[Dave Burt]

Post your chemistry results for the 2016 Pinot Noir here; also any planned adjustments to balance the must. This may help others who are questioning what to do.

Note 1: YAN for this grape tested at 206 mg N/L
Note 2: Clone is 115; characteristics of this clone:

“strong colour with a purplish hue, superior bouquet, elegant rich aroma typical of its type, a hint of small fruits, well structured, tannic, long, suitable for keeping”
– http://www.winegrowers.info

[Willem Wyngaards]

On cheese cloth filtered juice pH = 3.83 TA = 5.2 Brix = 22.2° (Hana digital refrac.); 24 h soak.

[Dave Burt]

My readings were: Brix 24 (refractometer), pH 3.91, TA 5.8. I added 0.6 g/L of tartaric acid which should bring the TA up to 6.4 and reduce the pH.

I had to cut short the cold soak as the must started to ferment on Saturday. Inoculated with RC212 yeast rehydrated in Go Ferm.

Note: This morning (Sunday) there was a strong smell of the dreaded nail polish (ethyl acetate). I am following James Waring’s protocol for treating this – added 100 ppm SO2 to the must and aerated well to blow off the smells. Will treat with more if needed – goal is to kill of the acetobacter which has a lower tolerance to SO2 than our yeasts.

Is anyone else experiencing nail polish smells???????
-Dave

Update: Monday morning there was still a bit of nail polish smell so I hit it with another 100 ppm of SO2. This seemed to clear things up as a few hours later the ferment was showing lots of vigour and it was smelling sweet as it should. However, in the evening I noticed a slight H2S smell, so doubled up on the DAP addition, with another dose this morning (Tuesday).

Moral of this story: good dose of SO2 in the pails at crush (50 ppm), forget about an extended cold soak, nutrient regime seems to need more than indicated in Willem’s spreadsheet.

[Jan Nilsson]

These are the values I measured.

pH = 3.93
TA = 5.25g/L
Brix = 23.5

The pH is a bit high so I will add some Tartaric Acid to bring the TA to about 6.5g/l.

Mickey Bliss