Tag: wine making

December 16, 2018

Pressing and tanking the grapes

Finca del Rio Andalucia, andalusia, cortes de la frontera, Finca del Rio, grape harvest, grapes, harvest, La Canada del Real Tesoro, organic wine, pressing wine, spain, Syrah, tanking wine, tempranillo, Vendimia, vineyard, wine, Wine Harvest, wine making, wine press 0

Pressing and tanking the grapes after the first fermentation.

Using a sieve and filter to pump wine from fermentation tank full of tempranillo grapes.

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Pumping the ‘free run’ grape juice from the fermentation tank to the steel tank.

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The steel fermentation tank.

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Using a colander to remove the grapes from the fermentation tank.

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Grapes added to the wine press.

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The wine press with wooden block in place, pressing the wine by hand.

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The pressed wine juice sieved into a bucket to be transferred to the stainless steel fermentation tank.

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The ‘cake’ leftover after pressing the juice from the grapes.

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September 5, 2018

Grape Harvest (Vendimia) 2018

Finca del Rio Andalucia, andalusia, cortes de la frontera, de-stemmer, Finca del Rio, grape harvest, grapes, La Canada del Real Tesoro, muslin cloth, stalks, Syrah, tempranillo, Vendimia, vines, vineyard, wine, wine bottle, wine harvest 2018, wine making 0

On the 1st of September 2018 we had our Grape Harvest (Vendimia) at Finca del Rio – La Vina de la Iglesia.

After the grapes are picked, usually starting at 6am, they are brought to tables to be sorted. We remove green grapes, split grapes and any grapes that show signs of powdery mildew. Although we do cut any mildewed grapes off before the harvest, as much as possilbe and discard away from the vineyard. All the work is done by hand, except the de-stemming.

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After sorting of the grapes. They are put into a de-stemmer machine. This removes the grapes and juice from their stalks using an archimedes screw at the top of the machine which leads the grapes onto grooved flexible rollers and then into a revolving drum with cut-out holes and paddles inside the machine.

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The stalks are collected from the machine, then later are put back onto the vineyard as compost.

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The grape juice is transferred from the de-stemmer machine using plastic buckets into a large tank. Fermentation takes place almost immediately. No sugar is added and the vineyards own natural yeast is left to combine with the sugars in the grapes. The tank is covered with a muslin cloth to stop fruit flies from spoiling the fermenting grape juice, but still allows a good flow of air across the top of the must.

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The fermentation ‘cap’ is pushed down, also called ‘punching down’, so that the skins of the grapes add colour and flavour during maceration (skin contact) and do not dry out.

The syrah tank during punch down and maceration.

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The tempranillo tank during punch down and maceration.

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To control the temperature of the fermentation, bottles of ice are used to cool the grape juice. These are replaced at intervals.

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After the harvest the de-stemmer machine is thoroughly cleaned for use next year. The revolving cylinder with punched out holes can be clearly seen. These holes effectively cause the de-stemming by tearing the stems from the grapes as they revolve around.

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So now we wait for the fermentation to stop before the next stage which is to seperate the juice from the skins and seeds and to place the juice, now wine, into stainless steel tanks.

April 27, 2014

Bodega

Finca del Rio Andalucia, andalusia, bodega, grape harvest, grapes, Syrah, tempranillo, Vendimia, wine, Wine Harvest, wine making 0

During December and January we rebuilt over the old animal barn using the same footprint and keeping the very old stone walls for part of the building. Our decision to build the bodega is outlined in this post.

Thermolite blocks used for walls to aid nsulation

The joints between the stones and rocks of the old walls do not have cement but lime mortar, so we will get good humidity. We have been running out of space for storage of bottles mainly, but also having the wine in barrels and tanks on the terrace has been taking up space.

We also found that the wine we have made is at first tasting uncomplicated and fruity with a light body. It has improved considerably in the bottle, due to the wines natural acidity and fairly high alcohol. So it seems that we have to wait four years at least to get to the stage where it begins to take on more complexity. We do not filter the wine when bottling and only add small amounts of potassium metabisulphite at fermentation and when storing in barrel and tank. The wine is a field blend, so the proportions are not exact but as we have 700 tempranillo and 400 syrah, a bottle is about 70% tempranillo and 30% syrah.

