Cellar Craft CC Showcase Yakima Valley Pinot Gris

[ibglowin]

Started on the 2nd of the 3 Xmas Whites yesterday!

No oak in this kit and it does have a flavor reserve bottle so it will be back sweetened and slightly off dry when finished.

Should be very different than the MM Pinot Grigio I did that had some oak chips and was fermented to dry and not back sweetened.

Starting SG was just like the CC Showcase Riesling, 1.090. This guy did not form much if any cap at all is going very strong 24 hours later. A fizzy coke fermenter for sure as you can see.

More updates later!

 

[fivebk]

That must has a great color to it. I bet it smelled good too!!!!

BOB

 

[MN-winer]

Ibglowin
You have a large supply and variety of kits you've done. Do you have any experience in fermenting a Chardonay kit? I like buttery oaky Chards but have not heard any kits that are that good.

 

[ibglowin]

I have one Chardonnay that is now at around 15 mo old and is very good. It is the MM Renaissance "Aussie" Chardonnay.

That said, it is not what I would call "buttery". The buttery flavor in a Chardonnay comes from putting the wine through Malolactic Fermentation (MLF) which is not recommended with kit wines because they have much higher amounts of Malic Acid due to the way they are processed. If you attempted you would have a very unbalanced flat wine and not a crisp one by any means.

The only way to get a "buttery" Chardonnay out of a kit wine to to put it through the "Battonage" process where you leave it on the gross lees for an extended length of time with some periodic stirring up of the gross lees. As the yeast break down over time they will release compounds into the wine that will give it something of a buttery taste.

That said I have not actually tried this so I can't attest to the actual taste of the end product.

Hope this helps!

 

[ibglowin]

It does it does!

That must has a great color to it. I bet it smelled good too!!!!

BOB

 

[Jackie]

I made the MM Rennaissance Aussie Chard and it turned out great. I did battonage on it for 3 months.I did let it age a year+ after bottling (actually gave most of it 18 mos aging). I have the MM Master's Ed Outback Chard aging now which was also done the same way. It's my second Masters Edition--the first was barrel fermented.

 

[ibglowin]

Thanks for that update Jackie.

Did the Battonage process have much of an effect on the wine in your opinion (good or bad)?

 

[MN-winer]

Thanks for the feedback. Has anyone had experience with a Chardonay from WE or CC? Thats all my LHBS has.

 

[ibglowin]

I have the CC SHowcase Yakima Valley Chardonnay on deck once the Pinot Gris is done.

WA state = Great Grape Juice at very good prices!

 

[patc]

I just bottled the Yakima Chard and it reminds me of the covey run chardonnay, def pear with green apple Flavour and smell,nice wine at bottling, cannot wait to taste at a year!

 

[Jackie]

Did the Battonage process have much of an effect on the wine in your opinion (good or bad)?

It does affect the flavor and mouthfeel. You still don't get the same butterytaste as with MLF and battonage combined(I've done that on chard juice, not kits) but it's as close as you can get with a kit. I like it and would do it again. But only when I'm doing an oakey chard. For a fruit-forward chardonnay you would not want to do this.
These are the only chard kits that I've liked done in an oakey manner but I haven not tried WE Australian Chardonnay. I've been disappointed with most oaked kit chardonnays so I just do most of them without oak now.


In all fairness, however, I should mention that I haven't done surlie/battonage on other kits. I do think some juice takes oak better than others so when planning to do an oakey chard, I'd go wtih an Australian style kit.

 

[ibglowin]

Moved this guy from Primary to Glass this afternoon. Day 6 and SG was 1.000. Had a pretty strong H2S smell so I splash racked it good. Smells much better now!

One pic is with the flash on and one without.

Looks like the Bentonite did not dissolve like it normally would. Prepared it just like I always do. Not sure why it didn't dissolve but I did not transfer it over to Secondary.

We will see how fast this guy finishes up, the Riesling I did a few weeks back finished up fast.

 

[Bartman]

Mike, have you considered omitting the bentonite for wines you plan to bulk age for 6+ months? I have started doing so, simply because time does the job just as well, and without the possibility of stripping anything out of the wine.
It is my understanding that larger winemakers only use bentonite after fermentation, if needed, rather than at the outset. Seems bentonite is part of the standard kit procedure so the wine can be fully fermented, cleared and ready for bottling in 4-5 weeks.

 

[PeterZ]

I thought the bentonite was used to remove any residual protein and eliminate the possibility of protein haze. If bulk aging makes bentonite unnecessary I am all for that!

 

[ibglowin]

I think time will clear almost any wine. I add it because it comes with the kit, seems to work and I make a lot of the Cellar Craft kits that use Juice from Yakima Valley in WA state.

For some reason these juices have higher amounts of protein and the bentonite does seem to assist in clearing, especially the whites.

Someday I should leave it out and give it a go. I didn't use it on my Fresh Grape batches and they both degassed and cleared by themselves in record time.

Perhaps the flash pasteurization techniques used in the manufacture of these kits release an inordinate amount of protein making the Bentonite extremely useful if not necessary for the average home winemaker.

 

[robie]

I think that using the bentonite up front also assists the yeast. I think it gives the yeast something to cling to in order to better disperse. I know I read something about it somewhere.

Oh, I found it -

http://wineserver.ucdavis.edu/pdf/attachment/80%20bentonite%20and%20fermentation.pdf

 

[ibglowin]

Very cool, thanks for the link on that one!

 

[ibglowin]

Update:

This guy has been degassed, stabilized and fined.

Waiting for him to clear and pack down a little more and then will rack off the fines.

 

[jeepbabe]

Just pitched the yeast on mine yesterday. I can't wait to hear your updates on yours.

 

[ibglowin]

I have opened both splits now and this guy is good to go. An early drinker for sure that will only get better with more age but its already drinking great at only 6 months old.