Hi all
Since I know now it's about a kit, I'll cut and paste info posted by another experienced member. I sincerely apologize that I did not save the name along with these instructions when I copied the post.............
These are the instructions for Battonage(Sur Lees) from Winemaker Mag and written by Tim Vandergrift who is the Technical service Manager for Winexpert wine co. and also use to work for RJ Spagnols.
You do the battonage before you stabilize the wine with K-meta and sorbate. Here are Tim's instructions:
Our kits tend to have a softer, more complex flavor profile than you might expect. We achieve this partly by carefully choosing our oak styles and the protocols for using them. By including the oak in with the fermentation (instead of after) we get a much softer profile, which includes some butter and vanilla notes, as opposed to woody or smoky characters.
Now you can't do malolactic on the kits. It will end in tears if you try. However, there is a technique called ‘battonage' that will help fatten up the finish of the wine, and give it a rich, creamy mouth feel. Here's the deal:
· Make you kit up as normal, and rack to the secondary carboy on day 5-7 as directed.
· After ten days, ignore the instructions about fining and stabilizing. Instead, add one-quarter teaspoon of metabisulphite powder to the wine, and gently stir it up with a sanitized spoon.
· Get all of the yeast sediment in to suspension, make sure it's nice and cloudy, but don't splash or agitate.
· Top up with some decent Chardonnay wine (this is better than using water for this technique). At three or four day intervals, go back and stir the yeast up again.
· Repeat every three or four days for a month.
· Let the wine settle for two weeks, rack it into a clean, sanitized carboy, and follow all the remaining instructions on schedule, omitting no detail however slight.
By stirring the yeast into suspension repeatedly you get the benefits of the amino acids they carry, along with a host of compounds—principally mannoproteins, which give they creamy aroma and mouth feel.
Supposedly (I've never done it), hot climate Chardonnay does not do so well with sur lie/battonage as cooler climate Chardonnay does. It can be done to Pinot Gris/Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chenin Blanc. It's never really done to Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Viognier, and other aromatic whites.Enoferm ICV-D47 is a Côtes du Rhône isolate from Suze-la-Rousse for the production of full-bodied barrel fermented Chardonnay and other white varietals. When left on lees, ripe spicy aromas with tropical and citrus notes are developed. Enoferm ICV-D47 is a high polysaccharide producer known for its accentuated fruit and great volume. On most of the white grape varieties, this yeast elaborates wines with ripe stable fruits or jam-like aromas. Thanks to these aromas, the cuvées fermented with the Enoferm ICV-D47 are a good source of complexity in the blends. Moreover Enoferm ICV-D47 contributes to the wines silkiness and persistence.
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Fran, glad I stopped you from bentonite messing with your wine. Oddly, when I was performing the side by side test my life got really chaotic and I was kicking myself for not keeping up the schedule. I even had 3 unlabeled jars of white topping wine in the fridge. It was when I tasted those jars to ID them that I discovered one had no flavor at all. It clearly had a good layer of bentonite at the bottom and had been pushed around the fridge several times daily stirring up the bentonite each time. Luckily the actual carboy had not lost as much flavor, but it was noticeably less flavor than the carboy that I had never disturbed.
Pam in cinti
