Our Natural Wine Making Experiment
Part 1
Preamble
A few months back I read an article on Medium about Natural Wines and to be honest, I wasn’t happy. Then I read elsewhere about how much this stuff sells for and thought woo-hoo!
Then I wrote an article about my vineyards and the possibility of making natural wine.
N.B. Nothing I extract from of this experiment will be for sale and I’ll produce maybe 200 bottles which I’ll give away to friends (and Dr. Lutz Kraushaar who seems to have a “nose” for red wine) to see if they like what I’ve made.
So here we go…
The Vineyard
The vineyard I’ll be using for this experiment is Solanes Terrace B. It is registered with D.O. Priorat and I sell the grape for around 1.50 euros per kilo, which for a year’s work is a joke.
It is an organic vineyard (as are my other 2), not big and the terrace produces maybe 300kg of grapes a year which is sufficient for this experiment. Solanes has 3 terraces and a registered production allowance of 2000kgs a year but 2 of the terraces have been destroyed by drought and need to be replanted, hence the need for funds from Natural Wine.
The vineyard lies next to the river Siurana, deep in the countryside and is miles from traffic or buildings.
The grape is carinyena (catalan spelling) planted in 1979 and the quality is usually excellent.
Works to the vineyard to change it to a natural wine vineyard
To be honest, there weren’t many things to change.
- The vineyard needs to be organic. It is, although it does get sprayed with organic chemicals to keep down mildew and other fongs. I have the necessary licence for this and the chemicals used all have organic certificates. Spraying lasts from May 1st to around 24th July and happens roughly every 15 days. I looked into getting an organic certificate for the land but the cost was silly, the administration horrendous and the last thing I want is more legislation breathing down my neck. Anyway, I can produce a list of chemicals bought on my state controlled licence to validate any query regarding the status of chemicals on the land.
- The vineyard needs to be minimal intervention or bio-dynamic. I went for minimal intervention, because bio-dynamic means much more paperwork and licences as you’re introducing animal waste into a natural environment. The vineyard is surrounded by forest and does not need anything added to it. Therefore minimal intervention. I prune in January, plow twice in March to open the ground and I thin the vines around end of April to ensure the grape gets a good airflow. I use a hand brushcutter to remove weed growth before the harvest, just to make the harvest easier, however that is in late August after all the insects and birds have had their fill. For the rest of the time the vineyard is left alone.
- Harvesting must be carried out by hand. I always harvest (la verema) by hand, so no change at all.
Making Natural Wine
I know absolutely nothing about this and this therefore is the experiment.
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From what I can gather, I need to crush the grape, let it ferment naturally for 4 days or don’t, I don’t know which yet, press the must to extract more juice and then place the juice in demijohns for around 18 months and that is all.
Like all things in farming, it sounds simple until the trouble starts.
The equipment I bought for this experiment all came from various online places in various countries and is…
A 500L Tub:
10 x 25L demijohns:
A Grape Crusher:
A Grape Press
A petrol generator:
1706.11 euros total for the 3 AgriEuro items.
I will be using solar for power later on but I need to update my system first, plus I need the generator for other forest related works where a solar installation is not possible due to bureaucracy. My last permit for solar panels took 3.5 years to get, so I’ll have to use a generator for the moment.
I did originally purchase the grape crusher and press from Polsinelli Enologia of Italy because they were cheaper but cancelled the order because Polsinelli, thanks to Andrea Gigli and his “I’m so smart and cunning” mentality turned out to be useless. It takes a major talent to stuff up an online order with just a couple of emails but Signor Gigli has the gift. Therefore the crusher and press from AgriEuro were last minute replacements.
So, in total I spent about 2000 euros on kit and still need odds and sods that I can pick up from Amazon (sugar level and alcohol measures, cork bungs, fermenters, colanders, buckets and the like).
Next step is to check the state of the vineyard to make sure badness hasn’t happened and then brushcut it in a few weeks. The harvest is usually at the beginning of September but the week varies as we need to wait for the sugar and alcohol values to be just right.
God, I hope this works!
