Packlab Australian Chardonnay - tweak ideas?

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WI_Wino

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I picked up an Australian Chardonnay kit off of Amazon Warehouse deals (Chateau Classico 6 week kit, ~ 16 L). I've done a couple of these kits (all whites) when they hit the Warehouse for ~$50 and am happy with them. I'm thinking of kicking this one off here soon and wanted to see what ideas people have to tweak an Aussie Chard.

- Planning on making to 6 gallons

- I usually add ~2 handfuls of untoasted oak chips to the primary. Planning on doing this.

- I've added a couple of super ripe and frozen bananas to white wine kits in the past. Seems to add body with no banana flavor. Leaning towards this.

- I hear a lot about raisins. I've done this in a couple of red wine kits but I'm not 100% sure for this one. Would this "flavor" layer make sense in an Aussie chard? Would use white raisins, not red.

- Extracts, dried fruits? Are Aussie chards supposed to have "fruity" flavors to them?

- What about oak? I have some American oak spirals, medium toast. I like oak, this is most likely going to get a spiral or two but not so much it's like eating a tree.

- Carbonate half and make some sparkling wine? Is Chardonnay a good base for sparkling wine?
 
I don't think if would be a good base for a sparkling wine. I think the american oak sounds pretty good. And yes to bananas. I would leave the fruit extracts out until prior to bottling and then maybe experiment with a glass or two. I wonder how cherry would go with chardonnay?
 
I don't know why, but for some reason, dried apricots in primary sounds good for a Chardonnay.
 
From what I understand, you should not add oak at all if you plan on making a sparkling wine. It apparently tastes awful after carbonation. Champagne is never oaked, for example. I'm not sure how the Australian-style Chardonnay (which I interpret to mean a big and fruity wine from a warm climate) would do as a sparkling wine, either. You could certainly make it that way, but flavor wise it might not turn out to be a good wine base. Course, this is assuming you wanted it to be a dry sparkling wine. It might turn out better as a backsweetened sparkling wine.
 
I made a couple cheap Vino Italiano Chardonnays in the past. It did not come with any oak cubes but I really like an oaked Chardonnay. I made it to 21-22 liters instead of 23 because I planned to add some oak tea later on. Just before bottling I boiled some med toast oak cubes in a small amount of water, let the water boil down, and added the tea to the wine. Then I tasted, and continued boiling the same cubes, putting the tea into the carboy until I got the level of oak that I wanted. It did need to age a bit but definitely got better at 1 year very good at 2 years. Some friends who had just been to several wineries liked my 2 year old Chardonnay better than the Chardonnay's that they tried at the wineries. I tried to tweak a Vino Italiano red wine once or twice but it never came out well.

(edited 16 July, 2013) I changed my mind on the Vino Italiano Cab that I made 3 years ago. Opened a bottle a couple nights ago and it tasted like a very, very good table wine and even had good body. Unfortunately, I only have 1 bottle left.
 
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Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to dig into more about not using oak for sparkling wines, never heard of that before.

I've read up some more and seems like aussie chards are typically oaky and have big flavors. So I'm almost 100% I'm going to oak this. Also am leaning towards to white raisins in the secondary ala joeswine. I'll leave any other fruits/extracts/zesting to after it stabilizes and ages for a couple of months and I do some tasting.

I started two batches of beer this morning so all my primaries are tied up. Keep the good ideas coming.
 
Fortunately, when it comes to bottle carbonation, you don't have to make a decision right from the beginning. You can see how the flavor develops and if it will fit with what you have in mind for a sparkling wine.
 
I just added a small amount of grapefruit zest tincture to a commercial sav. blanc that I'm trying to salvage. I can't describe exactly what it did but I like what happened. One thing that's for sure the wine finishes much crisper, almost like a brut champagne.
 
Did primary with untoasted oak chips, a couple of bananas, and kept the must at 58-60 degrees. Racked to secondary at 1.002 last night and added 12 ozs of golden raisins. As you can see the ferment is still going strong, I had to tape down the stopper to keep the airlock from popping out.

ForumRunner_20130730_212719.jpg
 
SG got down to .996. Racked off of the raisins and stabilized. Added 1 oak spiral, American medium toast. Already clearing on it's own with no fining agents.
 
Process in review

like the Idea of apricots in the mix I would use them in place of bananas or raisins,that is a natural taste flavor of Chardonnay and on target for the finish, don't bee in a hurry ,let nature take it's course and make sure you go to dry.:i
 

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