Malbec and WLP750?

[Jimyson]

In making beer, I'm a sucker for using White Labs yeast. I have always had fantastic results. With that said, I don't see a ton of options for something that would pair well with a Malbec, per say, but their WLP750 French Red Wine Yeast is a classic bordeaux yeast for red wine fermentations. It's also is good for fermentations at lower temps which is my basement all the way especially during Winter months. Flocculation is low but time takes care of that, yes?

I guess my logic, though 100% inexperienced with wine, is that Malbec's origin is France specifically the Bordeaux region, can is found in Bordeaux blends,

So, prior to me diving into that, what do you think? Any thoughts?

 

[sour_grapes]

Your logic sounds totally reasonable to me. I have no experience with White Labs products, so I cannot comment on that aspect (and I am relative newbie, to boot). But I agree with your reasoning that any yeast that is good for the more-common Bordeaux varietals is likely going to work well for the less-common ones, too.

 

[Jimyson]

Cool. Just so you know, this is for the kit of Argentine Malbec that are are now drinking. I am thinking about doing a little experiment with this and splitting between 4 separate batches. I will likely be doing a batch with the WLP750 and RT Rouge, one with WLP750 and RT Rouge Soft, one with RP15 and RT Rouge, and the last with RP15 and RT Rouge Soft.

Based on your last experience with the kit, do you see this as valuable?

 

[sour_grapes]

I certainly DO see it as a valuable experiment (but not based on my experience, really). I have been "meaning" to so a split fermentation myself some day. Here is an article where Tim Vandergrift describes just such a thing: http://winemakermag.com/blogs/yeast-experiments-for-your-wine-kit.

I love swapping out yeasts, but I acknowledge that it is not very informative unless I do an experiment like the one you are contemplating.

 

[Jimyson]

Yeah, have done it with beer. i will check out that article as I was slightly wondering the process around doing it with a kit.

 

[Jimyson]

So I have everything on order to pull this experiment off. I'll be using 2 gallon fermentation buckets and then just transfer to gallon and a half Gallon jugs for each batch.

I'll document and create a thread with my journey.