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Top 7 Winemaking Tips for the Spring Harvest

The Spring Harvest is underway! It’s time to get yourself set up for your Spring fermentations.

  1. Plan out your batch

    1. What kind of wine do you want to make?
    2. Review your ferementation notes from previous seasons
    3. Taste wines from Chile and South Africa for inspiration
  2. Review how to adjust your must

    1. Adjusting your Brix, TA, and pH
    2. Take an online class if need a referesher
  3. If making wine from juice, decide on Fresco vs. Non Fresco Juices

  4. Decide on the type of yeast you want to use

    1. For Chilean grapes we always suggest using the CSM yeast
    2. For Pinotage grapes we suggest using D254 yeast
  5. PRE ORDER

    1. Give us a call at 877-812-1137 or email us at sales@juicegrape.com
  6. Think about the temperatures in your cellar

    1. Do you need extra heat?
    2. Do you need AC?
  7. Keep an eye on the Harvest Tracker for updates on the Spring Harvest

    1. Harvest Tracker

Interested in making your own wine? Musto Wine Grape Company is here to help! Musto’s New England’s largest supplier for home winemaking products and services. Visit juicegrape.com or give us a call at (877) 812 – 1137 to learn more.

Product Spotlight: CSM Yeast

csm yeast

Product Spotlight: CSM Yeast

CSM yeast was derived from Bordeaux and helps create a vibrant aromatic profile. CSM aids in adding complexity to the palate and pairs well with malolactic fermentation.

Why you want to use it:

It’s the perfect yeast for the Chilean fruit. It reduces vegetal aromas, adds complexity, stabilizes color, and helps increase the aromatic profiles of berries and spices.

Use Tips:

Fermentation starts quickly with this yeast. Be prepared to see Brix drop 24 hours after inoculation. It can stand up 14% ABV and can handle temperatures from 59–90°F. However, I highly suggest keeping your fermentation temps lower than 75°F. Once you hit 80°F you lose aromas and “burn off” flavors. Keeping your wine between 59–75°F during fermentation is a best practice.

You also want to use nutrients when using CSM; nutrients such as Fermaid-O and Fermaid-K. CSM tends to produce H2S (rotten egg smell) if there aren’t enough nutrients during fermentation.

Avoid cold shocking the yeast at inoculation. You’ll want to get the must and the yeast starter within a few degrees of each other before pitching the yeast starter. But without temperatures falling lower than 55°F. Temps below 55°F could stall fermentation and/or kill the yeast.

Goes best with:

CSM was cultivated to help ferment Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Grenache, Merlot, Sangiovese, Petit Verdot. However, we have seen it used on Carmenere, Malbec, and Syrah from Chile with great results.

Dosage:

6gm/gals

Flavor Profile:

Cherry pit, raspberry, blackberry, spice, violet, bark, and sweet pepper

 

Ready to make wine? Musto Wine Grape Company is here to help you make the wine of your dreams! The Spring South African & Chilean winemaking season starts soon! Secure your winemaking grapes or juices and give us a call at (877) 812-1137 to speak with one of our Musto Crush Crew members. We can get you set up with everything you need and provide customer support along the way to ensure your success!

2023 Chilean Winemaking Harvest Update

2023 Chilean Winemaking Harvest Update

{above photo from our trip to chile a few years ago}

Hello, Winemakers! It’s time to get ready and prepped for the Chilean grape and juice arrival. The Chilean Winemaking Season starts in early April and ends in May. Our growers have planned to start harvesting white wine grapes around March 15th and red grapes around March 23rd. Once on the boat, we will have a better update on delivery timing.

Musto’s 2023 Chilean Offerings:

Chile Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Carmenere, Malbec, Merlot, Petite Verdot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, and Viognier

Chilean Juice: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Carmenere, Malbec, Merlot, Petite Verdot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, and Muscat.

Chilean Viticulture:

Chile is the same latitude as northern California! Chileans can grow many different types of grapes here, just like in California. The cooling influences they receive from the Pacific Ocean, the Andes Mountains, and the warm and plentiful sunshine attributes to their wine-growing success. Their warm Mediterranean climate helps the grapes to ripen. The Humboldt current, flows up from Antarctica, along the Chilean coast, pushing the cool air inland by the wind patterns. This cooling effect helps cool off the grapes while they mature. Colchagua and Curico Valley both benefit from this ocean influence, which allows these regions to produce grapes from fertile soil for wines that are gaining premium reputations.

The Curico and Colchagua Valleys have some of the best soils in Chile, composed of mostly sand, clay, decomposed granite, and volcanic-alluvial. These regions only receive around 23.3 inches of rainfall per year and little to no rainfall during their summer months. The grapes are safe as harvest approaches, and the weather ensures that the grapes are fighting for water and creating a more intense fruit.

What are Brix?

The harvest is based on sugar levels in the grapes. This information comes from a simple measurement called degrees brix (also known as specific gravity). It’s important because it tells us how much water is present in our must (the mixture of crushed grapes and yeast starter). The lower this number is, the more concentrated or “dry” your wine will be when finished fermenting. The ideal Brix levels for red wines is 23-25 Brix, and for white wines 21-24 Brix.

How are the grapes harvested?

The grapes are handpicked. The pickers walk through rows of vines looking for clusters of ripe fruit to cut off with long-handled knives called “cortadores.” They then gently place these into plastic tubs where they’re carried back to trailers parked nearby–a process that takes place over several days (usually during the morning). Once all of this has been completed successfully, we begin our shipping process!

How do you know when to harvest the grapes?

