Musings

How to use this blog

Submitted by Clark Smith on

This blog consists of pieces on various wine technology topics. These are sorted into Categories: Postmodern Winemaking, Natural Winemaking, Terroir, Alcohol Adjustment, Social Responsibility, and so forth. The Search function will bring up titles discussing your keyword: sulfites, micro-oxygenation, chips, allergens, fining, and reverse osmosis are rich in content. I also recommend the Postmodern Winemaking Calendar Mandala or the the Postmodern Winemaking Glossary which ties all the concepts of postmodern winemaking together.

Dissolved Oxygen parameters for bulk wine shipping

Submitted by winesmith on

Hi Clark,

What’s a good rule of thumb for O2 levels before filling tankers?

Matt

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Hi Matt,

Short answer is, you’ll do well to get below 1 ppm, and 4 ppm is where most wineries panic and sparge w N2 upon receipt.  I hate this procedure, which strips volatiles, so let’s avoid pickup in the first place.

Let’s first talk about how you achieve this, then some debunking with theory.

 

Tips for loading a wine while minimizing DO pickup:

The Basics About Acids

Submitted by winesmith on

Clark,

The same red wine shows the following chemistry in adjacent years:

'11 pH: 3.65 TA: 6.2 g/l
'12 pH: 3.45 TA: 5.9 g/l

How does the Total Acidity level AND the pH rise at the same time (since higher pH indicates less acidity)?

Ron

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Dear Ron,

An acid is any dissolved substance that can release a proton.  Since the element hydrogen is just one proton with one electron in orbit around it, we also call this a hydrogen ion (H+).

Winery Water Bandits

Submitted by winesmith on

Clark,

Took your course at UCD, discovered then that we overlapped at college.  

I am a Cab grower for a high end Napa winery, 10 years.  We are re-negotiating price, and I am advocating a higher price because they want very ripe fruit, 28-9 Brix.  Obviously this reduces my yield.  Are they getting more wine by adding water to the must, or is there another way to ferment dry at high Brix?

Thanks

Fred

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Dear Fred,

Holding lees prior to addition

Submitted by winesmith on

Hey Clark,

We have been using PM Winemaking as a topic of discussion. My crew tells me I'm post modern.

So ... lees. If we don't want them with some wine for a while, what do we do in the interim? Have you cleverly figured a system for storing lees? As a tiny producer options like freezing would work for me. I use freezers regularly, 55 gal drums are great for cryo- extraction.

Thanks for putting out the book, good food for thought.

Regards, Paul

Hi Paul,

Glad you are finding the book useful.

The Way Winemaking Is Supposed to Be

Submitted by winesmith on

My favorite corollary of Murphy's law is "Nothing is impossible for the guy who doesn't have to do it himself."  Today's case in point, this time a person rather than a guy, is Sheila Donohue's astonishing blog in which she touts the virtues of fiscal irresponsibility in the name of Natural Wine.  Check out https://sheilad.wordpress.com/2015/06/14/how-wine-making-is-supposed-to-...

The "M" Word Has Got To Go

Submitted by winesmith on

In my 2013 keynote address, I told the European Digital Wine Communicators Conference that accusing a winemaker of manipulation is like calling your wife a whore because she’s sleeping with you.  What, she’s supposed to do her duty and then feel bad about herself?  To place winemakers in this moral dilemma is to inhibit the acquisition of the necessary skill set which leads to invisibility of artifice and proper presentation of terroir.  Thus the accusation itself fosters poor practice, the real source of clumsy winemaking.

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