Hello all.
I've made wine from grapes for 5 years with the last four on my own without the aid of my former group. The wines from that first year were delectable, balanced and aged well. Since going on my own (after fair winemaking research and investment), my wines are not up to the level they were with my former group.
I practice the same principles my former group did. That is, we crushed the grapes, measured the Brix, fermented and pressed. No pH measurements but sulfite was added at 0.25tsp per box during crush. Their wines always came out great; why would I change the process?
Since I am now geographically separated from that group, I get my fruit from different sources. Besides this year when I arranged our own transport for grapes and could dictate the vineyard, our fruit took a circuitous route, heading to Tampa, FL before making its way to Georgia. Needless to say, our earliest fruit was 2+ weeks off the vine while the worst case... I don't want to imagine (Zin, PN and Sangiovese have been traditionally poor - are they typically earlier ripening?).
Let's consider the cases of only red wines from Central Valley fruit. Pinot, Cab Sauv, Merlot, Zin, Sangiovese, Petit Sirah, etc.
My wine, since getting different fruit and NOT with the former group, has been a mixed bag. Some varietals have turned out fine while others have begun to "turn", oxidizing after only 1 year in carboy. I've suspected airlocks and have ruled that out (different carboys of same varietals are afflicted and all seals appear fine). I've ruled out sanitation practices since I tend to be pretty anal-retentive in that area and not all of the wines have lost their edge.
For example, my 2005 cab sauv, merlot and petit sirah blend is astounding in bottle! My 2005 sangiovese which has not yet left the carboy is browning and is beginning to turn to sherry, not quite vinegar.
I've begun to strongly question the fruit we had in the past as well as the fact that I've not measured and adjusted pH. I know there's a strong correlation between pH and ageing potential - don't need a lecture there. I guess what I could be educated about is whether I should really expect a wine to oxidize after only 1 year and that 1 year being spent in carboy, largely undisturbed except for racking (where I was typically adding
0.125tsp KSO2 except with H2S issues). Granted, I've not been proper in testing for free SO2 and adjusting, but that amount of sulfite is generally attributed to ~20ppm but I accept there are huge variances with this gross generalization, unless 0.125tsp can be akin to having zero.Let me boil the question down again.
Assuming 0.125tsp pot. met. every other racking, an unknown pH and fruit that was off the vine too long, what do you suspect my oxidation problem could be? I prefer to not be berated with "you need to measure this and adjust that" because I intend to do just that with the 2007 vintage (my former group got fruit less than a week off the vine; is that why they fared better?). I strongly suspect poor fruit because, frankly, these wines are starting to taste like thin vinsantos which I understand are made from partially dried grapes.
Please offer your thoughts and suggestions. Starting in 2006 I am working with a new vineyard and have trucked my shipment out directly, paying dearly for the privilege. Thus, I am expecting (hoping?) the 2006 vintage to be light years ahead of what's been going on 2003-2005. If your belief is that fruit is the big culprit, I've taken the steps to avoid this in the future. If otherwise, besides measuring and adjusting pH, I have a lot more work ahead of me.
Sorry for the long-winded message; it's that CS-M-PS blend typing.
Patrick McDonald