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bottling 2013 Rootin’ Tootin’
On Tuesday, August 26, we bottled 466 bottles of 2013 Rootin’ Tootin! This wine was made from 100% grapes from our Salado vineyard. It is mostly 2013 Sangiovese, but there is a little bit of cabernet sauvignon and merlot and it is all from our vineyard.
Stay tuned for the release of this sweet and fruity wine!
Sangiovese Harvest is this Saturday, August 23rd at 7 AM in our vineyard at 21724 Hill Road, Salado, TX. Vineyard is very close to I-35, exit 279. Everyone is welcome to join us!
We recommend sunscreen, bug spray and a big hat. If you have a favorite pair of pruners then bring them, but we’ll have plenty for you. Dress for heat, but be prepared for anything. I recommend shoes and socks because sometimes there is pigweed or nettle that stings or a hidden ant mound and I prefer a little protection for my toesies, but you can wear sandals if you like. Sometimes folks like to wear light cotton gloves, that might help prevent wasp stings, but there are no thorns, so gloves not required.
Families are welcome, the work isn’t hard, just the heat can be a bit discouraging. We will pick until all grapes are harvested, usually around 11.
If you’re coming, or maybe you slept a little late and want to see if we’re still picking, text your RSVP to 254.466.5813, and I will let you know if the plan changes. Otherwise, see you there!
——->>Oh yeah! Even if you don’t come out to the vineyard, this is the best time to stop by the winery and see the wine making in action! Hear the noise of the crusher and destemmer and see the yeast do their thing. We might even make you help punch down the cap. 3 Texans Vineyard will be bringing their cabernet sauvignon this weekend as well so lots of winemaking to do.
malbec enters the destemmer
Chardonnay is nearly done fermenting, closely followed by Tempranillo, Merlot and Malbec. On Saturday, August 16 in the afternoon, we’ll be processing grapes from Bravo Texan’s vineyard. Throughout the weekend, I expect we’ll be pressing the tempranillo, merlot and malbec. Should be a busy time for us!
Did you get your chance to pick grapes yet? Looks like harvest will continue Saturday, August 23 and Saturday, August 30. Keep your eye on this website for the details.
In the meantime, stop by and smell the yeast fermentation!
I mash the grapes, strain the juice, make sure it is blended and then look through the refractometer to measure brix or I put it in a hydrometer
There are many factors I take into consideration when determining when to harvest. I like to evaluate the grapevines, the grape clusters, the seeds and then evaluate the color, smell and taste of the grape juice. Then I have to take into account the weather before and during proposed harvest, labor available and set the date for harvest. Weekends are generally a better time to harvest because more volunteers can help. Next I need to make sure the winery side of everything is ready to process and ferment the grapes. In other words, when I am not running around the vineyard yelling at birds, I am inventorying the wine making materials, ordering yeast and looking at the maintenance of the pump, crusher and de-stemmer. It has been said a million times, “great wines are made in the vineyard”. If I don’t get this first part correct, then I may as well just go home! Nothing is more frustrating than working with substandard wines.
Last night I took a good look at the grapes in Three Texans vineyard. I collected grapes samples and processed them this afternoon. Looks like Tempranillo is still winning the ripeness race. In testing, I found them to have 22 degrees Brix and pH 3.65. Good color, a little light on taste, but definitely in the mellow plum direction. Starting to feel that bit of zing that tannins can add to the wine. Some grapes were still a bit harder, and some were soft and ripe. Same with the seeds, some beige and a few green. In the vineyard I saw some rachis and peduncle browning, but these grapes could definitely hang for another week or two. So harvesting on Saturday, August 9th would be a great idea, but looking at the long-range forecast, they are calling for an 80% chance of rain on Friday, August 8! So I think that these grapes should be harvested on Wednesday or Thursday August 6-7.
Next I examined the Malbec. These grapevines look a bit riper in the vineyard. The grapes have almost no green left in them. They were easy to pull off, soft, juicy and easy to mush. I thought maybe they had jumped ahead of the Tempranillo in ripeness, but when I looked at the sugar, I got 20.8 degrees Brix and pH 3.51. It still had a bit a of apple cider like tartness and had a few green seeds, so it needs a couple more weeks. I am predicting August 16 for these grapes.
Then the Cabernet Sauvignon from Three Texans. Cab seems to be the worst variety for uneven ripeness and had many green grapes still sprinkled about. I did see a bit of peduncle and rachis browning. For flavors I was tasting a very cherry or raspberry note which indicates that it needs more time. (see https://winegrapes.tamu.edu/grow/ripening.pdf for reference) I was surprised to see 20.4 degrees Brix, but the pH was only 3.26, so I would like to see these grapes hang 3 more weeks to ripeness. A good ripe Cabernet Sauvignon will make a better wine and fetch a higher price. If it is harvested too early, it might as well become Rootin’ Tootin’.
This morning I took a good look at my vineyard. First I sampled the Chardonnay. The grapes are starting to become translucent with a light golden hue. Starting to see brown peduncles and rachis. When I smashed the grapes, I had great brown seeds. So I was surprised to only measure 20.4 ° brix and pH 3.55. Given the state of the vines, the taste of the juice (starting to get mango) the darkness of the seeds, I will probably plan to harvest these grapes just before next week’s rain. In other words, I will harvest them on August 6-7.
