Yes, in the wine box/room. Fermented at 65-69 degree ambient. I never checked the juice temp. Crazy fast.
Barrel fermented Chardonnay in 2022!
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I just researched that yeast. Didn't realize it was from Renaissance. Makes more sense but that is still incredibly fast given what I now are the temps inside your vault. The sealed barrel must have provided some insulating factor that trapped a fair amount of the generated heat.
I'm equally surprised my Rose' is still chugging along. I haven't checked Brix but I can clearly see activity (checked again last night) in the glass carboy.
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I kept 65 gallons and the remaining 45 gallons went to a buddy. It was “pick-up” day today. Couldn’t think of a faster way to get it in his pickup.
I did the first taste test of the Chardonnay barrel. I‘ve had this fear in my head on this project, as I’ve never made any grape wine from a kit or juice. My fear was confirmed as it tasted thin; like someone added 25% more water to the wine. Hopefully time in the barrel, completing mlf and a little French oak will change the taste profile to have more body and depth of flavor.
Right after I reported my "thin" comment to the two other chard barrel winemakers, they went and tasted theirs. Interesting enough, @4score had been stirring his barrel every day, but had a 15 gallon spiedel, which had not been stirred at all. He reported back that he got the same sense of thinness on the spiedel that did not get stirred, but the wine in the barrel was quite different. We all started stirring daily at that point in time. MLF has been completed, so I will be doing a racking / tasting this weekend.
My quickly made barrel stirring stick made out of a bucket top that I attach to the end my electric drill.
My quickly made barrel stirring stick made out of a bucket top that I attach to the end my electric drill.
Battonage is your friend! I hope it works out well.
Racked, SO2, added oak. The wine has definitely improved since the last tasting, but if I’m being honest, it still tastes thin to me. Nose good, flavor good, but just tastes watered down. I added 2nd year French oak equivalent spirals, mild toast to hopefully bring in some body.
It’s been around 5 weeks since the racking and time has been this wine’s friend! It has improved a lot. I cannot say it hit the butter level and depth of flavor I was shooting for, but it has the taste profile that will make it a pleasant, easy drinker. Notes of pineapple and pear come through to me. Others that made the wine from the same juice have gone in different directions with yeast, oak, acid adjustment, etc. It will be fun to do a tasting after the first of the year with 4 different wines from the same juice.
A winemaker barrel sample pour
A winemaker barrel sample pour
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I am glad that the wine turned around and is a decent wine. It could be hit or miss each vintage working with barrel fermented white wines at work. Would have liked to have more consistency but unfortunately you would get a great vintage then the fruit wasn’t as good the next year and it was tough because some years we wouldn’t have Roussane or etc cause it just sucked.It’s been around 5 weeks since the racking and time has been this wine’s friend! It has improved a lot. I cannot say it hit the butter level and depth of flavor I was shooting for, but it has the taste profile that will make it a pleasant, easy drinker. Notes of pineapple and pear come through to me. Others that made the wine from the same juice have gone in different directions with yeast, oak, acid adjustment, etc. It will be fun to do a tasting after the first of the year with 4 different wines from the same juice.
A winemaker barrel sample pour
View attachment 96264
Even to this day barrel fermented white wines which I have a lot of experience with are probably the style that I still feel is challenging.
3 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay blind tasting coming up on Thursday evening.
@4score @Busabill - neutral barrel, French staves med+ toast, Prelude yeast 4 brix, TR313 yeast, Beta MLB daily stirring from the beginning.
NorCal - neutral barrel, French spiral, light toast, TR313 yeast, Beta MLB, 3 day/week stirring, going to 7 day a week stirring half way through.
NorCal's Friend - neutral barrel, French spiral, med+ toast, TR313 yeast, Beta MLB, 2 day/week stirring, going to 7 day a week stirring half way through.
We are also going to throw a Rombauer Chardonnay into the mix, to see how close we came. There will be six of us tasting. Samples will all be refrigerated, placed into similar bottles, bagged and then blindly numbered. The wine glasses will be numbered as well.
