greetings to all: this year we've gotten serious. We've got 60 gals of zin in our new/old barrel. It's the best we've done in years. We've never sulphited before bottling but now we want to insure a reasonable future for this . So, how much do we add & how close to bottling time? All help is greatly appreciated....TIA bobby gavone
It isn't really possible to answer that definitively without knowing the pH of the wine and the current free SO2. Have you added _any_ sulfite along the way?
Tom S
just campden tabs at the primary; I'll do a test todaay- a regular acid test? or a simple ph reading w/ litmus strips? We also got a set of titrets this week , but aren't quite sure when & how to use them.
I have found titrets next to useless for measuring free SO2 in a red wine. Others claim they can do it by diluting the wine and are confident in their results.
In my opinion, if you have a substantial chunk of wine, go ahead and spend $12.00 and send a sample to Vinquiry and have them do an AO test for free SO2. They will send you free sample bottles if you don't have any.
If you get into doing a lot of SO2 measurements, you can get a setup from the dealer "Wine Wine and more Wine" If you are aging your wine in a barrel, you will need to measure your free SO2 at least every couple months.
An acid test will only tell you TA - not pH. Litmus or pH papers are useless too because they aren't narrow enough range to resolve to 0.1 pH accuracy. You need a pH meter for that.
We also got a set of
Personally, I don't care for Titrets. When I want a really good number for free SO2 I send a sample to a commercial lab. For a pretty good number I do a Ripper test, which requires a few chemicals.
If you've barrel aged the wine for a year or so it's probably safe to assume that the free SO2 is zero or close to it. I'd guess that bringing the free SO2 up to 40 or 50 ppm would do the trick - but you should try it on a small sample to be sure.
Tom S
When we do these semi monthly tests, what are we looking for, incomplete malo ferm? Some other physical trait? or a chemical balance for reasons that will glaze over our eyes & make our heads implode? The zin has a wee bit of petillance remaining (it's been dissapating over the summer.) Might this be an SO2 prob?
MOre campden tabs? Pot Bisulf powder? another substance? And BTW, what's a reasonable price for a pH meter?
Hasn't the barrel been maintained topped up and bunged tight since ML finished? That tends to degas wine very effectively because of the suction created by evaporative loss from the sealed barrel.
Sounds to me like your ML finished rather late - if at all.
Are you _sure_ you want to bottle so soon? One year in a new barrel isn't very long for a big red wine. Maybe you ought to adjust the free SO2, top the barrel up and bung it tight for several more months.
Tom S
Frankly, I wouldn't use Campden tablets in any batch larger than a gallon. Buy some potassium metabisulfite and use that instead. Be sure to keep it very well sealed from air exposure. It's very reactive and loses potency quickly if exposed to air - especially humid air.
I make up a stock solution of 220 grams of fresh potassium metabisulfite diluted to a liter. 20 ml of that added to a 60 gallon barrel = 10 ppm added sulfite (approximately).
Tom S
Great! I can get some this week when I pick up our malo culture (if senor laid-backremembered to order it.) Should we innoculate the barrell ASAP & will we be able to keep to our time table... We Gavones know that more cask time would be better, but we're alright with a young vintage alla Paisano.
Thanks for all the advice. Special big ups & mad props to Tom S for laying it out so even a gavone can grok it...
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