2022 Syrah

The Syrah grapes were small and a bit dehydrated, and many of them did not break in the crusher, so we went old school and macerated the grapes with our feet. Here is my wife crushing grapes.  

I have never made a Syrah varietal, tho I made a Syrah blend in 2009. I just made a Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot last year, so it seemed like a good time to try Syrah. 

Syrah Wine Recipe

72 lb        Syrah grapes (Lodi Gold from Delta Packing; Lodi CA)
2 g            yeast energizer    
4 g            pectic enzyme
1 pk        Lalvin 4b
After six days of fermentation add:
1 t        Chestnut wood tannin (Vintner's Best; LD Carlson) (t means teaspoon)

Ferment to near dryness, then press. 
After one week added:

3.5 T 4007 Malolactic Blend from Wyeastlab 

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The density was 1.108 before formation. The refractive index gives 26.2 deg Brix. This is destined to make a 14.8 to 15% alcohol, which is a lot. 

The idea of the tannin add is to prevent grape proteins from pulling out all the grape tannins by putting in other tannin. Also the chestnut wood tannin is fairly desirable in terms of flavor complexity being similar to tannins extracted from charred wood. 

October 22, 2022:  pH = 3.4; 0.8% total acid as tartaric. This is a little high, so I will probably add some alkali to get about 0.6%.