I never realized how much alcohol a winemaker might consume before noon on any given day.
Today was my first day as The Winemaker's Apprentice. I met Philip, owner and winemaker of Grimes Mill Winery, on site at 9am. He had already been there preparing for my arrival.
We got straight to work. Though I'm unfamiliar with all but the last varietal, the 4 white wines currently fermenting at the winery are: Catawba, Cayuga, Chardonelle, and Pinot Gris. (I'll have future posts about information that I collect about these varietals, but their names are about all I know right now. We'll learn more together.)
Since the wines are actively fermenting, it is important to track the sugar percentages. Once the sugar percentage goes to zero in a batch of wine, the yeast that converts sugar to alcohol has nothing to feed on and dies off. At that point, fermentation is done. So, tracking the sugar tells us when the wine will be done fermenting. It also gives us a chance to sneak a taste at the flavors that are developing as the wine ferments.
You actually measure the sugar percentage via measurement of specific gravity of the wine by floating a glass bobber in a graduated cylinder. The bobber is designed with markings on it that tell us how much sugar is left in the solution. Apparently, the density of wine decreases as sugar is converted to alcohol, so this is a really easy way to measure the sugar in the wine. All 4 wines were measured, and little sips were taken of each one to compare sweetness, tartness, flavor profiles, etc.
At first I thought we were going to drink all 100 mL from each wine, which is necessary to measure the specific gravity. After all, I've never thrown wine out before. I've never spit it out of my mouth, either. Maybe it's the cheap graduate student inside me, but wine is for drinking and cooking. Not for wasting. Today was a first for many things, including pouring perfectly good alcohol down a drain. Otherwise, I would have been a thoroughly intoxicated Winemaker's Apprentice before 10am.
After finishing the documentation for the 4 wines that were measured, we moved on to actually making wine. Yeah, on my first day! There is a batch of Vidal Blanc that is resting in a tank in the back of our cellar. The task for the rest of the day was to decide on the sugar content that was necessary to balance out the flavors in this particular wine. I discovered that Vidal Blanc is a fairly simple varietal (*subconsciously typed as Vidal Bland*). It doesn't have a strong bouquet, it doesn't have strong fruit flavors, it's not very floral, it is typically not as tart as other white varietals when it is dry, the minerality isn't very noticeable, and it isn't too acidic. So, it was a perfect grape to start off with. I'd be able to see how small increases in sugar alter the wine.
Though some wines have residual sugar left over from fermentation, it is much simpler to just let the yeast use up all of the natural sugar. Then, you can add back in sugar after fermentation so that it isn't too terribly dry. That's precisely what we were experimenting with. We tried a range of sugar concentrations from 0.5% to 2.5%. 0.5% still had too much of the harshness of the original wine, and 2.5% started to get way too sweet. We settled on 1.75% as the optimal amount of sugar for balancing the wine without letting it get too sweet.
This didn't come without some mental effort. Our scale for measuring sugar is only accurate to 0.1 g. In order to get percentages like 1.25% and 1.75%, some very crafty math and pouring had to be utilized. It felt like a series of brainteasers, only harder. Not only was it early, but there was also some alcohol floating around in my stomach with this morning's cereal.
After settling on the optimal sugar content, I mixed up my first batch of wine. I poured it into a bottle, and I learned how to cork the bottle. Before long, I had completed my first bottle of wine.
I bottled 2 other bottles of wine with this sugar content for the owners to take to a party tonight to see what people thought. I got to take this, my first, bottle home. Cleaning up the mess I made concluded my first day. Tomorrow sounds like less wine and more manual labor.
So many firsts,
The Winemaker's Apprentice
Today was my first day as The Winemaker's Apprentice. I met Philip, owner and winemaker of Grimes Mill Winery, on site at 9am. He had already been there preparing for my arrival.
We got straight to work. Though I'm unfamiliar with all but the last varietal, the 4 white wines currently fermenting at the winery are: Catawba, Cayuga, Chardonelle, and Pinot Gris. (I'll have future posts about information that I collect about these varietals, but their names are about all I know right now. We'll learn more together.)
Since the wines are actively fermenting, it is important to track the sugar percentages. Once the sugar percentage goes to zero in a batch of wine, the yeast that converts sugar to alcohol has nothing to feed on and dies off. At that point, fermentation is done. So, tracking the sugar tells us when the wine will be done fermenting. It also gives us a chance to sneak a taste at the flavors that are developing as the wine ferments.
You actually measure the sugar percentage via measurement of specific gravity of the wine by floating a glass bobber in a graduated cylinder. The bobber is designed with markings on it that tell us how much sugar is left in the solution. Apparently, the density of wine decreases as sugar is converted to alcohol, so this is a really easy way to measure the sugar in the wine. All 4 wines were measured, and little sips were taken of each one to compare sweetness, tartness, flavor profiles, etc.
 |
| The glass bobber inside a graduated cylinder is in the center. |
At first I thought we were going to drink all 100 mL from each wine, which is necessary to measure the specific gravity. After all, I've never thrown wine out before. I've never spit it out of my mouth, either. Maybe it's the cheap graduate student inside me, but wine is for drinking and cooking. Not for wasting. Today was a first for many things, including pouring perfectly good alcohol down a drain. Otherwise, I would have been a thoroughly intoxicated Winemaker's Apprentice before 10am.
After finishing the documentation for the 4 wines that were measured, we moved on to actually making wine. Yeah, on my first day! There is a batch of Vidal Blanc that is resting in a tank in the back of our cellar. The task for the rest of the day was to decide on the sugar content that was necessary to balance out the flavors in this particular wine. I discovered that Vidal Blanc is a fairly simple varietal (*subconsciously typed as Vidal Bland*). It doesn't have a strong bouquet, it doesn't have strong fruit flavors, it's not very floral, it is typically not as tart as other white varietals when it is dry, the minerality isn't very noticeable, and it isn't too acidic. So, it was a perfect grape to start off with. I'd be able to see how small increases in sugar alter the wine.
Though some wines have residual sugar left over from fermentation, it is much simpler to just let the yeast use up all of the natural sugar. Then, you can add back in sugar after fermentation so that it isn't too terribly dry. That's precisely what we were experimenting with. We tried a range of sugar concentrations from 0.5% to 2.5%. 0.5% still had too much of the harshness of the original wine, and 2.5% started to get way too sweet. We settled on 1.75% as the optimal amount of sugar for balancing the wine without letting it get too sweet.
This didn't come without some mental effort. Our scale for measuring sugar is only accurate to 0.1 g. In order to get percentages like 1.25% and 1.75%, some very crafty math and pouring had to be utilized. It felt like a series of brainteasers, only harder. Not only was it early, but there was also some alcohol floating around in my stomach with this morning's cereal.
After settling on the optimal sugar content, I mixed up my first batch of wine. I poured it into a bottle, and I learned how to cork the bottle. Before long, I had completed my first bottle of wine.
 |
| My first bottle of wine. The corker is on the right, the capsule applicator on the left. |
I bottled 2 other bottles of wine with this sugar content for the owners to take to a party tonight to see what people thought. I got to take this, my first, bottle home. Cleaning up the mess I made concluded my first day. Tomorrow sounds like less wine and more manual labor.
So many firsts,
The Winemaker's Apprentice
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