Frozen Chardonnay Juice

[biddle68]

Hello, I am fairly new to this site and to winemaking and I have a question regarding my juice bucket that I am working on.

I started with a few kits and have graduated to using fresh juice. My current batch is a 6 gallon bucket of fresh California Chardonnay juice.

The instructions that were included with the juice were rather generic and left me with a couple of questions.

How much potassium metabisulfite should I be adding during rackings?

What kind and how much oak would y'all recommend? I have never oaked anything before, so I don't really know where to start.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[JohnT]

Let's start with the easy one first..

Oak is a matter of taste. It is not something that you absolutely need as part of the winemaking process..

That being said, do you like oaky chardonnays?? If you do not know, then I suggest that you go to a wine shop and sample one...

I recommend that you use oak cubes or oak beans. The toast of the oak will effect the flavors you get...

light toast for a more "wood" flavor.
med toast for more of a woo/vanilla flavor.
heavy toast for a more chocolate/vanilla flavor.

For a chardonny, IMHO, a light toast is best.


As far as K-meta. I would add 1/4 teaspoon at racking.

Your juice probably already has been treated (I would have you confirm this with your retailer). If it has NOT been already treated, I would add 1 tsp stir and wait 24 hours before pitching yeast.

 

[cintipam]

hey John, just checking. Did you really mean 1 entire tsp and only wait 24 hrs before pitching yeast, or was that a typo and you meant 1/4 tsp? Only asking because when I get buckets I do my best to stun and hopefully stop the yeast that came in the bucket already so that I can use my own yeast. I've found that 1 tsp does a decent job at it, but it takes a couple days stirring before I feel safe to toss my own yeast. According to my LBH white buckets have 1116 and reds 1118, and I usually go with D47 or QA23 as I mostly do white wine.

Pam in cinti

 

[JohnT]

I meant a full level teaspoon. I would then just cover the bucket with some plastic and wait 24 hours before pitching yeast....

That is assuming that they have not pre-treated it with kmeta at the plant.

 

[cintipam]

Thanks John. Last bucket I doubledosed by mistake resulting in a full tsp. It was the only bucket that did not start fermenting at all till I added my preferred yeast. I guess my goof was a good thing, so I will continue doing this.

Pam in cinti

 

[biddle68]

Thanks for the info.

The juice came pre-sulphited, but I am about to rack it into a carboy this week and was just wanting to be reassured.

Thanks for the info on the oaking process. I will do some more research and probably give it a try. Should the oak cubes go in during secondary?

Also, would a MLF be necessary with chardonnay? I didn't think so, but wanted to check.

 

[JohnT]

If you are using oak cubes, then you need to figure that the oaking will take from 4 to 8 weeks. For the sake of terminology..

First racking - wine is racked from primary to secondary and is (Almost) through fermentation.

Second Racking - wine is racked off of the gross lees (usually 2 weeks or so after the first racking).

I add my oak after the second racking, then do a third racking when the wine is oaked to my tastes (again anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks).