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Diluting high-Brix must?

Once again this year I'm dealing with some high Brix grapes, a 27 mourvedre in particular. I've been advised to dilute it with acidulated water to around 24 before/during fermentation, and was wondering what the group thinks about this practice.

Previous batches of the same mourvedre did turn out hot, but with lots of flavor, so I'm concerned that I'll end up with a lighter wine with less body if water is added. On the other hand, another high-Brix mourvedre from a couple of years ago tastes a lot better with a few drops of water added when poured.

Stuck/incomplete ferment hasn't been a problem even with the high final alcohol; I've been blasting it with DAP and adding a tolerant yeast strain halfway through primary.

Reply to
ernie
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Hey Ernie,

If your wines turn out truly hot in character than they are by defininition a bit unbalanced and you would be well served to add water to bring the brix down a point prior to fermentation. If the grapes are really ripe with lots of potential extract, I would dilute to somwhere between 25 and 26 brix and adjust your acid using tartaric to whatever level you prefer in your big reds. By the way, I'm not sure what you mean by "blasting with DAP" but if you do decide to dillute, you may want to keep the reigns on it a bit and maybe use a more complete food like Fermaid or SuperFood and break out the DAP only when necessary (H2S).

CHEERS!!

Reply to
Aaron Puhala

Isn't that the truth! The high potential alcohol is a casualty of the push for phenolic ripeness (not that there's anything wrong with that IMO). Especially in California, where you don't get phenolic ripeness in many areas until high Brix values (thus, the use of RO and spinning cones as well).

It think it depends on (1) the quality of the fruit and, (2) the style of wine you'd like to be drinking. Do you really want a wine at >14% abv? Maybe, if the fruit has immense "fruit character" and plenty of nice soft tannins. If not, you'd probably be better diluting to around Brix 25.

Ben

Reply to
Ben Rotter

Thanks, all. I tasted the previous years' again, and decided to let it ride. For some reason, they're not nearly as hot as I remembered.

I like to start out with Pasteur Red because of the fruitiness and aromas it produces, and add Premier Cuvee halfway through in the case of high Brix.

As for the DAP, H2S has been a consistent problem in grapes from this area (Oakley, CA). I suspect it's got something to do with the soil; the vineyards out there look like they're growing in sand dunes. Last year I gave a good dose of DAP when I first noticed the smell, but even then ended up with a strong onion smell in the secondary. Racking through copper took care of it, thankfully.

So, from now > "Tom S" wrote:

Reply to
ernie

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