Log Notes: 2010 Gewurztraminer

Double Gold winner at the 2011 NY State Fair

By Daniel Smothergill

We had planned a trip to the Loire for the beginning of October 2010, so when the order forms began arriving in August, I only considered juices with pick-up dates for when we would be home. The Presque Isle Gewurztraminer fit so I placed an order. Just about everything in 2010 was early however, so my plans went awry. The Gewurztraminer came in nearly a week before we returned.

Although Presque Isle kept the juice refrigerated, fermentation had begun by October 16 when I picked it up in North East Pennsylvania—225 miles from home! The numbers from Presque Isle were 23.8 Brix, .59 TA and 3.3 pH. Since it was already fermenting, I did not inoculate nor did I run my own numbers.

On October 18 it was at 8.5 Brix and fermenting slowly. Fermaid-K was added. I should say that my wine cellar is in the basement of an unheated tool shed, so the temperatures are cool, probably around 50 degrees during this time. By November 5 the Brix was below zero. It was racked and sulfited. A second racking occurred January 6 and a third on February 4. The wine then was put into gallon jugs, my standard procedure. As wine is needed I bottle from the jugs.

On February 25 the wine was filtered (medium) using a Buon Vino Mini Jet. When tasted on March 8 it was promising but in need of some sweetening, so I added sugar with a goal of .6 RS. No sorbate was added. A week later the RS registered 1.0; so much for my goal.

On March 26 the pH was 3.61, higher than Presque Isle's original reading. Since the acid was only .6, I decided to add tartaric acid at the rate of 1 gm/L in order to reduce pH and increase acidity. After stabilizing for 2 weeks at about 35 degrees the pH was 3.25 and the acidity .765. It tasted good too, but I felt it could be spicier and blended in about 5% of 2010 Steuben. That's what went to the State Fair.