Why monitor barrels or tanks while cellaring - Be proactive
Spring is here. Cellars have started to warm up, your northern hemisphere staff are getting ready to come back and you are looking towards fining, blending, cellaring and bottling. To know where you are going, you need to know where you have been. Be proactive in your analysis or even just an extra sensory on the way past that stinky EA VA barrel you have been avoiding.
Why monitor barrels or tanks while cellaring - Be proactive
Quality control: Testing helps ensure that the wine is of the highest quality possible. By monitoring for potential spoilage or defects, winemakers can identify issues early on and take corrective measures to ensure that the wine is of the highest quality possible.
Consistency: Consistency is important in winemaking to maintain the same taste, aroma, and appearance from one vintage to the next. Testing helps ensure that the wine is consistent from batch to batch and from year to year.
Consumer satisfaction: Consumers expect wine to be of a certain quality and taste. Testing helps ensure that the wine meets consumer expectations and helps maintain consumer satisfaction.
Economic benefits: Spoilage or defects in wine can lead to significant economic losses for winemakers. Testing helps prevent spoilage and defects, and identifies problems before they become defects.
Butt covering: By being able to show how a wine left your winery, in what condition and how you managed any risks along the way gives you a better understanding of when and why problems happen.
We recommend checking and monitoring the analysis in the table below coming out of winter and cellaring. It is always good to have a start point for analysis so you know how your wine tracks on the way to bottle.
Analysis to do | Why
VA (Acetic acid) - Increased VA compared to original analysis indicates microbial problems
Total Sugars (G/F) - If not finished prior to cellaring monitoring helps with knowing when to make SO2 additions, and may indicate microbial problems
Free and Total SO2 - Protects wine and reduction can indicate microbial activity.
Malic - If not finished prior to cellaring monitoring helps with knowing when to make SO2 additions, and may indicate microbial problems.
Microbial activity - Checking for yeast, bacteria and Brettanomyces can help identify problems before faults impact the wine sensory. This also can monitor Oenococcus for activity if it is needed or not.
Sensory/Visual Always important cellar work looking for changes to aroma, palate and appearance of the wine.