http://www.hort.cornell.edu/reisch/grapegenetics/bulletin/Noiret.pdf

-C K C-

https://pennsylvaniawine.com/2018/10/18/pennsylvania-wine-school-what-is-a-baco-noir/

There is quite the story behind the Old Route 121 Barrel and the wine it produced. And it's quite long. So, sit back, pour a glass of something tasty, and waste a half hour.

This goes back a "few" decades. In the middle part of the 20th century, there was a farmstead located at the NW corner of Illinois State Route 121 and Townline Road in Tazewell County, Illinois. This 175+ acre farm produced many things over several decades, and one of those items were grapes. The owners made jelly and wine. The wine went into oak barrels. In the early mid 1980s, the state of Illinois decided that it needed to use eminent domain to expropriate 17 acres of this farmstead to create Interstate 155 to connect the booming megatropolises of Morton and Lincoln, Illinois (snicker). This removed the farmer, his home, his grapes, and his barrels. I really wanted to be there when they bulldozed the outhouse. I'm sure that would have been priceless. Anyway, the barrels eventually ended up at various descendants' homes. After decades of sitting empty, I restored one of the barrels to hold liquid. It was not my intent to fill it with wine in 2021 or maybe ever. HOWEVER, the perfect whirlwind storm occurred and the barrel saw wine. The following documents those events.

I'm a Chef by trade. I have always been fascinated with wine. There was a time I could tell you the best vintages, the best vineyards, the best wineries/chateauxs, blah, blah, blah. I can pair wines with food with ease. But I knew nothing about the process of making wine. Then, one day in 2005, the owner of Willett's Winery in Manito walked into my place of employment and my journey of an amateur winemaker began. I've learned (and continue to learn) from some very educated and experienced people in that field.

Many years later.......

In the winter of 2020, the owner of Mockingbird Vineyards in Manito, Illinois contacted me and asked me approximately how many pounds of grapes I would be interested in to make wine in 2021. I reserved my usual 175-200 pounds of red grapes; enough to make about 10 gallons of wine. Fast forward to the summer of 2021. I needed to move some heavy things in my garage. One of those things was one of the above mentioned 55 gallon wine barrels. This thing was HEAVY! I enlisted the help of a friend and we started to move it. We could feel the wooden slats move and the metal rings slip...the barrel was on the verge of falling apart!!! It had dried out over all of those decades of sitting empty in my garage. There was NO WAY I could live with letting one of grandfather's wine barrels fall apart. We gingerly moved it (as gingerly as two people can move a 75 pound oblique object) to the driveway, stuck a garden hose in it, turned on the water; and the water ran out as fast as it went in. Well, that's useless. I have an old, heavy plastic preformed pond liner (don't ask). We filled the liner with water, moved the barrel onto a piece of plasterboard, picked up the plasterboard, and slowly rolled the barrel into the water bath. It sank as did my heart. Would this barrel ever absorb enough water to get it to swell together so it would at LEAST not fall apart? Every few days I would gently roll it onto a different side. After a month, not only did it swell enough to keep it together, it didn't have to be babied to move it and it almost held water!! Unbelievable, right? After a few more weeks, it only had a few minor leaks. Good enough. During this time, I had been documenting this "restoration" on Facebook and many people were following the progression and cheering on its restoration. This is where things take off.

About a month later the "phone rang" (does the phone actually ring anymore? I think it was actually a Facebook message). It was Mockingbird Vineyard. My 175 pounds of grapes would be ready in a few days. Woohooo! Well, for my usual amount of wine making, that is. At this time, I had no aspirations to fill the barrel; I was just trying to save it and maybe fill it in 2022 when I could secure enough grapes in advance.

