Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Bottling 2009 Windsor Zinfandel

This batch of zinfandel is one of the first wines I have made from frozen grape must.  I purchased it from Brehm Vineyards.  The fruit is sourced from Dommen Vineyards, located in the Windsor, Russian River region in Sonoma County, California.  The grapes came from very old vines that were planted in 1937 and are considered "ultra-premium" fruit.  The numbers on the grapes harvested were 24.5o brix, 3.31 pH, and a TA of 0.85 g/100ml.  

I fermented this wine using D254 yeast, which is supposed to enhance the jammy characteristics.  I wouldn't say the wine is particularly jammy at this point.  Instead it is showing spicier characteristics.  There are very distinct pepper characteristics and it has a dark fruit flavor on the palate. 

This wine is the first red wine I bottled using the new filtration system.  I used a 1 micron filter in order to remove any particulates.  The wine has maintained a dark, rich color even after filtering. The wine is about 14% alcohol by volume.  Usually I am very critical of wines I make, and while I may have some from time to time, I rarely prefer my wine to wine purchased from the store.  That is not the case with this wine.  I will pick this wine over any purchased wine any day of the week. 

This batch produced 32 bottles of wine.

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