Primary Fermentation

1. San Giovese Grape in primary fermentation

2. Mike at crusher

3. Me up to my armpit punching down the cap and mixing it up

So that was stomp day 30 Sept

What follows covers the period 1 to 7 October – the primary fermentation.

And just to make it perfectly clear, please note there was no addition of sugars and no addition of yeasts. And why bother? Nature gave us some really good grape with very nice sugar levels. I can only assume she did the same thing with the yeasts in the skins. Wild Yeats no less!

Now we’re in primary fermentation.

This is a very nerve wracking time for me. I am mostly at the mercy of nature. There is little I can do by way of intervention and so a day after stomping I’m back to facing what all vintners dread, the stuck fermentation.

Of course, in warmer climes or in situations where you’re not handling a cold grape, this risk is mitigated somewhat as you’re starting from a warmer must. In our situation we crush from cold. And by cold I mean very cold. I mean, cramping cold. When I stomped the grapes by foot this year I could barely stay in the stomper as my feet became very painful very quickly – in around 40seconds. THAT COLD!

So I find myself anxiously listening b to any sounds of fermentation from the drums on Sunday night and Monday morning. Nothing. Ok, relax, been here before. I consult my notes from last year and notice it took a while for it to fire up.

By Monday evening I decide to go into action. I have to get this thing going otherwise I risk putting off the transfer to secondary fermentation into the working week of next week, when labour is not available. I also risk not being about to transfer as much at a time and risk a bitterness seeping into the must, although removing stalks this time should mitigate that.

Going into action entails all I can do, which is 1), sticking my arms into the must up to my armpit and mixing it up, mixing the warmer outer must with the central core of icy must and 2), erecting a tarp tent over the drums and sticking a portable heater under it. I most certainly would not consider adding anything to get fermentation going.

I’ve also been putting this into perspective, the perspective of doing this many years ago and how people wouldn’t cause such unnecessary work if they could help it. I concluded the following – let the grape reach ambient temperature. This means you don’t get feet cramping and you don’t have to go swimming in fermenters twice a day. Letting grape sit is traditional, in my background, if you want to get your sugar content up. Of course I didn’t need to on that account this year, but I could have saved myself the 5am and 7pm hour long armpit sessions. Labour is always a concern of mine. Couple it with increasing quantities and it’s more of a concern (more later).

Having tortured myself on worries about a stuck fermentation by Tuesday morning as I enter the winery I’m greeted with almost imperceptible sounds of fizzing. Yes, the good old SanGiovese started fermenting together with the Syrah/Shiraz. These two are unlike each other in every other respect. The SanG is very cloudy at this stage and into secondary fermentation and you would never guess its end colour from the anemic state it is in right now, whereas SZ is deep purply-red. The latter’s very sweet whereas SanG has a little dry bitterness in the back.

Tuesday evening saw the Merlot come online together with the Cabernet Sauvignon with Wednesday bringing the Pinot Noire and Cabernet Franc.

From Wednesday the canopy got dedicated to the Cabernet Franc and Pinto sides. I was running out of primary time and wanted to crank the burn rate.

The burn rate is interesting, especially when you look to the hygrometer reading for the must. SanG went through a slow steady burn the whole time whereas SZ was near seismic.

So I punched down twice a day with Marty and Anton coming Wednesday evening for a go.

I was pleased with the drums and how for the first time I didn’t have grape coming over the top onto the floor. We also avoided the fruit fly invasion by use of fly strips. I know these strips are ugly, but they work!

We decided to push transfer into secondary back a day and then only deal with the SanG and SZ. We’d do the rest the following day. I did use the hygrometer again but didn’t let that override my feeling for the timing of the transfer.

Next time – transfer to secondary fermentation.