didn't rack today as Alex absentmindedly stirred the must this morning. We can't rack tomorrow as he is doing BIM work on the strand. Maybe Sunday. 

I walked the vineyard to check for storm damage. Two roses had broken stems and a few vines had broken sections from whipping around in the wind but overall not too bad. The weather today was spectacular in between short showers.

One Chardonnay, with substantial growth this year needed a new stake as its stake was broken at ground level. Must have been caused by the windage in Storm Agnes. Alex found two more vines that needed new stakes so we spent the afternoon working in the vineyard. 

The vines had experienced significant growth over the last month and the Pinot Noir and Albariño had shot up significantly. So I tied them up. Most are now reaching the top of their stakes so pruning this year will be more radical. 

Interestingly, I got a nice surprise. I noticed multiple vines with grape clusters, some of which were just beginning veraison. I don't know if there's enough good weather left to get them ripe before the end of the season, but it's a sign of possibilities. 

Time to rack

Alex has determined that the Solaris white has stopped bubbling and the Rondo red is settling to the bottom rather than the top, both indicators that it is time to rack -- decant the clearer liquid at the top of the Solaris. We'll have to press the Rondo first as the skins and seeds are still in there and this is the time to separate them. 

We've decided to rack into demijohns for the next stage. I think we'll need two for the Rondo and 3 or 4 for the Solaris. Then we'll wait about 2 months before we rack again. I think I will heat the demijohns with red to 22C on the heating mat to restart fermentation. 

Both of the vats have temperature indicator strips now and both vats stand at 20C. That's fine for the Solaris the red needs 22-24C. 

The destemming, bottle washing etc equipment is stuck in Italy, along with the plastic tubing for siphoning the liquid out of the tanks. So we don't have a long enough piece of plastic tubing to rack the Solaris from the vat. We'll have to improvise. 

I'll sterilise the demijohns and ancillary equipment in the morning and we'll rack when we're ready tomorrow. 

Outside, Storm Agnes brought over smoke from the Americas turning the sun into a bluish orb this morning. The rain is periodically lashing, the wind is howling, the tide is over the road, but Agnes is gone with minimal impact here and life is grand. The high tide will also deposit enough seaweed to fertilise the vineyard. 

 

Wine Auction

Billionaire Pierre Chen is selling 25,000 bottles of wine including burgundies valued at £156,000 and a very rare 1982 Pétrus. The most valuable wine collection that ever came to market could fetch £41m. He has collected these bottles over the course of 40 years. 

Chen, 66, is the founder and chair of Yageo Corporation, which makes electronic components for cars, computers and mobile phones. He is ranked only 466th on Forbes’ rich list, with a fortune estimated at $5.5bn. He considers wine an art form as he believes the winemaker must inject his/her own creativity into it. 

I'll drink to that. 

So if he collected these wines and he thinks they are art for the senses, why didn't he drink any of them to experience his art? 

Bracing for Agnes

Storm Agnes is upon us, and we are fortunate in Mayo. Cork is getting battered, with roofs off buildings, trees down, flooding and power outages. Because the wind is SE-ly, we hardly feel it at our house. It looks like the irregular eye may pass over us. So far the wind has only gusted to ~ 46 knots according to the anemometer at MSC. 

1300h

1700 h - the eye over Mayo

Cleaning up

 

Pinot Noir

Yesterday, I checked on the vineyard and found several Pinot Noir vines had broken free from their posts in the last episode of wind. So I tied them up before the massive storm that may hit us tomorrow. In the process, I found one bunch of grapes still tiny and hard and nowhere near veraison. Oh well, I hope that's not a sign of things to come with the Pinot. I remain hopeful. 

I removed all the CDs I could spot, most of which were so twisted around the vines and wires that I had to cut them free. I had washed the white bags and yesterday removed any remaining grapes inside the bags, folded them neatly, and put them away for next year. I also retrieved the green bags from the storage box in the vineyard. I am those today and may fold those, too, but there's an awful lot of them. Three garbage bags full. That will be a chore. I am washing them stuffed into mesh bags for delicate laundry. 

We are supposed to be getting tons of rain and high wind tomorrow from Storm Agnes, but it's sunny, still, and warm here at the moment. They said it might not reach us if it wobbles a bit. Met Eireann has issued orange warnings for Cork and Kerry. 

The roses in the vineyard are about to bloom massively. I hope Agnes doesn't ruin the show. 

Three huge bags stuffed full of green mesh bags

Two loads in delicate wash bags

Still bubbling

Every day, Alex opens the vats and stirs the must because the pulp settles and needs to be stirred to keep the fermentation going. The Solaris was not bubbling when Alex opened it but the Rondo was. I'll go up later in the day and see if the Solaris started bubbling up again as it did yesterday. 

Feels like science again

 

 -

Yeast being reconstituted in a 50:50 mix
of warm boiled water and Rondo must. 

I left biochemical lab work behind many, many moons ago. As a kid, I always knew I was going to be a scientist after they told me I was too short to be an astronaut. But industrial bench work didn't agree with me and neither did academia, so I applied my science degree to medical marketing instead. It's a really long time since I've held beakers, mixed solutions, measured chemical composition, and peered into instruments. 

Yet, here I am weighing solutions, measuring out quantities of nutrient and yeast, reconstituting the yeast and initiating the biological process known as fermentation under clean room conditions at controlled temperature. 

I was checking Brix every few days using a refractometer. I measured the specific gravity of our must using a hydrometer in a volumetric cylinder, carefully recording the results and temperature at which the readings were taken. I will need to measure the pH of the wine and calculate alcohol by volume after the second fermentation. I actually bought a set of beakers and glass stir sticks as well as backup refractometers and hydrometers just to be safe. 

Winemaking is all about science. After all, it's a biological process that yields specific chemical compounds that can be identified and measured. Who would have thought that I'd find yet another application for my education at this stage of my life? It's fun and produces a desirable product. Hardly like work at all.