So it is a very natural wine, it is unsettled when transferred from barrel, or tank, to bottle so needs time to settle and seems better when tasted from barrel than when tasted from bottle shortly afterwards. So the movement between barrel and bottle causes ‘distress’ to the wine which reflects in its taste.

We are bottling around 1,500 bottles this year, so although we are going to harvest later this year and maybe have less grape juice, we will still need a storage capacity for 8,000 bottles or so, to allow time for the wine to mature in bottle.

Just need to build brick recesses to store the bottles and it will be complete, except for the 8,000 bottles we intend to put in it!

April 20, 2014

Types of cutting vines

Finca del Rio Andalucia, andalusia, grape harvest, grapes, Syrah, tempranillo, Vendimia, vines, wine, Wine Harvest, wine making 0

In early February, every year, we cut the vines of all cordons and stems, except those that enable the plant to achieve a better shape or better yield of grapes. If the older wood that forms the Y-shape is low down, weak or badly formed, it can be replaced by bending over another cordon and cutting away the old wood.

This year we have tried three ways of cutting to see which way produces good grape yield, keeps the vine healthy and avoids mildew or mold on the grapes and leaves. We are also lowering the irrigation pipes so that watering does not cause humidity along the line of foliage and grapes.

We cut some lines of vines very close to the trunk and kept the old wood that forms the Y-shape but took off any growths or spurs, so that the plants had a smoother look. We had heard that this could lead to a ‘blinding’ of buds and maybe the vines would not produce much. We cut this way because the vines were starting to look ‘lumpy’ due to buds left to grow on the previous years spurs. Also we heard that the ‘sangre’ or sap goes into each spur and gets blocked and does not run freely when there are three or four spurs.

Most of the vineyard was cut leaving two buds on each spur, each branch having 4 or 5 such spurs, some less. This does leave the Y-shape branches looking lumpy until bud-burst. Any growth underneath is cut away so only spurs on top remain.

Four lines were cut to new wood by a friend, Pablo, who has vineyards near Ronda. He was interested to see that if by cutting away most of the old wood on the 2 sides of the Y-shape and just leaving one cordon bent down on each side that here would be more and better grapes. Problem here is that sometimes the chosen cordon cannot be bent down or snaps. There a few plants with tape-wrapped branches! The Y-shape also looks odd with thick wood leading to thin cordons. The sap or ‘sangre’ will have no problem reaching along each branch as there are no spurs.

Its early April and there is bud-burst all over the vineyard. The close cut vines have less bud-burst, the new wood cut vines have more and the two-bud cut vines have most. We will see how it looks when the canopy forms and how the grapes then form on the three types of cutting.

September 3, 2012

Checking Sugar Levels of Grapes in Vineyard

Finca del Rio Andalucia, andalusia, grape harvest, grapes, Syrah, tempranillo, Vendimia, wine, Wine Harvest, wine making 0

From early July we test the sugar levels of the grapes every three days or so. This is done using a refractometer, which measures the grape juice by its refractive index. A shadow line is reflected on a glass plate inside the instrument, which is then viewed through a magnifying eyepiece. We use the Brix scale, where 1 degree Brix is 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution and represents the strength of the solution as per cent of weight.

We take samples from every third line and from the same six or so plants in those lines. This enables a good idea of where plants are doing the best and also an overall idea of when the whole vineyard will be ready for harvest. We aim to achieve an average reading of around 24, so using a factor of 0.55, we end up at a wine alcohol of 13-14 degrees. This is only an estimate of future alcohol level as solids in the juice can change the outcome.

Squeezing a drop of juice onto the bottom plate and then closing the top plate squashes the juice into a thin film which allows light to refract through onto a given and engraved scale. Each harvest is different but you get to know which plants are good and which areas of the vineyard are best.

Some of the bunches are almost perfect, a shame to cut them . . . almost!

We also taste the grapes for sweetness and flavour, chew the skin on the front teeth to get skin tannin taste, make sure the pips are brown for ripeness and feel the grape and skins for firmness and give.

As we get closer to our harvest, to allow maximum sun and ambient heat to increase the sugar levels, we cut away the lower leaves and wait. It is at the end a judgement call as to the actual day of the harvest, how much bird damage, how many grapes turning to raisins, verses ripeness and sugar levels.

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