Seufert Winery

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Malolactic (ML) fermentation nears completion.

I inoculated my Pinot Noir for secondary (ML) fermentation on December 4th. Some wineries allow ML to commence naturally, which can take 6 months to complete in our cool winter winery conditions. However, the wine is vulnerable to harmful organisms during this time, so an expedited ML reduces risk to the wine.

Active ML fermentation gives off CO2, which in turn protects the wine from spoilage. Now that ML is completing, air exposure must be eliminated.

After primary fermentation I ended up with a partially full barrel of wine. I went ahead and put it in a barrel, knowing that I had to deal with it later. Prior to starting ML, I kept a protective layer of inert Nitrogen gas on the wine. Then, the CO2 from ML fermentation protected it. That protection diminished and the wine was at risk of spoilage.

I guessed that there were between 25-30 gallons of wine in the 60 gallon barrel. There are several options for storing odd quantities of wine – most of them involving expensive stainless steel contraptions of various sorts. I opted for the low tech solution and I purchased six 5-gallon glass carboys.

Over the weekend I stopped by the winery to move this wine from the barrel into the carboys. This is accomplished with another old-fashioned and low tech solution – a simple siphon hose stuck into the barrel. It’s slow, but it works just fine.

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