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Wednesday January 19, 2000
We have just received from Vinquiry, an analytical lab, the final results
for our 1999 wines which will be bottled in July. All the wines are virtually
free of sugar and all have gone through my requirement for malolactic fermentation.
The free so2's are around 30 parts per million at this time. We will add
a small amount of so2 at racking in April and then just before bottling
in July. At bottling, we aim about 20 parts per million so2. At the next
racking, we are expecting about 10 ppm of so2 because it does dissipate.
The numbers that are somewhat different in each wine are total acids, the
pH and the alcohol.
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|
pH |
Total
Acid |
Alcohol |
1999 |
Cabernet Franc |
3.73 |
.60 |
13.87 |
1999 |
Petite Sirah |
3.61 |
.66 |
13.74 |
1999 |
Carignan |
3.54 |
.68 |
13.15 |
1999 |
Estate Cuvee |
3.54 |
.68 |
13.55 |
1999 |
Aca Modot |
3.64 |
.68 |
13.59 |
1999 |
Zinfandel |
3.68 |
.64 |
14.36 |
1999 |
"4th Mix" (or possibly
now named "Heritage Cuvee") |
3.74 |
.65 |
15.21 |
1999 |
Pinot Noir |
3.51 |
.67 |
13.81 |
1999 |
Sauvignon Blanc |
3.18 |
.71 |
14.78 |
1999 |
Late Harvest Sauv. Blanc
(residual
sugar of 15.16) |
3.59 |
.68 |
12.57 |
Saturday, January 22, 2000
(By Brendan)
The new year has now officially started. Today is the start of
Winter Wineland, the first Dry Creek/Russian River wine event of the year.
Although we are not official participants of Winter Wineland, we do open
up for people who want to drop by. We are expecting a hundred or
so customers to visit us this afternoon as they cruise around the rest
of Dry Creek.
This is only the second day this week that I have
been here at the winery. I have been spending a lot of time recently
on my "other" job as the National Director of Education for the WineBRATS.
The WineBRATS are a consumer organization that is dedicated to getting
younger people to drink more wine and also to generally educating people
about wine and making it less intimidating. We have our national
conference coming up at the end of February and there is a lot of work
to be done. This works out perfectly with the winery because for
the first couple of months during the year, there is very little to do
when you are as small of a winery as we are. The two together definitely
keep me busy (as well as my "other-other" job writing for WineX
magazine).
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