The wine grape harvest is based on sugar levels in the grapes: if they’re too low you can’t make good wine; too high and it will taste too sweet and you’ll most likely have a stuck fermentation. Each month/week/and as harvest nears, day – the grapes are sampled in the field to see if they have reached their optimum levels yet.

Shipping from Chile to MWG…

Once the grapes arrive at port they are sent to Musto Wine Grape Co. and we unload them into our coolers. Everything is shipped in a refrigerated container and never breaks the cold chain. This ensures that the high quality of the fresh Chilean products are intact. After they arrive it is time for you to pick up your grapes and/or juices and get winemaking!

2023 Chilean Harvest Update:

The Chilean crop looks excellent this season. We are hoping to see the Chilean grapes and juices arrive at around 23-25 Brix, very sweet and juicy. Arrival dates look to be somewhere at the end of April / early May depending on the type of winemaking grape/juice. Give us a call (877-812-1137) or email us at sales@juicegrape.com with any arrival questions.

Fun Fact About Chile: Chile produces more than 1 million tons of grapes every year!

Chilean wine making is a time-honored tradition, and the results are worth it! This will be 18+ years of Musto Wine Grape working with our Chilean vineyards and every year the wines created get better and better. We hope you enjoyed learning about the Chilean wine-making season. It’s an interesting process that requires a lot of work, but in the end, it pays off with delicious wines!

 

For more information on making wine from Chile check out these blogs posts:

Can I make my own? Musto Wine Grape Company is here to help you make the wine of your dreams! The Spring South African & Chilean winemaking season starts soon! Secure your winemaking grapes or juices and give us a call at (877) 812-1137 to speak with one of our Musto Crush Crew members. We can get you set up with everything you need and provide customer support along the way to ensure your success!

How Much Wine will a Case of Grapes Make from Chile?

Each case of wine grapes from Chile is 18lbs. Depending on the grape variety, you should yield about 1.5-2 gallons of must per case.

However, keep in mind that certain wine grapes are “juicier” than others. For example, Syrah is considered a “juicer” grape than a Cabernet. If you look closely, you can see the difference in the shape of the berries. The Syrah grape has more of an “egg” shaped berry to it. The Cabernet is more of a circle shaped berry. The berry size, climate, soil, and vineyard practices will all help determine how much juice is produced in each berry, and the berry intensity.

Usually each case of 18lb wine grapes will yield about 1.25-1.50 gallons of finished wine.

That equates to about 7 bottles of wine.

Other factors that influence how much must and/or juice you yield per case:

How your rollers are positioned in your crusher destemmer
How much you press after fermentation is completed
How much wine you loose during racking
If you barrel age your wine
If drink a lot of wine during bottling

Keep these topics in mind when you are deciding on how many cases of grapes you want purchase versus how much wine you want to make. If you ahve any questions do not hesitate to reach out to us via email (sales@juicegrape.com) or phone (877-812-1137).

How to Make Chilean Cabernet at Home

musto wine grape chilean cabernet sauvignon grapes for winemaking for wineries and home winemakers chilean cabernet

Cabernet is King, no matter the region. At MWG we are grateful to be able to bring in Cabernet grapes and juices frrom Chile for wineries and home winemakers. Cabernets from Chile are very bold with notes of blackberry, casis, and plum. The tannins are medium to medium plus on the palate make this a great wine to enjoy with a steak or a hearty meal. Introducing oak into this style of wine only helps create more complexity on the palate and finish. Some winemakers also blend thier California Cabernet with thier Chilean Cabernet to create an “International” Cabernet Wine. There are lots of fun things to try when making Cabernet from Chile!

  1. Crush Cabernet grapes into a sanitized bin or tub. (Each 18lb crate will make 1.25 gals of finished wine).
  2. Apply 50ppm of Potassium Metabisulfite and stir well. Allow to sit for 8-12 hours.
  3. Apply .5ml of Color Pro Pectic enzyme per box diluted into a 10% solution with water to the must and stir. Allow to sit for another 8-12 hours.
  4. Mix Booster Rouge, FT Rouge, and Opti-Red, with spring water until it is the consistency of pancake batter and pour over top of crushed grapes. Mix in well.
  5. Add rehydrate CSM yeast (1g/gal) with Go Ferm rehydration nutrient and warm water. Allow to sit for 15 minutes and pour over top of crushed grapes.
  6. Punch down grapes 3 times per day throughout the duration of fermentation and monitor temperature and Brix levels daily. Use a hydrometer to test sugar content in a strained juice sample. Make sure the temperature does not exceed 85F.
  7. One day after adding the yeast, add Fermaid O, mixed with spring water in to the pancake batter style slurry. Dump into grapes during a punch down.
  8. After the depletion of 1/3 of the Brix (when the Brix level is between 16-11), add Fermaid O that is mixed with spring water into the pancake batter style slurry. Dump into to grapes at a punch down.
  9. Add Malo-lactic bacteria the same day as the Fermaid K. If you are using liquid cultures, just pour over the grape must and mix. If you use the dry cultures, rehydrate them in warm spring water according to their specific directions, utilizing any rehydration nutrients recommended.
  10. When the Brix have dropped below zero, press the wine into a sanitized tank, carboy, or demijohn. Make sure the vessel is topped up all the way to the top of the neck and sealed properly with a bung and airlock.
  11. Rack after 48 hours and then again in a week. Allow MLF to complete before adding sulfites.
  12. Allow the wine to age and rack it every 2 months and add sulfites when racking.

Recipe by the Winemakers at Musto Wine Grape

Interested in making your own wine? Musto Wine Grape Company is here to help! Musto’s New England’s largest supplier for home winemaking products and services. Visit juicegrape.com or give us a call at (877) 812 – 1137 to learn more.