Blanc du Bois guidance

We just contacted a new source and he says that they are probably a few weeks away from picking. This will be our first white grape batch so any advice will be appreciated. Not sure if we can cold soak or not.
What would y'all recommend for yeast?
What situations would make for malolactic fermentation or always on white?
We only have 10 / 20 gal brutes and glass carboys no oak barrels.
Thanks for the info.
TXWineDuo

I've never used that grape, but there is some information at the link below.

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request234.asp

Thanks, we did find Jack's page but we are wanting to use a different yeast than the EC-1118 and was wondering others success.
Also it seems hard for us to pick a yeast strain when looking at the different yeast charts they all seem so good, and we're not experts in blending yet.
TXWineDuo

We got the text that 2 clusters are at 21 Brix and 1 cluster is at 16 Brix so it looks like we are going to be picking tomorrow (the only time we can).
TXWineDuo

TXWineDuo,

I'm a little too late for helping with this year's harvest, but for future harvests I can offer this advice on pressing the Blanc Du Bois - Please don't press it so hard that there is no juice left in the skins. If pressed too hard, Blanc Du Bois will give off some bitterness that is just not very good. I press with a water bladder press after running the grapes through a crusher destemmer and generally will fill the basket and press once, let the pressure off, fluff up the grapes in the press and press a second time until the juice starts becoming a slow trickle. This adds maybe 10% more. Some years I do not fluff and press a second time and that's ok.

For making some sparkling wine, I have placed whole clusters into the press, pressed once, fluffed once and pressed a scond time. This juice comes out so clean that after it is iced down there is very little sediment to dispose of, maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 inch vs about 1 inch to 1.5 inches of sediment for the grapes that were run through the crusher destemmer before pressing.

My 2 favorite yeasts to use with Blanc Du Bois are ICV-GRE and BA-11.

One other key piece of information that will help you make your best wine form these grapes is to control the temperature of the fermenting juice so that it is between 50 degrees and 60 degrees F. I've done this with 6 gallon pails sitting in an Igloo cooler with a water bath and then change out frozen water bottles a couple of times a day. This helps to retain the wonderful fruit aromas in the wine. 5 and 6 gallon glass carboys will also fit inside the coolers when it is time to put the wine under air locks.

Hope you had a good harvest etc.

WeimarWine