New World Winemaker Blog

The cooperative Vinicola de Villarobledo has been the only winery from La Mancha region to win a Gold award at wine contest – Nuevo Vino 2011 – held in Madrid on the 15^th of June this year. This was the first time the cooperative winery presented a wine to this contest.

Martin Pardin (technical director of the cooperative) explains he wanted to innovate and create a very complex and unique red wine, adapted to modern demand for fruitiness, roundness and complexity in red wine. Grapes from Syrah, Tempranillo and Garnacha were partially destemmed, crushed and barrel fermented separately in 3^rd fill French oak barrels. Martin used an extraction enzyme and a new yeast from Oenobrands, Anchor Exotics SPH, in all barrels. This yeast is an interspecies hybrid between Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces paradoxus. It is the only yeast of its kind worldwide. Fermentation took ten days at temperature range 18-27 °C, with four hand pigeage daily. For yeast nutrition, Biovin (bio-regulator of La Littorale) has been added after density of 1040. Martin was very happy with the results obtained with Anchor Exotics SPH as it satisfied his need to create a “highly fruity and complex red wine, different from a standard red wine of La Mancha region”.

Malolactic fermentation started spontaneously immediately after alcoholic fermentation and was completed within one month. The wines from the three varieties were blended and stored for five months. No fining was applied before bottling and Mannostab (Laffort) was added to secure tartrate stability.

Martin is very happy with the recognition this award gives to his winery and region, since all the other wines awarded came from other prestigious Spanish wine regions. He plans to increase production with his approach and will continue use of Anchor Exotics SPH as “a perfect tool to help him achieve complexity and fruitiness “. At the moment the wine is only available for sale in Spain but an extension of production in 2011 will allow the winery to have the wine available for export markets.

Patrice Pellerin is the technical manager for Oenobrands.

Over the years, South African winemaker, Henry Kotzé, has refined his winemaking mantra to one of minimal interference and maximal expression of variety by means of selecting the best terroir possible. Experience speaks for itself and Henry was appointed winemaker at Morgenster in 2009. Previously, Henry’s oenological skills were honed during his stints at Vergelegen, Boschendal, Neil Ellis and Eikendal (all highly acclaimed South African wineries.) Henry’s focus at Morgenster is on red wine where he works with the classical Bordeaux grape varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet franc, Petit Verdot and Merlot) and Italian grape varieties (Sangiovese and Nebbiolo).

The first vines on the farm were planted in 1994 and the average age of the vineyards is 15 years. The grapes are usually harvested, depending on the fickle weather of course, late February. Average yield is 5.5 tonnes per hectare and juice yield is 700 litres per tonne.

Now, let’s get started with the winemaking section of this blog. This is what Henry had to say: “As the grapes are destemmed and crushed (about 10% is whole bunch pressed), I’ll add an Enartis red wine enzyme for colour extraction. Cold soaking is done for two to four days at less than 10°C. Only one pump-over a day is needed and this is done slowly and gently, to facilitate maximum extraction.” As he says this, he glances longingly at his mud encrusted mountain bike and then back to me. I realise that he’s probably very busy and has not been getting a lot of sleep (the plight of every winemaker!), so I hurry on with my questions. As for the Bordeaux varietals, Henry elaborated about two of his favourite yeasts: “I inoculate Anchor NT 202 and Anchor WE 372 (Oenobrands) at 15°C. NT 202 has always been a stalwart and works well with the wine style that we like to embrace at Morgenster. It is also easy controllable with temperature alterations.

As for WE 372, it is a slower fermenter which really enhances the varietal character of the grapes I am working with. WE 372 makes a particularly powerful contribution towards red berry and fruity aromas when I’m working with Merlot. For my Italian varietals, I use selected Lallemand yeasts. A typical fermentation is done at 26 to 28°C for seven to ten days. I also use a lot of oxygen during fermentations for maximum colour extraction. As an activator I use Laffort Dynastart and Anchor Nutrivin (Oenobrands) and DAP during fermentation.” Henry also formed part of a group of winemakers in South Africa who tried the new Anchor NT 202 Co-Inoculant MLF starter culture (Oenobrands) in 2011.

He says: “I tried the Co-inoculant on a batch Petit Verdot this vintage and was pleasantly surprised with the results, since MLF took only 14 days to complete after AF finished. This usually takes three to five weeks. I usually inoculate all my red wines with Lallemand bacteria, but intend to use the Co-inoculant again next year and in bigger amounts.” Henry explains post-AF as follows: “Extended maceration on skins can last a few days or up to two weeks. After MLF, the wine is racked and three rackings are done during 18 months of barrel ageing. Beta-glucanase (Enartis) is used during ageing.

Optimal filtering would be done with a 1.6 micron candle filter, but where VA is 0.6g/L or higher, I will use a 0.45 micron candle filter.” Henry has his wine bottled during December and January after which it is released three years later. As for the premium Morgenster wines, expect to pay US $69 and US $33 for the Lourensriver Valley range.

