Some experience · 23.5 litres · Full-bodied dry red
Syrah and Grenache
The southern Rhone pairing: Syrah for pepper, structure and colour, Grenache for warmth and red fruit. Co-fermented rather than blended afterwards, which is the traditional way and the better one.
Starting sugar
25.1 Brix
6.52 kg of fermentable sugar
Original gravity
1.106
from the ingredients, not asserted
Finishing gravity
0.995
dry
Alcohol
14.6%
Brix alone predicts 13.8 to 15.1%
Residual sugar
0 g/L
approximate, from gravity
Ready after
12 months
best around 4 years
Made to Full-bodied dry red, and every computed figure lands inside the published range for it.
ABV inTA inpH inRS inWhat decides this wine
Protecting the Grenache. It browns in hours rather than days, so this is the one red where you sulphite at the crusher, keep the must cool until you pitch, and do not leave the bin uncovered while you go and find something.
What goes in
| Ingredient | Weight | Sugar | Volume | Share of sugar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Syrah24.5 Brix | 24.00 kg | 4.22 kg | 15.60 L | 65% |
| Grenache25.5 Brix A third of the blend. Grenache oxidises faster than almost any red, so this must is on the clock from the moment it is crushed. | 12.00 kg | 2.31 kg | 8.16 L | 35% |
The ingredients contribute 23.8 litres and the water makes up the rest to 23.5 litres. Those figures are checked against each other when the site is built, because a recipe whose volumes do not add up produces a wine weaker or stronger than every number above.
Acid and sulphite
Acidity of the must
6.0 g/L
at pH 3.60
After malolactic
4.0 g/L
malolactic takes roughly 2 g/L with it
Tartaric to add
35 g
to reach 5.5 g/L. Bench trial before treating the batch
Sulphite at bottling
1.8 g
potassium metabisulphite, for 44 mg/L free SO2 at pH 3.75
The batch
- Must volume
- 23.5 L
- Ferment at
- 22-28 C
- Molecular SO2 target
- 0.5 mg/L
- Malolactic
- Yes
- Yeast
- Syrah Rhone 2226to 16%, medium N
The sulphite figure is worked out against the pH of the finished wine, not of the must. Malolactic and deacidification both raise pH, and dosing a finished red to its must pH under-protects it by roughly a third. Recompute for your own reading.
Method
- 01Destem and crush both varieties into the same vessel and mix them thoroughly.
- 02Sulphite at 50 mg/L immediately, and cool the must if you can.
- 03Pitch at 22C and let the temperature rise as fermentation takes hold. Punch down three times a day.
- 04Press after about ten days, at dryness.
- 05Malolactic at 20C, then sulphite once it has finished.
- 06Bulk age nine months, racking quarterly, then bottle.
The two instruments this recipe needs
Every number on this page came from a hydrometer reading and a pH reading. Without those two you are following a recipe rather than making a wine, and the sulphite figure in particular is meaningless without a pH you have actually measured.
Measuring
Hydrometer and trial jar
SOLIGT Triple Scale Hydrometer and Glass Test Jar for Wine, Beer, Mead & Cider - ABV, Brix and Gravity Test Kit
$18.98
Tracks the ferment from must to dry. The gap between your starting and finishing gravity is the only reliable way to know the alcohol you actually made.
Measuring
pH meter
Apera Instruments AI1113 pH Calibration Buffer Solution Kit (7.00, 4.00), 8 oz. Each
$18.00
The most important instrument on this page. pH decides how much of your sulphite is actually protecting the wine, and dosing without knowing it is guesswork.