Ive just attended the NZSVO Pinot Noir Tannin Management Workshop. There was a really good mix of topics covering everything from the vineyard to the winery, from chemical analysis to practical solutions. The event was attended by around 150 people from practically all Pinot producing wineries in the South Island.
The keynote speaker was James Kennedy from Oregon State University who outlined work they had been doing on skin and seed tannin management in the vineyard and its extraction in the winery. Among the other interesting speakers were Matt Dicey from Mt Difficulty with practical insight into Pinot Noir maceration and Gareth King of Felton Road who spoke about understanding vineyard soils and influencing fruit exposure and crop load.
There was also a great tasting session which directly compared the influence of differing soil types, clones, yields, maceration techniques and harvest methods on levels of tannin found in the wines.
This kind of event can only be good news for NZ as we strive to increase the overall quality of Pinot Noir. Everybody seems to be on the same page, as they say, in this regard.
David Jordan summed up the conference by saying that NZ pinot Noir is well on track to eclipse Sauvignon Blanc as the countries flagship export varietal within 5 years. And so it should do, especially with vintages like 2008 not doing SB any favours (a can of worms to I wont open here but of which Im sure we havent heard the last of it yet)
6 comments:
What are your thoughts and practises regarding post ferment macerations.
Length of PFM depends on the vintage, how ripe the fruit was, vine age, where it comes from and its past history, how the fermentation went, wine pH etc. When ferment is finished/cap is sunk, I usually gas the fermenter and seal it up to exclude o2. Then its a matter of waiting and tasting to determine when the desired level of extraction has occurred before I can press off. Temperature is a factor also and when the fermenter drops below 20C i think extraction slows dramatically. At Sandihurst this PFM can be as much as 2-3 weeks which is long for PN but if the wine/fruit/skins can handle it then i think its good for the long term ageing. I dont disturb the wine at any stage here. When I press off I also take all seeds into the press. Tasting for extraction again and separate out the 'free-run' and press fractions (which are then kept separate in barrel as well). I usually stop the press at around 1.2-1.4 bar.
This year my PFM time was longer than last year by about a week - fruit was riper and berry size was larger so thought they needed more time for extraction.
do you think its better to have a bit more tannin than perhaps desirable, because you can remove with fining, rather than not having enough in the first place.
What fining techniques are using with your PN
in reds, yes, i think a bit extra tannin extraction doesnt hurt generally. But the overriding factor in any wine is balance so you need to be careful. too little tannin worse i think and you might end up adding powdered tannin back.
i dont like fining, as a rule. fining the wine really only takes off the rough edges so that it can be drunk sooner. i prefer to let the wine mature in bottle itself and will usually soften over time. its more natural and we usually hold our wine in bottle 6-9 months before release anyway.
having said that i did egg white fine our 07 pinots, again just a question of balance. i wouldnt use anything other than egg white on reds. the rate, after trials, was about 2 eggs per barrel from memory (although i fine in tank only, after racking)
why the aversion to fining in barrel?
just a hygene thing, without any factual backup Im afraid, but if Im trying to drop out phenolics or other things that i dont want ending up in the final blend then i dont want them sitting at the bottom of the barrel where they might end up in the wood. practically its alot easier to rack and clean a stainless tank.
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