Bernard Mocke is a technical Consultant for Anchor Wine Yeast.

Jan van Rooyen, the new winemaker at Avontuur Winery, South Africa (2011 being his first full vintage at Avontuur) is no stranger when it comes to making delicious Chardonnay. As a seasoned vintner with many years experience, Jan plans to make the 2011 Chardonnay at Avontuur a memorable one.

Jan accentuated the fact that he wants to make a wooded Chardonnay this year that is for the Chardonnay lover. In other words, a wine with elegance, power and poise. However, this wine should be fully integrated with the wood without obscuring any of the minerality or the fine balance between the apricot, citrus and coconut components.

Different Chardonnay clones from vines as old as 12 years were being harvested on the day of this interview, at 24.5°Brix. The yield per hectare was estimated at 3 to 4 tons and the juice yield at 650 L per ton. Novoclair Speed (for settling), gelatin and kieselsol are added at the crusher after which the grapes are left to cold settle at 12°C for 24 to 48 hours. Fermicru LVCB (Oenobrands) was selected as the yeast strain, due to its ability to produce a wine with balanced fruit and minerality. After the yeast is added at 15°C, fermentation typically lasts for 3 weeks at a temperature of 18 to 20°C. Jan believes that a clean and steady fermentation is best achieved at this temperature. Nutrient additions are added in the form of Anchorferm (Oenobrands) or Bioferm (Bio Springer) and later liquid ammonia is added to get the YAN up to 300mg/L.

Proper wood integration with the developing Chardonnay is monitored with great vigilance. The wine is kept on the gross lees in the barrel for 12 months, with lees stirring initiated after fermentation is complete. Batonnage is only done for the first 3 to 6 months (depending on how Jan feels the wine is developing) of barrel ageing. Jan is adamant that the wine should rest peacefully after the vigour of harvest and therefore batonnage happens only once or twice a month. All barrels are tasted according to Jan’s schedule and should a reductive barrel be detected (I did mention that Jan is very meticulous), heavy lees stirring is done on the barrel and if possible, the old lees is substituted with fresh lees. An even spread of first, second and third French barrels are used.

After the oxidative stability of the wine has been ensured (typically after 12 months in barrel), it is ready for bottling. Jan describes this process by using an exquisite metaphor; he simply sees the wine leaving the barrel as a rebirth and then the wine waiting in the tank before bottling as a gentle awakening.

Bernard Mocke is a technical consultant for Anchor Wine Yeast.

On the 28^th of February 2011 I visited Groot Constantia wine estate, South Africa, to investigate how winemaker Boela Gerber plans to make his 2011 Chardonnay – the 2006 version of this wine having earned a place in the top 10 of the 2008 Chardonnay du Monde competition. I arrived just in time to see the grapes arriving in small crates.

Boela adds both 50 ppm SO₂ and Vinozyme skin contact enzyme at the crusher – a significant time apart as not to affect enzyme activity negatively. He does only a very gentle crushing so that a big percentage of whole berries enter the press. He prefers this softer action on the grapes and feels it helps him to minimise phenolic characters.  He uses skin contact enzyme to improve yield and flavour. Enzymes according to him have a softer action on grapes than for instance pressing harder, in terms of improving juice yield. The grapes go through a mash cooler that cools it down to approximately 14 °C. Skin contact is as long as it takes to fill the Bucher press, which is about 4 hours.

His final yield is about 680 L / ton after the addition of some press juice. He adds Novoclair settling enzyme and 6 g/hl PVPP in the press sump before pumping it to the settling tank where he settles for 4 days at 3 – 4°C. The juice then has a NTU of approximately 10 and after racking he increases the NTU to 100 by the back addition of fine lees.

20 % of the wine is then fermented natural in old barrels and the remaining 80% is fermented with Lalvin D 47. He uses liquid ammonia (permitted in South Africa) as a source of nitrogen and Anchorferm as a source of complex nutrients during fermentation. The D 47 fermentation starts in tank and is moved to barrel after 1°B is fermented. He uses Francois Ferrer, Dargaud & Jaegel and Mercury barrels, 50 % new and 50% 2^nd and 3^rd fill. Fermentation lasts approximately 7 days. The wine then stays in barrel on the gross lees until November of each year and he battonages by rolling the barrels. Malolactic fermentation happens naturally and is usually 50 – 60% complete. The wine is then taken out of barrel and treated if necessary with Laffort casein and bentonite. In the years where Boela feels either the wine alcohol is too high or the acidity too low, or both, he blends some of his Chardonnay base wine for sparkling wine production from the same vintage into the final blend to assure a better balanced final product. The wine is then sterile filtered and kept in bottle for 6 – 9 months before release.

The wine retails for £11 – 14 in the UK.

PS: I got the title from a four yearly event that Sonoma Cutrer in California used to host/organise. Does anyone know if this is still happening? Google is not very forthcoming on the topic. As a harvest intern at SC in 1994 I had the pleasure of tasting the left over wines from this event every day. Too bad I did not fully appreciate the quality of what I was drinking at the time…