@4score @Busabill - neutral barrel, French staves med+ toast, Prelude yeast 4 brix, TR313 yeast, Beta MLB daily stirring from the beginning.
NorCal - neutral barrel, French spiral, light toast, TR313 yeast, Beta MLB, 3 day/week stirring, going to 7 day a week stirring half way through.
NorCal's Friend - neutral barrel, French spiral, med+ toast, TR313 yeast, Beta MLB, 2 day/week stirring, going to 7 day a week stirring half way through.
We are also going to throw a Rombauer Chardonnay into the mix, to see how close we came. There will be six of us tasting. Samples will all be refrigerated, placed into similar bottles, bagged and then blindly numbered. The wine glasses will be numbered as well.
Medium+ is a brave move. Looking forward to the results.
Looking forward to the results!
The score sheets have been prepared. Any other recommendations? Each of the 6 people tasting will have their own sheet.
The tasting was fun and getting together with good people that share the same hobby is always a good time.
There was no doubt which wine was the Rombauer based on clarity and depth of flavor. There were some similarities between the homemade wines and the Rombauer, but the gap between the Rombauer and any of the wines was significant. That being said the AH/MW wine was universally agreed upon that it achieved the "closest to Rombauer" award. If you are not a fan of big butter, you might actually prefer the AH/MW wine.
The significant differences from the @4score and @Busabill wine and the other two homemade wines was the use of Prelude yeast for the first 4 brix and the daily stirrings. The big take away for me would be to be more diligent on following the stirring protocol that I had outlined.
4. Ferment/store in 65-69 degree wine box. stirring daily
I would say I stirred 3X per week the first 3 weeks or so. While there wasn't a night/day difference between my wine and the AH/MW wine, the difference was perceptible when drinking them side by side. The young gun on the left is 4Score's son who has an incredible palate and made note that the only thing he could smell in the wine was horse (there are 3 horses in stalls in the barn) : )
There was no doubt which wine was the Rombauer based on clarity and depth of flavor. There were some similarities between the homemade wines and the Rombauer, but the gap between the Rombauer and any of the wines was significant. That being said the AH/MW wine was universally agreed upon that it achieved the "closest to Rombauer" award. If you are not a fan of big butter, you might actually prefer the AH/MW wine.
The significant differences from the @4score and @Busabill wine and the other two homemade wines was the use of Prelude yeast for the first 4 brix and the daily stirrings. The big take away for me would be to be more diligent on following the stirring protocol that I had outlined.
4. Ferment/store in 65-69 degree wine box. stirring daily
I would say I stirred 3X per week the first 3 weeks or so. While there wasn't a night/day difference between my wine and the AH/MW wine, the difference was perceptible when drinking them side by side. The young gun on the left is 4Score's son who has an incredible palate and made note that the only thing he could smell in the wine was horse (there are 3 horses in stalls in the barn) : )
4score
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It was a fun evening with great company and great wine samples! I believe our French Oak chain (3/4 of one chain) was medium toast and not medium plus. You could tell all the home wines were cousins but all were uniquely different. We are going to extract ours from the barrel before month end and apply bentonite and cold crash them. Plan is to have a nice Spring/Summer wine!
The Chardonnay was racked from the barrel and a conservative .75 grams per gallon of bentonite applied. I’ll give it a week or so and then rack.
Why was that amount chosen? The Australian Wine Research Institute recommends 0.5 g/liter, and you used about 1/3 of that.
I'm not questioning your decision; rather, I'm curious as to the factors behind your decision. IME a smaller-than-recommended dosage of any fining agent appears to work well.
Fair question. I surveyed what was recommended. I went with (.75g/G) more than the min, but purposely conservative. Using more, the upside it is clearer, the downside of using too much is stripping flavor.
Dang! Those answers are all over the place!
Since you have a whole barrel, why not do a bench trial? 3 or 4 dose levels (+ control) and select the highest level (by taste test) that has the least impact on the wine?
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