Tag Archives: acid

Adjusting Acids

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It is May 19th…and this is probably the busiest and most important month in the vineyard with shoot thinning, weeding, spraying, shoot positioning with c-clips just to name a few.

So why do I have a picture of wine and beer glasses?  Well, it is time to bottle our 2013 Sauvignon Blanc.  Before you bottle, you have to make sure the wine has the right taste, and in our case we have had to add tartaric acid.  For those not aware, if a wine does not have enough acid it will taste flat and to much acid and it is very tart.  For our Sauvignon Blanc we have found that 7.6 g/l is just about right and for our Pinot Noir, 5.8 g/l is perfect to our tastes.

We will let the Sauvignon Blanc sit a few days and then later this week will bottle this delicious wine!  Very limited quantities, so if your are in the neighborhood, ask for a taste.

PS…in case you were wondering from the picture…it takes a lot of beer to make great wine!!!

Bottle Shock – I didn’t know it was real until now!

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Above is a classic scene in the movie “Bottle Shock”.  Little did I know that I would experience bottle shock at an inopportune moment this last week.  First…what is bottle shock.

Apparently around a week after bottling and lasting one to three months, the wine undergoes a reversible transformation.  “The wine tastes disjointed, unpleasant, and unfinished when in a state of bottle shock, but it doesn’t taste awful/undrinkable. The phrase most typically used to describe wine currently in bottle shock is “muted.” In the forefront are the tannins and the acid, with the fruit hiding somewhere deep in the background. Even more often, the wine throws off odd, reductive aromas.”

Normally when I visit my wine every month to check the sulfur level and taste, I take a few 1/2 bottle samples.  We drink them within the week and although young, it tastes great.  Well, this time I was having a knowledgable person in the wine industry taste my wine.  This 1/2 bottle had been stored for 3 weeks.  It normally takes about 1/2 hour to open up but in this case the wine tasted very acidic and flat with no fruit flavors.  I could not understand it.  Then I remembered “Bottle Shock”, although I had never experienced it until now.  The real confirmation will come the next time I take a sample and bring it home…

So, when Turtle Vines Pinot is released, I will include instructions on how and when to open the bottle, as you can also get “Travel Shock”, just like “Bottle Shock”.