Currently, we have three wines percolating at Gantz Family Vineyards: a Thorn Ridge Pinot Noir, a Charles Smith Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon and a Sangiacomo Vineyard Chardonnay. While we do not sell our wines, winemaking is what led me to become a vineyard grower, and I enjoy continuing to practice and perfect this art in our recently renovated winery.
All of this year's wines have finished fermenting and have undergone malolactic fermentation. Malolactic fermentation, often called secondary fermentation to distinguish it from the alcoholic fermentation, decreases the acids in a wine and allows it to taste softer. It also produces a byproduct called diacetyl, which can provide a buttery taste in chardonnays.
Malolactic fermentation is conducted by bacteria and is much more subtle than alcoholic fermentation – the wine doesn’t develop a cap and there’s no need for punchdowns. Still, this time was quite nerve-racking for me. I’d decided to forgo adding sulphur dioxide – a widely used anti-oxidant and wine preservative – because malolactic bacteria hate it. Also, malolactic bacteria are put off by the cold. So I had to heat the tanks to the bacteria's preferred temperature of 70 degrees, which, with the absence of sulphur dioxide, created a pretty good environment for spoilage.
Last weekend I tested the the status of the malolactic fermentation in all three wines, using a technique called malolactic chromotography, and confirmed that the fermentation was complete, at least within the tolerances of the test. We barreled down the Pinot and the Cabernet. The Chardonnay will remain on the lees until December or January, stirred weekly, to get the flavor and mid-palate length that aging on the lees brings. Then, it too will see oak.
I will likely bottle everything in the late summer or fall of 2014, if only to make room for the new year's harvest. I think my reds benefit from long periods of bottle aging; our 2008 Cabernet is rocking now. But it’s really hard to wait that long. We will probably start drinking these wines – slowly – in a year or year and a half.
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- Three things Clay learned from last year's Pinot Noir.
- "How We Make Wine": an in-depth look at how we made last year's wines