WineXpert Chardonnay to Champagne

[redderthebetter]

Tonight was bottling night for my champagne project. I started with a W/E Chard kit in Sept. I did primary, and secondary as per directions, then instead of stailizing and clearing I gave the carboy a gentle stir every four days for a month. I then degassed and added isinglass. I let it clear for 10 days in the garage. I brought it into the house last night and sat it where I intended to do the rackings. I did this to minimize any sediment from swirling into the wine. I am only doing 12 bottles of champagne so washed the bottles and then poured 12 bottles of water into my bottling bucket and marked the level.


The direction I got from the board and from Wine Expert said to use 1.75 cups of sugar to prime the wine. I cut it down to just under a cup and disolved it into boiled water. I also rehydrated the Lavlin Champagne yeast into 1/4 cup of warm tap water. The directions warn not to let it sit more than 15 minutes before pitching into the wine.

The ragu jar is what I usually use to make starters. Tonight I disolved the sugar in it. I also put the caps into boiled water to get ready for the bottles.



The rest was fairly straight forward. I bottled capped and wired.

There is nothing special about inserting the caps other than pushing with your palms till they are fully seated. When I bought the caps and wires I bought extras. I wound up breaking two wires while tightening. I started by useing pliers and over tightened. I found that pushing down on the wire to seat it , then drawing the bottom wire while twisting by hand worked just fine. Perhaps the little twisting tool would have helped, but I found hand tigtening to be sufficient. If you don't have alot of hand strength the tool may be the way to go.


After that I wound up with about 2/3 carboy of Chardonnay. When looking through the carboy I had doubts of the wines clarity, and was planning on filtering. After pouring a glass, I am happy with what I have and will bottle as is.

My last step before bottling will be to carefully rack to the bottling bucket, then add packs 3 and 4(sorbate and pot/met).I am not going to add the entire packs beacuse they were meant for a full batch. I will juststir in half of each, then bottle. I am considering sweetening it up a bit. I'm not quite sure. On second thought I think I have put this wine through enough. I'll bottle it and quit screwing around.


Any ways, the chardonnay will make nice Xmas gifts, and the Champagne will be a really cool thing to break out when I retire from the USAF a year from now.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Your going to love your **Sparkling Wine***....it will be worth the extra effort....and the wait...

Keep an eye on those wires and stoppers.....if the wires are a bit loose, you'll notice as the pressure builds inside the bottle....the stoppers will work their way up a bit and the wires will get tight....Will be your clue that carbonation is forming inside....

Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[AAASTINKIE]

Now you have me wanting to make some!! I haven't yet cause I thought
you had to do the riddling thing, but if it's this easy I might have to
jump in, have plenty of bottles upstairs!!

 

[redderthebetter]

Stinkie, I think riddling is up to the person. I'm going to give it a shot, literally. I will go out and get new wires. I will see how the first few go and decide wether it is worth doing the whole batch. I probably will. I got 12 bottles plus a grolsch bottle full. I will use the grolsch as my indicator.


I just got all cleaned up and wound up with 15 bottles of beautiful chardonnay.
BONUS, a large glass of left over thatI am enjoying right now. I am seeing small bubbles forming on the inside of the glass, I alsao noticed patches of bubbles in the bottles as I corked them. I figure it is left over gas. I did degass and clear two weeks ago, but did not add finishing packets till just before bottling. The additives should keep any left over carbonation at bay. I bounced the bottles a few times to break up what I saw before I pushed the corks.

 

[redwineleo]

rederthebetter: How long will you allow the champagne to age before consuming? I'm also wondering how the chardonnay champagne will taste compared to say M&R Asti Spumante which I understand is a Moscato Bianco grape.

 

[redderthebetter]

I am led to believe it will be ready to drink in as little as two months. That is without riddling and degorging. If you do that you add another 2-3 weeks riddling, then 2 weeks of clearing before degorging. I might sample one soon after degorging, then I am putting the rest away till next fall when I retire or when the cardinals win the series again, which ever comes first. I was advised that Chdny kits are very good converted to Chamagne<<OOOPS FRENCHCONSULE AT MY DOOR WITH CEASE AND DESIST LETTER> Sparkling wine. I have drank very little sparkling wine except at my wedding, and thenI don't remember drinking it for its taste. Though I am a much better dancer when consuming it. "You know it make me want to SHOUT" "Throw my hand up and......


Wow, I'm having flashbacks of the funnest day of my marriage.


Just kidding

 

[NorthernWinos]

When we make our sparkling wine after it is first bottled we let it sit for 2 months in the upright position....shake it once a week to disperse the yeast....it gives you the willies the first few times you shake them...haven't had any explode yet...have only made 5 batches of 30 each and one of only 12 bottles.

Have had a couple tops blow...one after shaking and one when we were recapping after dégorgement...cause was loose wires.

After 2 months of weekly shaking then we invert the bottles and 'riddle'...sort of riddle...we pad the bottom of the boxes with thick newspapers and twist the bottle quickly and lightly drop it onto the top plastic stopper....this sends all the lees into the plastic cap...

After 2 weeks of jarring the bottles we let them rest a couple weeks...or until we have time to dégorge the lees....*</font>don't upright the bottles at any time, that will send the lees back through the wine] To dégorge we place the inverted [upside-down] bottles in a freezer for about 1 1/2 hours...depending on your freezer...till just the neck shows ice....then you dégorge the lees....


To dégorge you hold the bottle semi-upright and pop the cork, put your thumb immediately over the top of the bottle to save the wine in case it should foam...


