Getting the yeast right

I think this is my fave:

"I use about eight commercial yeasts—some years more. I select my yeasts by really getting to know each of the vineyards I work with. "
 
Dude was blowing my mind right out of the gate: "I select my yeasts by really getting to know each of the vineyards I work with." That, my friend, is dedication. Bluto level dedication. "I've given this a lot of thought and your yeast strain will be RP15"

ETA: I didn't see your second post SFJoe. But, obvs I agree.
 
I like this little dance: "I start the yeast up with Go-Ferm. The next day, if I see activity (a cap), I will add DAP. At 21º Brix, I will add Fermaid."
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
I think this is my fave:

"I use about eight commercial yeasts—some years more. I select my yeasts by really getting to know each of the vineyards I work with. "
Click to expand...
I just take a hit of Fermaid, go sit in the vineyards during a full moon and just, you know man, see the grapes.
 
With all of his wines above 15% alcohol, I think he has forced himself to use commercial preparations if he wants to get them dry.
Of course, maybe if they don't go dry, he's tapping into that great American market for soda.
Like a one-step rum and coke . . .
Best, Jim
 
He talks about also doing batches with native yeasts but what kind of native can that be when there must be a gazillion industrials hovering in the air?
 
I hear the equipment and etc. is totally separate, and they are both neat freaks.

Also, they pick at different times, heh heh.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
I like this little dance: "I start the yeast up with Go-Ferm. The next day, if I see activity (a cap), I will add DAP. At 21º Brix, I will add Fermaid."
Click to expand...

Most all my winemaker buddies do this or something close. It's crazy. And those additives are not cheap.
 
originally posted by Kay Bixler:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
I like this little dance: "I start the yeast up with Go-Ferm. The next day, if I see activity (a cap), I will add DAP. At 21º Brix, I will add Fermaid."
Click to expand...

Most all my winemaker buddies do this or something close. It's crazy. And those additives are not cheap.
Click to expand...

It's needed because there's so much sugar?
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Kay Bixler:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
I like this little dance: "I start the yeast up with Go-Ferm. The next day, if I see activity (a cap), I will add DAP. At 21º Brix, I will add Fermaid."
Click to expand...

Most all my winemaker buddies do this or something close. It's crazy. And those additives are not cheap.
Click to expand...

It's needed because there's so much sugar?
Click to expand...
It has much more to do with what the grapes don't have when they are over-ripe and the imbalances created thereby. But, of course, the yeast strain needed to get things dry when brix are so high is also a reason.
When I recently tasted a large number of CA syrahs that were really big in alcohol I found a lot of wines with VA, EA or both. Lack of yeast nutrient during fermentation is one of several possible causes of such conditions.

IMO, a wine with excessive alcohol not only can be hot, or sweet, or texturally off but, more insidiously, it can be very difficult to predict its future; the process to get it dry and stable may create a myriad of problems.
I know most folks' criteria for big alcohol wines is "balance;" and, while I agree with that to some degree, I think any wine is a moving target and ones with big alcohol make finding "balance" much more a bottle by bottle process.

Best, Jim
 
It's my understanding that naturally occurring yeast tends to die naturally, thus ending fermentation regardless of the sugar content of the wine, at somewhere around 14% alcohol. With those yeasts, very ripe grapes will just produce sweet, 14% alcohol wine. I think natural selection and global warming have changed that to an extent, but if one wanted to harvest at ripeness that, fermented dry, produced wines at 15% alcohol regularly, it would be much safer to buy yeast that one knew wouldn't conk out on you.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Kay Bixler:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
I like this little dance: "I start the yeast up with Go-Ferm. The next day, if I see activity (a cap), I will add DAP. At 21º Brix, I will add Fermaid."
Click to expand...

Most all my winemaker buddies do this or something close. It's crazy. And those additives are not cheap.
Click to expand...

It's needed because there's so much sugar?
Click to expand...

Not so much in NY, but I know some use it to reduce hydrogen sulfide.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
It's my understanding that naturally occurring yeast tends to die naturally, thus ending fermentation regardless of the sugar content of the wine, at somewhere around 14% alcohol.
Click to expand...
I think that is old information.

More later.
 
If I may take this sugars/alcohol thread drift a step further- while the article Joe links above of course invites derision, there is a similarly-interventionist process done in a region near and dear to (nearly) all of us, and it is of course Chaptalization in Burgundy. Lots of big names there, whose wines few of us would kick to the curb. But it's still cheating.
 
originally posted by Aaron:
But it's still cheating.
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"Cheating" is a funny word and I think you're being too arch.

I don't think anyone here is arguing that the wines should make themselves. I'm concerned about how many interventions, how many additions (and of what... sugar is pretty ordinary, God only knows exactly what's in Ferms-A-Lot), etc.
 
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