Selection Estate Series Crushendo™
California, Santa Ynez Valley Syrah
Important tips with Crushendo™
1) Kit must be made to full 23 litres (6 US gallons) and then add the grape package, for a total of 25 litres (6.5 US gallons). Any lower volume and it will not finish fermenting.
2) Kit must be made in primary fermenter to accommodate volume and grape material floating on top (the ‘cap’). 30 litres (8 US gallons) is sufficient, as the cap does not rise too high.
3) The grape material has the consistency of jam, but the skins themselves are not intact due to how they were processed. They will range in size from the occasional whole grapeskin to smaller pieces the size of tea-leaves. This is normal and necessary—the processing allows the yeast to extract all of the tannins and polyphenolics during fermentation.
4) When putting the siphon mesh tip on the racking tube, make sure that you leave 5 cm (1.5 inches) of siphon mesh exposed before the pinch on the bottom: that is, you need to leave about 5 cm of mesh tube between the flattened part and the bottom of the racking tube. This length will allow a decent rate of flow during racking. If customers jam the siphon mesh on all the way, it will flow very slowly. (see more details below)
5) The siphon will flow more slowly than usual in any case. This is normal, and can’t be made faster, due to the grape material sticking to the siphon mesh. If the customer becomes impatient and jiggles the tube, it may lose flow and stop.
6) When racking from the primary to the carboy on day 7, fill it to within 5 cm (1.5 inches) from the bottom of the bung. This is necessary because the kit gets a racking before fining and stabilising, which will lead to an approximate 1 litre (1 quart) loss at fining (see point 6).
7) On fining day, unlike our other kits, this one must be racked. There are two reasons for this. #1, there is a lot more solid material in this kit, due to the grape pack, and it needs to be removed. #2, the high level of tannin in the kit acts as a natural fining agent, so it replaces the action of the yeast mass, which is normally stirred into suspension for all other WE kits during fining.
8) There is no instruction at bottling for adding a quarter teaspoon of sulphite. This kit does not need extra sulphite for ageing. There are several reasons: #1, we include a higher level of sulphite in the kit to begin with. At bottling it will be approximately 30 PPM FSO2—higher than our regular kits, but still less than half of the legal level for commercial wines. #2, the high level of tannin in the kit acts as a natural preservative, protecting the wine from oxidation. #3, the wine tastes magnificent right out of the carboy—we expect people will drink this very rapidly for the most part, even though it will successfully age for a very long time. .
Also, there is a transcript error on the instruction set on Fining Stabilising day. While the pictogram clearly shows a racking from one carboy to another, the text says, ‘Place the primary fermenter on a . . . ‘. This will be corrected on the next printing of the instructions, but you may get questions from confused customers.
Racking tips
If experiencing difficulty in racking the Crushendo™ product, please read below for additional information that will help facilitate a smoother racking process. Where applicable, please share this information with home winemakers.
Ensure that you rack at 7 days (no more, no less) assuming specific gravity level achieved.
After 7 days, the grape skins start settling to the bottom of the fermentation pail making it more difficult to rack off the wine. (There are no additional benefits to extending the fermentation process past 7 days)
- Tilt fermentation pail before racking
We recommend using an 8mm (5/16”) auto siphon to rack the wine. Remove the racking cap, replace it with the larger 13 mm (½”) mesh filter tip. (see pictures below)
If flow is lost, pump the auto-siphon gently to get it going again.
Please note: Mesh filter will not fit the larger ½” auto-siphon13mm (1/2”).
For 8 mm (5/16”) auto-siphon
Before removing cap After attaching large mesh filter
If you are using an 8 mm (5/16”) siphon rod
When placing the mesh filter on the end of the rod, leave at least 3.5 cm (1 ½ inches) space between the end of the rod and the “pinched” part of the mesh filter.
(see picture below)
3.5 cm ( 1 ½”) space
Although the racking process may be slower than when using a 13 mm (½”) rod, the narrower tube will allow for smoother racking with less possibility of losing prime.