Then an e-mail came. It was the owner of a small, secluded vineyard located outside of Knoxville, IL named Walnut Pond. I had met the owner at a workplace seminar and somehow we started talking about wine and grapes. The conversation turned to the fact that she and her husband owned this vineyard. The phone call was about a buyer of their grapes had backed out on them, and they were looking for another buyer. She happened to think of me and that I may know someone. They also had their home and vineyard up for sale and didn't really want to mess with the grapes. I did try to sell them for them as I made a phone call to a local winemaker but he was inundated with more grapes than he wanted to deal with so I was no help. I called and told her I had no luck. She asked if I had any use for them. I told her I wouldn't mind some as I could expand my normal 10 gallons to 20. She said "You pick 'em, you can have them".

Huh? What?

I've picked grapes at Mockingbird Vineyard before. I've probably picked 200 pounds in a day. No. Big. Deal. Sure, I'll take 200 pounds, let me know when they are ready to be picked. A few days go by and....

The "phone rings". It is Mockingbird Vineyard. They have been following my barrel progression on Facebook and had a proposition for me. They grow a grape called Noiret. Noiret tends to give them fits. They also love the wine Noiret produces. Due to the unpredictability of the grape and how much it will or will not produce and their love for it, they never sell it to wineries. However, they still have their 2020 vintage in a tank and are willing to sell me the Noiret!

OH! HELL! YEAH!  

H-O-W-E-V-E-R....the Noiret vines were on a tear in 2021 and produced far more than I could financially afford. The owners were willing to work with me on it, but I just didn't feel right about it, plus I said I'd take some of the grapes off of Walnut Pond's hands. Not that they would have probably cared, but I didn't want to be a jerk to them, too.

                                                        Read about Noiret here:

The "phone rings". It is Walnut Pond. Apparently, the winery who didn't want their grapes NOW DOES want their Concord after all, which was what I was planning to pick. Well, shit.

But....Now the story takes a huge twist.

When Walnut Pond planted their vineyard, they planted a wide variety of grapes. One grape variety they planted was LaCrosse, a sibling white grape to Seyval Blanc. They THOUGHT they planted LaCrosse...or that is what was sold to them and labeled that way. When the vines started to produce, they were, in fact, RED grapes!! Of course, they called the nursery from which they purchased them to give them hellfire, but guess who was no longer in business? Yeah, no wonder. Anyway, this really took the steam out of them. For years, they would make some wine from them, other years they would just hang, feed the birds and rot. But since they were moving, they were just going to let them hang....unless I wanted them.  Hmmmmm. She originally didn't mention them because she figured I (or anyone else for that matter) would want to know what I was working with and the Concord was available. Would I have any interest in these?

The "phone rings". I have another vineyard who is willing to part with some Marquette grapes. Oh, my. Marquette is a dark skinned grape that would complement Noiret well. Dilemma. Marquette or unknown grapes? The "price" was the same. A few days later, I was informed that after they picked the Marquette they wanted for their own wines, there wasn't much left. Back to the unknown grapes at Walnut Pond.

I go take a look at the unknown grapes. It was obvious there were three different varietals. Two of these varietals were obviously (and tasted like) Lambrusca style grapes...Concord is the most popular of this type of grape and is used to make Welch's grape juice. They weren't Concord as they didn't look like, nor the leaves resemble, the Concord planted at this vineyard. They could be Worden or Steuben. Good enough. I was planning on blending Concord with the Noiret, anyway. But....

The third grape was different. It obviously wasn't a Lambrusca style grape. Small. Tight, medium sized clusters. Purple-ish black in color. Actually, its flavor profile isn't much different than Noiret: Dark fruit flavors and a peppery finish. Definitely more acidic. But definitely not Noiret. Not Marquette. Maybe Chancellor. Send pics of said grape to various grape/wine people for their opinions. I'm not having it DNA tested. Various opinions came back. I scoured the internet and after countless hours, I think I found it. More on that later.

One thing was clear: I had found enough grapes.

"Phone rings" again. Mockingbird Vineyards...your grapes are ready. Go get grapes.

