Got Higher VA Than Usual on Grapes?
We received many requests concerning higher VA on grapes than usual. With the 2022 vintage weather conditions; dry, hot and now humid, the microbial population on grapes is unbalanced and very high, thus increasing the risks of juice and wine spoilage as well as stuck fermentations. To best support you, we wanted to share our recommendations to control the microbial populations, limit VA and ethylacetate production, prevent wine spoilage and stuck fermentation.
1.Increase your microbial protection on grapes, ASAP
SO2 is not the most efficient anti-microbial on grapes, especially if pH is high and it can inhibit alcoholic fermentation and causes off-aromas such as H2S. We propose to focus on bio-protection, a natural way to control and manage spoilage microbes on grapes.
Bio-protection consists of using living organisms to colonize and occupy an ecological niche in order to limit the development of undesirable indigenous microorganisms. Lamothe-Abiet developed Excellence B-Nature , a pure Metschnikowia Pulcherrima strain, isolated from grapes in South Africa and a natural anti-microbial solution, used as bio-protection and alternative to SO2 on grapes.
As an efficient bio-protector, Excellence® B-Nature® develop quickly on grapes and juice, colonizing the environment, decreasing the population of spoilage microbes present such as Brettanomyces, other non-Saccharomyces, lactic acid bacteria and acetic acid bacteria, while promoting the development of positive microbes like Saccharomyces cerevisiae to take over and start the fermentation. As an alternatives to SO2, Excellence® B-Nature® not only protect grapes and juices from microbial spoilage but also consume oxygen, thus reducing the risks of oxidation. Using Excellence® B-Nature® on grapes will allow winemakers to:
Control microbial population
Prevent VA, ethylacetate and other off-aromas production
Improve fermentation kinetics and completion
Reduce SO2 combining molecule, thus improving the FSO2 and TSO2 ratio
Help to produce cleaner and more complex wines with less aggressivity and brighter color.
HOW TO USE EXCELLENCE® B-NATURE®?
Always keeping in mind the practicality, Excellence® B-Nature® is very easy to use and apply; simply and directly sprinkle the dry yeast without preparation on the top of the grapes, as soon as possible in the process. Bio-protection is recommended in all cases: grape transportation (more than 30min), transportation of juice, delay between picking the grapes, and grape processing, delay between and grape processing fermentation (cold soaking, maceration, stabulation, ...), cold storage of grapes or juice, native fermentation, high pH conditions, reduction of SO2.
HEAR IT FROM THE WINEMAKERS…
We have been using Excellence B-Nature for three years now. It is very good product that works perfectly for our wines. It allows us to go with no SO2 at crush pad, have clean fermentation and softer and more elegant tannins. - Jonathan Tyer, associate winemaker at Inglenook
Excellence B-Nature is an integral part of our Winemaking at Fallbrook Winery. No need for pre-fermentive soak to be cold, less SO2 at crush, a far better FSO2 to TSO2 ratio and less fermentation sulphides to deal with. Piece of mind with our higher pH lots and respectful of fruit. A great product! - Euan Parker, winemaker at Fallbrook Winery, CA
We do all wild yeast fermentations at 2Hawk, so having a product like Excellence B-Nature to protect our vineyard yeast until they can dominate the medium is critical to successful fermentations - Kiley Evans, winemaker at 2Hawk Vineyard & Winery, OR
We have been using Excellence B-Nature on our estate rose that requires maceration to extract color. I am completely sold! We had some microbial issues in the past on our rose and Excellence B-Nature completely helped us to control and prevent it. You can be a good winemaker, extremely careful and very strong on sanitation, there is always things you cannot predict, so I will be using Excellence B-Nature in the future on everything! - Benedicte Rhyne, winemaker at Kuhlman Cellars, TX
We use Excellence B-Nature in our red and rose winemaking and love the control it offers over our juices. On compromised red fruits during cold soak, Excellence B-Nature does a great job at preventing spoilage yeasts from kicking off fermentation. For our rose program, we use Excellence B-Nature to protect the saignee portion from wild fermentation while we consolidating juice for few days. As a result, we have cleaner fermentations that don't struggle to finish. - Matthew Perry, assistant winemaker at Adelsheim, OR
2. Prevent stuck fermentation.
Waiting is not without consequences… A sluggish or stuck fermentation is an open door for microbial contaminations, which often result in VA production, Brett taint, biogenic amines, mousiness, … thus reducing wine quality. A sluggish or stuck fermentation also have some economic impact as it causes delay in production and requires specific wine treatments, labor intensive. Be proactive, don’t wait and finish fermentation right away.
We have developed a successful, simple approach to ensure completion of fermentation without the hassle of a restart. We propose a late inoculation (8-5°Brix) of 30 g/hL of L.A Bayanus, simply rehydrated with 30 g/hL of OenoStim o improve yeast health, resistance to stressful conditions and optimize their metabolism.
At 8-5°Brix to your fermenting wine, you can add L.A Bayanus to ensure fermentation completion and avoid a full restart protocol.
Rehydrate 40g/hL of L.A Bayanus with 40 g/hL with OenoStim.
Acclimate to wine by adding same volume of wine and wait 30 min.
Repeat acclimation step 2 times.
Add to fermenting tank and mix gently.
