Getting Your Wine Ready to Bottle: Checklist and Preparation Tips

Preparing to Bottle J. Richard Sportsman, Ph.D. Vinmetrica/Little Oaks Winery

Rich Sportsman Ph.D. analytical chemistry U. Arizona 1982 Pharma & biotech 1984 - 2008 Amateur winemaker since 1993 Started Vinmetrica 2010 Started Little Oaks Winery 2012

Todays Talk Getting your wine ready to bottle Sensory aspects Taste/Aroma Appearance Physical aspects Test parameters Predicted stability Interventions/Blending decisions Preparations for Bottling Day

Pre-Bottling Checklist Two months before Order enough bottles, corks/closures, capsules/seals Make sure they fit! Decide on label(s) and get them ready

Pre-Bottling Checklist Two months before Can you get shared equipment? Fellow winemakers Local winemaking groups Filtration Corkers Fillers Portuguese Floor Corker Buon Vino Enolmaster

Pre-Bottling Checklist One month before Is the wine stable? Residual Sugars below ~2 g/L, SG 0.995 If not, 0.45 filter, add potassium sorbate Malic acid < 0.05 g/L If not, 0.45 filter (lysozyme?) pH and acidity appropriate pH > 4 might need adjustment Tartrates (whites and ros s): cold stabilize Blending? Bench trials of different proportions of your wines

Getting your wine ready to bottle Sensory aspects Taste and aroma (2 weeks before) Do sample tastings with multiple opinions Mouth feel Sense any Off aromas or flavors? Appearance Cloudiness Color

Getting your wine ready to bottle Physical aspects pH, TA (1 week before) Check, but adjust only if really needed If adjusting now, do a trial on a sample Check and adjust free SO2 (1-2 days before) Use sulfite calculator (FermCalc, WMM) Adjust free SO2 to get right molecular SO2 molecular SO2 - white: 0.8 ppm, red: 0.5 ppm needed free SO2 level rises with pH

Getting your wine ready to bottle Physical aspects Adjust free SO2 to get protective molecular SO2 molecular SO2 - white: ~0.8 ppm, red: ~0.5 ppm needed free SO2 level rises with pH 13 16 21 26 32 40 50 63 79 99 125 Free SO2 (ppm) 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 4.0 pH Table 1. Free SO2 concentrations necessary to attain 0.8 ppm molecular SO2at a designated pH.

Getting your wine ready to bottle Physical aspects Malolactic stability Malic acid <0.05 g/L if MLF is complete MLF incomplete/not done = risk of CO2 gassing 0.45 filtration Lysozyme treatment and 50 ppm free SO2 may work Risky...

Interventions Fining to improve clarity, taste and/or aroma Powders of minerals, proteins, polysaccharides, polymers Bentonite Egg whites, gelatin PVPP Do trials on small scale Aeration by stirring or sparging Reduce CO2 to ambient levels Remove certain odors Allow 2-3 days to stabilize for bottling

Preparations for Bottling Day - 1 Bottles ready? Count em up! Clean? Closures? Corker adjusted? Corks, T-corks or screw caps Capsules Filtering? Check equipment and filters Sparging bottles before filling? Have N2, Ar or CO2 on hand Labels

Preparations for Bottling Day - 2 Get a crew! ~ 4 naive and enthusiastic people Tell them it will be fun! Bribery may be necessary... Check Bottle Filling equipment Wet practice run with water Spills will happen! Towels and mops ready

Bottling Day

Summary Plan weeks ahead for bottling! Order Closures, bottles, labels, capsules Check stability: pH, SO2, malic, residual sugar Make interventions & adjustement 1-3 days ahead Pre-check equipment Corker, filtration, filler Get a crew Have fun!

Thank you rich@vinmetrica.com tlikins@vinmetrica.com info@vinmetrica.com www.vinmetrica.com www.littleoakswinery.com