Now, to be honest, I had no idea how I was going to process these grapes. I mean, de-stemming and crushing 175 pounds isn't a big deal. 550 pounds? Ugh. So, the internet to the rescue. I find a video on YouTube of some guy putting a milk crate in a large plastic container and rubbing the grapes over the bottom of the milk crate. HA! It works! BWAHAHAHA!! Ok, it isn't as fast as a de-stemmer/crusher local vineyards have, but.... I have good help..my friend Tom Broy and co-worker Michael Brix. The next step was crushing them. No, I'm not going all Lucille Ball on them. I'm going to do what I've done before: I possess a small, commercial meat grinder! Works like a charm. Borrow a huge Lexan container from work, add some pectic enzyme to draw the juice out and leave them set a few days. 550 pounds done. 450-ish to go.

Off to Walnut Pond.

I pick the small, black, mystery grape first...I definitely want those the most. Not a lot of them; maybe 20% of 1000 pounds I needed. The remaining I picked indiscriminately...they were remarkably close in flavor. This endeavor took 3 days after school: drive to BFE rural Knoxville, IL, pick grapes well into the dark, go home, unload into larger containers so I could head out and do it again the next day. I get them "milk crated" and "meat "grindered". Now, I'm out of space. How to ferment all of this? Two new 42 gallon BRUTE trash cans lined with many layers of 45 gallon food grade storage bags for the win(e)!!! So, I do my best to mix the four varieties together into two containers. I have about 80 gallons of must (Skins, grape innards, seeds, juice, probably a spider or two). Should be close enough to make 55 gallons (what the barrel holds) of wine.

Meanwhile, the barrel is somewhat holding water and patiently waiting. It can no longer "somewhat" hold water, it MUST hold water. It only had a few minor leaks, nothing a little food grade silicone didn't cure. Not what I really wanted, but after months of having water on it and it didn't swell shut, it wasn't going to do it on its own. I'll live with it.

While all of this hot grape action is going on, I do my research on yeast strains. A lot of people are perfectly happy with a strain called RC 212. It is actually the preferred strain for Burgundy's famed Pinot Noir but widely used for other red wines. If you know me, I have to be different. My research suggested a strain called R56 which is used for California Syrah, Petite Sirah, and Zinfandel. Since about 75% of my grapes are black-ish, purple-ish grapes that have similar flavor profiles as these California sweethearts, this is the yeast I want. Yes, wine will ferment on its own without any added yeast. However, wild yeast is unpredictable and could do weird things. First, kill wild yeast. Boom! Dead. Add R56. The wine begins to ferment. Three to four times a day one has to push the skins back into the juice. This went on for about two weeks. After about two weeks, it stopped "working". Fermentation was done. That was quick.

I've always have had issues with extracting enough color out of red grape skins. What to do? What to do? Submersion mixer. Well, my poor home submersion mixer took a beating...in fact to death. Had to buy a new one. I killed it, too. Time for a Christmas present suggestion. Now, how to press this 80 gallons of must? Search the internet, right? I found these huge, industrial strength food grade straining bags with drawstrings. Two ladders about 4 feet apart. Long piece of heavy galvanized pipe between them. Set large Lexan below. Put bags in Lexan, fill bags 1/3 way with must, lift and tie draw stings to pipe. Spin the bags to squeeze the must and release the juice/wine. Pretty slick, huh? Except one must spin slowly or you look like you went through a wine water sprinkler. How do I know this? Uh, nevermind. Overzealous winemaking. About 3/4 though the process, one of the bags popped a hole...eh, tie a knot over it. Yeah, that didn't work too well. Process slowed, but completed.

The plan now was to empty the barrel, run a shit ton of sanitizer through it (remember, this thing had been sitting empty for decades, was filled with city of Peoria water, probably had some wonder local rain get in it...yeah, it needed some serious sanitation work), then get the barrel in the basement and fill it. Well, the filling with wine part didn't happen.

