The Cellar Dweller


Wine by the numbers


Can’t do the calculation in your head? Perhaps a Pearson Square or a Delle Equation will help.


By Gary Strachan T


heremust be amillionways to make amistakewhen doingwine calculations.


British Columbia sits on the fence


between Europe and theUnited States. Our southern neighbours stillmeasure things inUS gallons and degrees F. and we receive instructions forwine reagents in g/hL and degrees C.Many of us oldwinemakers still think there are two Imperial gallons ofwine in a case. A case is nine litres, and two gallons are 9.06 litres.Who cares about the last fivemL per bottle, except the Weights andMeasures Police? A recurring problemis howto


measure a small amount of, say, a fining agentwhen you only require one or two grams to treat a tank. The typical low-cost digital kitchen balance thatmanywinemakers use is only accurate to +/- 0.5 grams, sowhen the display reads 1 gram, the amountmay actually be anywhere from0.5 to 1.5, a +/-50 percent error.On the other hand, if youweigh out 10 grams, the error is only +/- 0.5 grams in 10 grams, i.e. +/- 5 percent. The next problemiswhat to dowith


the 9 grams you don’twant. Simple. Dissolve or suspend thewhole sample into a litre ofwater and remove 100mL to treat the tank. Always remember that the larger the sample youweigh, themore accurately you canweigh it. Many of us barely remember algebra


and need a textbook reviewfor calculus. The easyway to calculate the proportion of ingredients in a blend is to use a Pearson Square. It’s simpler to solve than two algebraic equations in two unknowns.


Watch the series of numbers on the


example above. Any scrap of paper or the top of awine casewill do, but it’s a good idea to keep the calculation in a notebook in case something goes wrong. Saywe aremaking a fortifiedwine.


The basewine is 12 percent, and the high proof alcohol is 80 percent.How


much of each constituent dowe require to produce a fortifiedwine of 18 percent? In the illustration, let A be the


basewine, B the high proof and C the target composition. Subtract the starting


composition fromthe target. The answer is considered to be positive, and gives you the


proportion of each constituent. To express the answer as a percentage, add the two proportions together and then divide each proportion by the total to give a percentage. For the total volume of thewine after the alcohol has been added, divide the initial volume of the basewine by the percentage of the basewine (expressed as a decimal


Producers of Quality


 Chardonnay  Dunkelfelder  Foch  Gamay


 Baco Noir  Cabernet Franc  Cabernet Sauvignon


 Gewurztraminer  Malbec  Marsanne  Merlot  Mourvedre  Muscat Ottonel  Orange Muscat


 Petite Verdot  Pinot Blanc  Pinot Gris  Pinot Noir  Riesling  Sauvignon Blanc  Sovereign Coronation


MORI VINES INC. CONTACT: R.R. #3, 1912 Concession 4, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario L0S 1J0


Phone: (905) 468-0822  Fax: (905) 468-0344 email: morivines@sympatico.ca


British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Summer 2013


Ron Fournier, Oliver, BC


(250) 498-3350 27


 Seyval Blanc  Shiraz  Syrah  Vidal  Viognier  Zinfandel  Zweigelt


NOTE: These vines are Canadian made!Many different clones are available. Rootstocks available are Riparia, S04, 3309 and 101-14.


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