You loose very little wine....usually just the ice plug, and it doesn't foam too much because it is so cold....clean the top of the bottle...refill each bottle with some of the wine from another bottle and recap with clean plastic stoppers and new wires...let it rest and rebuild bubbles for about 2 more months.

Our first try was also only 12 bottles, now we do full 6 gallon batches...makes sense when you are doing the procedures to make it worth your time.

We have only done sparkling wine with dry apple wine and I think your Chardonnay will be most excellent...after all that what the real Champagne is make out of.

I did a tutorial on the method we use....

http://www.finevinewines.com//Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1206

It works for us and we really enjoy the sparkling wine...It is well worth the effort.Enjoy!!!Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[bmorosco]

I am just getting the hang of this wine making It is gonna be awhile before i try that..

 

[Wade E]

Sounds very good redder. Do let us know how this comes out please.

 

[NorthernWinos]

When we are ready to dégorge we do some testing...it is good to drink at that time.....actually sometimes we test many bottles before we do a box full and put some on the shelves....and when you are refilling the bottles after dégorgement there is usually some samples that have to be disposed of.

bmorosco....our first batch of wine was apple wine and we ***Sparkled*** 12 bottles of it....It is not rocket science.....and for the times when you want to be playing vintner...it gives you something to do...go riddle your wine... :&gt

 

[bmorosco]

I will try it with next white wine we do...

 

[otto6183]

I ran across in interesting item marketed by The Grape and Granary called 'Sparkle Tops, a champagne stopper with a small spring loaded valve at the top to release the sediment.' I wonder if anyone has tried this novel approach to degorgement? On the surface, it sure would make the entire process a lot easier.

http://www.thegrape.net/browse.cfm/4,10041.htm

Otto

 

[NorthernWinos]

Those are really interesting...wonder how much wine you loose with this method of dégorgement...Someone has got to try these tops...

 

[OldWino1]

I bet a peach or apricot would make a good sparking wine also.
They dont have to be made sweet either Mine are pretty dry . Have
aged very welll also

 

[NorthernWinos]

I have read a few more articles on making Sparkling Wine....they said not to add any clarifier like Super-Kleer KC...and of course no stabilizer.I was wondering about the clarifier...hadn't seen any mention of that before and was considering adding it to the next batch...but won't...just to be sure.

 

[NorthernWinos]

We got a new toy....[TOOL] for tightening the wire hoods on the bubbly bottles...

The wires look like a machine twisted them...

Easy and quick to use...wires are nice and snug in a jiff...

Have George at Fine Vine Wines Toy Store order you one....

 

[redderthebetter]

This is copied and pasted from a sparliking wine instruction, I recieved from Wine Expert. It pretty much goes hand in hand with the pictorial in our forum. As far as clarifiers go, they say to add isinglass. I'm not sure about any other products. They probably said isinglass because that is what is in the kits.




1. Produce a 23 litre (5 Imp. gallon) wine kit (white or rosé) in the normal way, up to the stabilising and clearing day. <B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Do not add the sulphite or sorbate (stabilisers).[/I][/B] This is very important because these packages contain enough sulphite and potassium sorbate to prevent the wine from carbonating properly
2. On the stabilising and clearing day, dissolve 1/4 teaspoon of metabisulphite powder in 125 ml (1/2 cup) of cool water and add to the wine. This amount will prevent the wine from oxidising, but will not hamper yeast during bottle carbonation. Add the isinglass, following the kit instructions. Remember: <B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Do not add the stabilisers![/I][/B]
3. Rack your wine back into a clean, sanitised carboy. Wait 10 days.
4. Observe your wine. When clear, it is ready to be made into sparkling wine. It does not need to be filtered.

 

[MrFruitwines]

This is a very interesting topic because I have always wondered about sparkling via secondary fermentation with wine.


I'm a home brewer. (Beer) I have kegs and I had a CO2 tank. (No longer though.) About 5 years ago I made a delicious peach wine using a recipe from Home Winemaking by Anderson.I racked it into a 19L keg and carbonated it with the CO2 tank. I bottled it using a counter pressure bottler just like we bottle carbonated beer.It was an outstanding sparkling wine. Everyone loved it.

While it is possible to repeat that method, counter pressure bottling is a bit of a pain. It works and all, but everything must be done cold or the CO2 comes out of the wine when bottling. I have memories of working in my cold garage that I do not wish to repeat.

So, carbonation via secondary fermentation is interesting. Certainly we carbonate beer that way. Of course the bottom of the bottle will have some yeast sediment and that turns off people who don't understand that quality beers were once exclusively carbonated in this manner. I've always wondered about wines.

I guess one could invert the bottles and remove the yeast from the "cork".Hmmm....

That peach champagne was darn good ! Everyone raved about it.
Edited by: MrFruitwines

 

[NorthernWinos]

I guess one could invert the bottles and remove the yeast from the "cork".Hmmm....

That peach champagne was darn good ! Everyone raved about it.

Welcome MrFruitwines...interesting name...hope you will be sharing some of your secrets with us.

Riddling and dégorgement will get rid of the lees....they settle in the plastic stopper and pop out once you freeze the top of the bottle....slick as can be...

 

[NorthernWinos]

On the stabilising and clearing day, dissolve 1/4 teaspoon of metabisulphite powder in 125 ml (1/2 cup) of cool water and add to the wine. This amount will prevent the wine from oxidising, but will not hamper yeast during bottle carbonation. Add the isinglass, following the kit instructions. QUOTE]


Redder...I'm sure if they gave those instructions with the kit you did it right....anxious to hear the results when you pop that first cork....