For the first time I just ran some residual sugar tests using
Clinitest and found most of the wines in the 0.25% to 0.5% sugar
range. Some of the wines seem like they have detectable level of
sugar, but I don't know if it's just a taste associated with young
wines. I read on some other posts that these aren't too far out of
whack, but I want to make sure I don't leave very detectable amounts
of sugar. Thoughts?

Also, there appears to be one wine (a syrah) that's at about 1%.
Let's say I wanted to drop that. Can I assume that primary
fermentation is as done as it's going to get by now? If so, I've read
something about killer yeasts that you get started at a reasonable
volume (e.g., 10%) and then add to restart the fermentation. But is
wine at 1% sugar just too low to do anything about?

....Michael

Michael, I wouldn't worry about a 1% residual sugar (RS) reading. The
wine is still dry, the RS should be enhancing the Syrah's flavor, and
if the wine is stable it will be fine. I certainly wouldn't risk the
wine's stability by introducing a killer yeast strain. Besides, there
is such a thing as too dry....

Just my opinion....

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/

(Jack Keller) wrote in message . com...
Michael, I wouldn't worry about a 1% residual sugar (RS) reading. The
wine is still dry, the RS should be enhancing the Syrah's flavor, and
if the wine is stable it will be fine. I certainly wouldn't risk the
wine's stability by introducing a killer yeast strain. Besides, there
is such a thing as too dry....

Thanks Jack. Why would a killer yeast decrease the wine's stability?
My concern so far was just getting the thing going in a barrel of 1%
RS wine. Also, what's your though on the best way to test for RS?

....Michael

Michael, Clinitest is still the way to go right now.

As for why a killer yeast would make a wine unstable, I guess I stated
it wrong. If you have a stable wine with 1% RS, adding yeast to it is
silly to me because 1% is a good number. I tried to point this out in
my previous post. Adding yeast to a stable wine just doesn't make
sense because (1) there isn't enough sugar in there to get a vigorous
fermentation, (2) it will take additional time to return the wine to
stability, and (3) you could render the wine too dry to be enjoyable.
In my humble opinion, a little RS is better than none -- a little RS
enhances flavor.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/

You can leave some residual sugar, but it requires extremely good cellar
hygiene. Brettanomyces will grow and produce significant levels of
contaminants in as little as 0.25g/L of sugar (0.025%). Keep your sulphur
levels up (30ppm free SO2 even in a red wine), and make sure you always add
a minimum dose of 10-20ppm SO2, as adding smaller quantities just trains
them to like the stuff!

Cheers,

Andrew

Many thanks to a seminar run by Peter Godden of the AWRI for the above
information.

"Michael Brill" wrote in message
om...
For the first time I just ran some residual sugar tests using
Clinitest and found most of the wines in the 0.25% to 0.5% sugar
range. Some of the wines seem like they have detectable level of
sugar, but I don't know if it's just a taste associated with young
wines. I read on some other posts that these aren't too far out of
whack, but I want to make sure I don't leave very detectable amounts
of sugar. Thoughts?

Also, there appears to be one wine (a syrah) that's at about 1%.
Let's say I wanted to drop that. Can I assume that primary
fermentation is as done as it's going to get by now? If so, I've read
something about killer yeasts that you get started at a reasonable
volume (e.g., 10%) and then add to restart the fermentation. But is
wine at 1% sugar just too low to do anything about?

...Michael