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Puzzled - please help!

Just bottled three different Pinot Noir Blends. One has shown some form of sediment that the other two haven't - almost looks like a fine lees type fallout.

All the blends were bottled at the same time (a week ago), using the same equipment. Grapes came from two sources, but were fermented dry and all went through ML completely. I did a double racking at bottling to remove as much of the sediment as I could, and all bottles at least filled clear. The same batch of corks were used on all three blends, and I had two leakers but no corks have popped.

Bottles were new, unwashed. Racking siphon and filler had been used about a month earlier for bottling Riesling without incident, cleaned and rinsed, then rinsed just before starting this bottling.

I haven't opened any since the day after bottling, so I don't know if there is a taste difference (yeah, I'm sure that information would help, but... I'll get to that sometime soon).

So, what is it?

Rob

Reply to
Rob
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Are they all kept at the same temperature and in the same area? If it looks like lees, shine a flashlight through them and see if the sediment forming ones have less suspended solids than the others. If you open one and it's carbonated, it wasn't still yet. Other than that, I'm really not sure.

Joe

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

Rob,

My guess is that you probably just picked up a bit of sediment when racking that one blend.

Reply to
Mike McGeough

I forgot to ask what was blended in an how long ago too. I have seen Syrah drop sediment when blended with just about anything... Mike point is good too.

Joe

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

Tehy were kept all at the same temperature and place, next to each other in a walk-in fridge (gotta love buying a house from a big game hunter!). Only time they came out is for bottling, then right back in teh fridge. Fridge is set for 55-60 or so. I did pick up a little sediment when racking, but what is now in each bottle I would've guessed is more than what I'd picked out of the carboy.

I'll try one this weekend to see if it's carbonated (which would be a shame - wow is it good). I hope this is just a freak thing...

Thanks.

Rob

Joe Sallustio wrote:

Reply to
Rob

The right answer to this is that "blend" isn't quite right, maybe batch is better (sorry, my mind wasn't working well when I found this out). The batch that's sedimenting is grapes from one vineyard. The second batch are grapes from the same vineyard fermented with a different yeast but otherwise treated identically, and the third batch is a true blend of second batch with wine made from grapes from a different vineyard. All are Pinot Noir. So the third batch (the true blend) isn't sedimenting.

Thanks.

Joe Sallustio wrote:

Reply to
Rob

Rob - Sounds like you racked right before bottling. My guess is the wines were not finished settling. Might be a good idea not to bottle until you're sure a wine is not dropping sediment...maybe bottle a month after the bottom of a carboy remains free of particles. Also, I've blended wines before and afterwards they started dropping sediment again.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

Rob wrote "I did a double racking at bottling

Reply to
William Frazier

There was very little sediment before I racked. The previous racking prior to this had been post-cold-stabilization, back in February, and very little had fallen out since. My double racking was done because in previous years I had picked up just enough sediment during bottling to make all my bottles lightly hazy, so I figured a racking above what little lees there were (while I was concentrating on the input-end of the racking cane, and not the output end) would help eliminate that haze. Like I said above, it seems to have worked on the other batches I just bottled - they're very pretty.

OK, well, let me add a slightly different question. Will the thrown sediment tend to change the taste of my wine? What's y'all's experience with this.

I'm going to open a bottle over the weekend, so I'll report back on if the bottle was pressurized.

Thanks y'all!

Rob

Reply to
Rob

OK, just opened a bottle of the sedimenty wine, and there's no carbonation. It still tastes good to me. My wife, who usually has a better sense of this, thinks it's become more acidic in the finish, but I'm discounting her opinion since she also just finished a Slurpee. It's hot here in the NW!

Any other comments, other than it's just a throw of sediment?

Thanks

Rob

Rob wrote:

Reply to
Rob

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