Juice Bucket Additives

[zadvocate]

I am preparing my shopping list for the Chilean season. I want to do a white wine juice bucket. Beyond Go Ferm and Fermaid K, I am trying to figure out what additives will help. I was thinking of the following:

Either Opti White or Booster Blanc

Opti White seems to be more about protecting aroma, better mouth feel and preventing oxidization

Booster Blanc "Booster Blanc helps to increase fresh varietal fruit aromas and mid-palate intensity while helping to diminish bitterness and chemical/vegetal characteristics. Booster Blanc is very useful for maintaining the aroma and freshness of wines that go through MLF and helps lower the production of off sulfur compounds during fermentation."

I don't know which to use

LALLZYME C-MAX to clarify
Tannin FT Blanc
French Oak Chips

Just wondering if others have used these on juice buckets. I have used the red version on grapes this year and seems to have worked well.

 

[cintipam]

I've used these for the first time in my 2016 California buckets. Too soon to really have any results, but I do have some notes to offer. First, MLF is generally only used on Chardonnay so Booster blanc would be good for chard or other rare white you plan to MLF. Also, only a few varieties are known to develop vegetal characteristics, so Booster Blanc for that bucket also.

I used Optiwhite in all my whites, plus FTBlanc Soft. My notes said that the FTblanc soft was an extreme pain to incorporate into the wine. My first attempt was just to mix it with water and it turned into something similar to wood putty. Next time I pulled a quart of wine and sprinkled while stirring and that seemed to go a little better. I do think getting some form of tannin into primary fermentation has improved my whites.

As far as mouthfeel goes, D47 yeast says it improves mouthfeel. D47 is also the yeast of choice when doing battonage, which is mostly done again on Chardonnay. I used to use D47 almost exclusively on my whites but switched to QA23 a couple years back. QA23 is a real workhorse no fuss very good results yeast, but I did determine that I preferred the Gewurtztraminer I made with D47 over the one I made with QA23.

I have a QA23 chard aging right now that I will be able to compare maybe a year down the road to the last batch made with D47 with a feeble attempt at battonage. I did a side by side experiment with that batch , and I was able to determine fairly quickly that restirring bentonite (which I had added to the entire batch on day 3 of primary fermentation) was clearly stripping some color and flavor from the wine, so I stopped the battonage trial immediately. I believe that short bit of battonage did make the chardonnay smoother much sooner, but I'm certain it also stripped some complexity out that would have developed over time.

Best I can offer. I'm following this thread to read others experience also.

Pam in cinti

 

[zadvocate]

Thanks. Are you doing/Were you doing the battonage in place of MLF?
I see the Morewine sells a Brehm white packet for $5 that includes everything accept booster blanc. I added it up and to by them seperately was almost double that.

I plan on doing a chard with MLF so I may go that route. I was thinking of using QA23 and probably will.

 

[cintipam]

Actually, I've never done MLF. I've read many of the trials and tribs folks go thru for their red wines and MLF, and I just never thought it was really necessary on a white wine. Battonage was just an experiment to try to up the buttery factor. I was fine with my acid totals, and MLF is done to convert malic to a softer tasting acid. Since I enjoy a bite to my wine, MLF just doesn't seem worth the effort to me.

Pam in cinti