The wine's acid level was off. The pH is supposed to be between 3.3 and 3.7. This wine was about 3.15. You don't want it slipping into the 2s or you end up with 55 gallons of vinegar. Nobody wants that...well, maybe Heinz. Three things one can do. 1. Add chemicals. However, it is recommended not to raise your wine's pH this much with chemicals. 2. Malo-lactic Fermentation. You add this (whatever this compound is) to your wine and it re-ferments your wine by converting your nasty tartaric acid (the stuff that was originally used to make cream of tartar for all of you bakers out there) to a softer, less acidic malic acid. 3. Cold stabilization. Get the wine to about 28 degrees and keep it there for a few weeks. This could be a challenge as I don't have that much refrigeration space. First things first. While you want to get air into your wine during fermentation (for red wines, anyway), you definitely do not want it now. I have to get it out of the two 42 gallon cans and into something I can keep the air out. 5 gallon carboys to the rescue. I don't have enough so I put out an SOS and previously mentioned Michael Brix must collect these things because he had all I needed plus some. I decide malo-lactic fermentation. Get the stuff and mix it into the 2 42s and then transfer into 14 five gallon carboys and two one gallon glass jugs. Pumped the airspace full of food grade gas and put airlocks on them. Good to go, waiting on magic to occur.

Well, that plan got foiled.

Remember that quick drop in temperature in October? Yeah, Malo-lactic doesn't like that. It likes 55-72 degrees just like the rest of us on a nice autumn day. Meanwhile the pH is slowly inching the wrong way. Time for chemicals. Yuck. A little more preservative and some pH up stuff. But hey, it's getting colder so that's good. Through the winter, the pH started to head in the right direction; it was in the low 3.3s. Then it started getting too cold and I didn't want it to freeze. What to do? Haul them all into the basement or.......yeah, I threw blankets all around and over them, sort of built a tent over them and ran a space heater in their general direction. Between the 12% alcohol, and the little bit of warmth, they didn't freeze. We won't discuss my Ameren electric bill for the months of December & January.

However, this craziness worked! It rose to 3.4. Kind of amazed it went that high. Not complaining. That isn't the worst. Every since I've monitoring this pH thing, I've been testing every bottle of red wine I open. One day, I opened one of my favorites: Matt Cline's Three Wine Company's 2013 Evangelho Vineyard Ancient Vines Zinfandel. Mmmmmm. I could bathe in it. I stick my pH meter in it. You know what Matt Cline's Three Wine Company's 2013 Evangelho Vineyard Ancient Vines Zinfandel's pH is? 3.38. If 3.38 is good enough for Zinfandel god Matt Cline, 3.4 is definitely good enough for Chef Kevin. Not really. I added just a touch of chemical to get it to 3.5. Time to fill the barrel!!

Not yet.

I didn't want the barrel sitting outside in the freezing temperatures with or with out water in it. I did run enough food grade sanitizer through it to sterilize every hospital in Peoria, let it sit a few week, drained it, and plugged it. I decided I better see if it holds water before adding wine. Smart me for a change. Nope. Leaks. Leave it set a few days, it swelled back shut, all is well. Add a bit of food grade sanitizer. Swoosh. Swoosh. Drain. Time for wine.

I know there is a bunch of sludge at the bottom of the carboys. It is stuff that settled out of the wine, some chemical residue, etc. Back to the internet. I don't want to clean this gunk out of the barrel later. I found some 20 micron filters that fit the tops of 5 gallon buckets. Good for me; I have some food grade 5 gallon buckets. Wash. Rinse. Sanitize. Now, 20 microns. Do you know how small 20 microns is? The size of a red blood cell. This becomes a very slow moving process, but I end up with a fairly clear product going into the barrel. After straining 72 gallons of liquid and sludge, I end up with 57 gallons. The barrel apparently holds 53, not 55, so four gallons sit in the 'fridge. Hey, leftover wine is a good thing, right?