The Merlot in my vineyard is starting to look ripe as well, but I have some problems with uneven ripening on the ends. I saw some peduncle browning and so I was disappointed to see how many green seeds I still had and to have only 18.7 °brix and pH 3.38. The taste was also a bit unripe. So this will probably wait until August 13-17, assuming that rain is going to fall on August 8th and that there isn’t much rain after that.
I couldn’t detect much difference between the aromas of the wine grapes, but there is quite a bit of difference in color and flavor of the juice.
Tempranillo, a few more green seeds than we want to see
chardonnay on the right–nice brown ripe seeds
Tempranillo, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon second row is Chardonnay then Merlot
Big differences in color, small variation in aromas
merlot and chard from our Salado vineyard
I am getting anxious for harvest! The yeast is on order and I am ready to start soon, but when!?!
Tested Chardonnay yesterday and got pH 3.45, Brix 19.5, tastes like a pink lady apple!
So here goes the tentative plan…
I’m expecting activities to kick off on Saturday, August 2nd.
Right now I’m expecting Belle Crest to harvest tempranillo on Saturday, August 2. I would like to test their grapes again on Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon, July 26 or 27th to verify that they have been ripening as projected. Right now the 10 day forecast has a significant chance of rain for Friday, August 1st. This could be a bad thing because the grapes tend to soak up the water quickly. Last year it rained 48 hours prior to picking our merlot and I was very disappointed as the resulting wine was too watery. So this may throw a monkey wrench in the plan, or the 10 day forecast could be wrong (but I sure would welcome the cooler temps). Journey Vineyards will bring their grapes as well for processing, so I must remember to keep them informed.
I am likely to also pick the chardonnay in our vineyard the same time, August 2nd. I am torn because the flavors are getting to where I want, but the Brix isn’t quite there. So they could easily hang a little longer than that. If we get rain, I will definitely push that harvest to during the week.
On Saturday, August 9th we’re expecting Belle Crest to harvest malbec. We may harvest our merlot as well. The malbec will be the biggest amount coming at one time, so we may push the merlot off so that we don’t have too much to process. I want to process the chardonnay and have it out of the way prior to the malbec arriving.
The cabernet sauvignon and sangiovese still have a while to go in my vineyard, so maybe the 16th or 23rd.
Stay tuned!
Time to bottle more wine! Throughout May 2014, we expect to be bottling every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. We will be bottling the Diamond Back from 2012 & 2013. This is made from 100% blend of grapes from our vineyard on Hill Road. Our Salado grown cabernet sauvignon, merlot and sangiovese. These grapes were picked in 2012, right after Baby Grape was born! In 2013 the grapes were picked late in August and during Labor Day weekend. In 2013, the grapes were a bit watery, while the 2012 grapes were much more concentrated, so we blended the two vintages together to make a better balanced wine. We’ve been selling this blend since January 2014, and we’ve got so much, I lowered the price to $19.95/bottle. This wine is featured on our daily tasting menu and is our best-selling dry, red wine.
I’m so worn out, I can barely manage capitalization! The 2014 Texas Wine & Rogue Art Fest was a smashing success and we’re already working on our plans for next year. In the meantime, enjoy the coverage from KWTX!
go to http://www.kwtx.com/video?videoid=2810193
or maybe this will work:
March 29, 12-5 pm & March 30, 12-4 pm6th Annual TX Wine & Rogue Art Fest!
Join us for a wonderful afternoon of wine tasting and art! Featuring 17 wineries,a tremendous viewing of artists and their works from around Texas, and, of course, delectable foods.
Free admission! $10 at the door buys six tasting tickets & a souvenir wine glass. $5 for four additional tickets.
Children are allowed, as well as, well-behaved pets on leashes. The location of the event is 841 N. Main St., Salado TX.
For listing of vendors & wineries, check out the festival website: www.saladowinefestival.com
We’ve been bottling lately! Now the bottles need to rest a bit. I don’t know why bottle-shock happens, but it does. When wines are first bottled, the taste disappears. A few weeks later, the taste returns and then it is ready to sell. I’ve never seen bottle-shock as dramatic as it was portrayed in the movie “Bottle Shock“, but I can tell a difference when it first goes in the bottle. Stay tuned for the new releases!
We bottle about 90 bottles an hour, so about 1.5 per minute, not including breaks. (I mean coffee breaks, we try not to break the bottles!) That does not include labeling, just putting the wine in the bottle and shoving the cork in. For me it is a huge sigh of relief when the wine is in the bottle. Now all we have to do is sell it!
On Thursday, October 17, 2013, we ran malolactic testing on our 2013 wines. We were unable to find our capillary tubes, so our dots are too big and a bit sloppy. For some reason, our control acids do not show. I think you can still see though, that it appears that the malolactic bacteria have nearly completed their job in all of the wines except the BRV red. The malolactic bacteria were added to the chardonnay 3 months ago and the temperatures have been plenty warm, so it looks complete. The reds received their inoculation of bacteria about 6 weeks ago and may not be totally complete, but they are close.