Racking (some good news and some bad)

Did a bit of racking this weekend:

Firstly, we moved the Sirah and the Petit Verdot from one stainless steel tank to another.

Petit Verdot (near tanks) and Sirah (back tanks)

Closeup of the Petit Verdot tank

The Petit Verdot was smelling a bit of farts and hydrogen! So the airing it got did it a lot of good – it was smelling a lot better after the racking.

We did it by hand: filling a container from the tap at the bottom of the tank, and then pouring the container directly into the new tank from the open top.

Pouring in the wine

Pouring out the wine

The Sirah was smelt a bit ‘closed’ or of being enclosed, but no farts.

Capazo 1

Capazo 2

Gundge at the bottom of the tank

Looking down into the tank

We also racked the Garnacha 2010 for the first time this year, so there was a lot of lees and gunge at the bottom of the tank.

We’re very happy with the way these three wines are turning out.

On the spur of the moment we decided to rack some of the Garnacha to an old oak barrel (+5 years old) as another experiment, just to see how it will evolve.

Burning sulphur

So first we rinsed out the barrel and then we burnt a piece of sulphur inside it.

In it goes



The burning piece of sulphur is in a little cage, so that the bits that melt dont fall down to the bottom of the barrel.

To move the garnacha into the barrel we had to use the pump (because the barrel room is about 30 m away from from where Garnacha was). I really don’t like pumps! They make far too much noise. I don’t know if this noise affects the wine or not, but it certainly affects me!!!

The Garnacha flowing into the barrel

Another thing about pumps (and this one in particular) is that they are far too powerful and move the wine far too fast.

Garnacha flowing onto the floor

Not as bad as it looks - we only lost a few liters before switching the pump off! After cleaning up the mess, I got to write on the barrel with a piece of chalk!

Writing on the barrel

Lastly, and we racked 2000 l of Tempranillo. A bit of bad news here: when we went to open the pneumatic cover, we discovered that it was already open! We forgot to seal it last time we opened it a few month ago. This means that the wine has been in contact with the air (oxygen) all this time.

Not a disaster, but not optimal, and of course really annoying, as we had the use of a beautiful stainless steel with a hermetic seal which we haven’t made use of through our own silly error! Anyway, the wine is fine. We poured about 100 l down the drain, though – the top 25 cm , nearest the surface in contact with the air. Another lesson learnt!

The pump and the tank of Tempranillo

At last! End of Fermentation

All done!

At last! On Saturday (6th Nov 2010) we finally pressed the last of our red wines off the skins.

Juan manning the pump.

Moving the Graciano into the barrel

Fabio at the other end.

The light is so I could peer into the barrel to check the level

Close-up of the stick-thing used to fill the barrel

It was only about 350 l of Graciano, but it was complicated, and it took us all day! This was because we fermented the Graciano in some old oak barrels that we recovered, and we had to replace the tops - quite a tricky operation if you're not a barrel-maker!

'Engrudo' a mixture of flour and water, used to seal the top of the barrel

Juan and Justo attempt to replace the top.

Note the metal hoops

Two manual cage presses bleeding off Graciano

While we were doing all this, we also filled another oak barrel with Tempranillo 2010, and another one with Shiraz 2010. I forgot to take photos of them, but I have this other one:

Crianza 2009. Cask filled in August 2010

New American oak barrel

Last Wednesday 10 March, our new American oak barrel arrived from Tonelería Victoria, based in Haro, La Rioja, Spain.

Barrica 1

This is a classic Bordeaux style barrel, which holds 225 liters (300 bottles). We were offered the choice of number of openings and we opted for just one in the belly (with a silicone bung). We wanted just one because the openings are where there is the greatest risk of unwanted oxygen, bacteria, etc entering.

Barrica from above

For the time being, we've left the barrel at a friend's house just down the road, as we're a bit worried about the leaky roof in the winery.

We now have a grand total of three barrels (2 American, 1 French), which means that we can make 900 bottles of Crianza. Next year we are planning to buy about 15, if all goes according to plan regarding new vineyard, buying in organic grapes from a neighbour, and new winery! And, of course if we find, 15 sponsors for each barrel (we already have about 10 on a short-list). See this earlier post for details of this scheme: http://bit.ly/6ARFkk

Tasks for January 2010

Well, after the Christmas break, we're off to a good start - we came back to find that the winery roof has sprung several leaks!

Saturday 23 and Sunday 24
- Fix roof. We have already got some corrugated panelling, so we need to lift the roof-tiles, place the panels. and then replace the tiles. photos pending
- Wash barrel and fill it with the future Crianza 2009 (Tempranillo) photos pending
- Move 700 l of young Airén 2009 to new deposit, to take it off the lees.

by Saturday 30 and Sunday 31
- Start pruning vineyard in Carabaña (weather permitting)
- Finalize order for new oak barrel
- Update shortlist of 'investors' in barrels for next year
- Wash barrel and fill it with the future Crianza 2009 (Garnacha)