Remember that malo-lactic fermentation thing? Guess what? Yeah, that happened. I decided after a week in the barrel to pull the bung plug and see if there was any oak taste and where my pH was. When I pulled it, there was a definite pop/fizz sound. I see tiny bubbles. Taste wine. Yep. Tastes like it is re-fermenting. Wine is horrible. Disappointment and depression sets in. Bourbon was poured and consumed. WTF? I go get a gallon of reserve out of the 'fridge. It doesn't taste like this. Of course, I have to throw good after bad, draw a gallon out of the barrel, and add one from the 'fridge. Figuring malo, I leave the gallon I drew out sit open for two days. The air did wonders and it was quite drinkable. No more bourbon infused nights of worry and dismay.

I don't think the barrel liked the wine or the malo. It sprung a small leak. Nothing seemed to stop it. But it is only about a cup a week so I'm not fretting...I have four extra gallons to top it off.

Now it has been in the barrel a little more than a month. Wine isn't very fizzy anymore. Malo must be finishing. It took awhile as my basement is fairly cool. The wine has softened and the pH is about 3.6: both benefits of malo-lactic fermentation. Nice. I just need to leave it set a few months to allow the old oak barrel to impart any oak character it may have left to give. *Sigh* Done for awhile.

However, once again, plans fail. No, the "phone" didn't "ring".

This barrel is most likely older than me. It was used for decades. It had enough water and sanitizer in it the last few months to fill a swimming pool. I was planning on MONTHS for this barrel to throw enough oak flavor into the wine. WRONG. My first clue was that the hue of the wine had changed. I could pick up some oak flavor, but an esteemed Chef friend of mine said it was about as much as he'd want to taste. Instead of five months, five and one half weeks. Insert bad words here.

I really had this grand vision of adding some clarifier to the barrel, pump the wine into a holding tank for a few days, then into the bottles. Now I can't do that. I don't have the time or the 250+ bottles. Back into the carboys it goes so it doesn't get over-oaked. Now the barrel is sitting there empty again. I think it is sad. It looks sad. I'm sad for it. It did its job too well.

After school ends in the beginning of June 2022, the barrel will again see its wine. I plan on putting the wine back in, adding clarifier and potassium sorbate (to insure all yeast are dead and it won't re-ferment in the bottle preventing it from blowing wine all over someone's white carpeting suing me for millions), leave it sit for a week, re-filter through 20 microns (I usually filter through 1 micron for super clarity, but it does strip some color and flavor and I'm sure grandfather didn't filter anything) and bottle it.

As for the wine. It is a medium dark purplish-garnet. I thought it would be darker and more purple. It has some nice blackberry, black raspberry, and black currant flavors. It does have some of that "Welch's Grape Juice" flavor to it due to it being about 25% Lambrusca. It does have oak. It also has some leather and forest floor. It does have a little pepper at the end. I've heard one person say hints of chocolate. At the moment, it is much better if it sits open for 24 hours to get air. This suggests to me that is will need some bottle age to become better. And I'll have enough of it to see how it ages for quite some time.

Oh, and remember the mystery grape I researched? I'd bet a bottle of wine and an order of wings from Schooners that it is a grape called Baco Noir. It isn't overly used in Illinois and it is seen farther north and east. But it fits. If you want to read about it:

I had mentioned it might be a grape called Chancellor and while the characteristics of the color, skin thickness, the tightness of the clusters fit, the flavor profile and acidity does not. The final blend of the wine looks to be 55% Noiret, 25% unknown Lambrusca and 20% Baco Noir.

While I've enjoyed this journey, I don't see me doing it again. I accomplished the restoration of this barrel whether I put wine in it or not and that was my main priority. The wine is a bonus. If I'm a glutton for punishment and choose do this again, I'd hope I could use a local winery's equipment for the hard stuff. I gave the barrel a "one more time", last hurrah!! While it did see a little cosmetic restoration work, it will eventually see a little bit better job, but not to "like new" for its retirement years.

I'm calling the wine "Old Route 121 Barrel" in reference to its early years at the farmstead of my grandparents, William and Clara (Woerner) Mueller. It made a damned good wine better.

Thanks for reading my saga...if you're still awake.

Chef & Amateur Winemaker

    - Kevin Roecker 2022.