WineXpert WE South African Chenin Blanc

[K&GB]

Started a WE Chenin Blanc today.

Must smells and tastes great.

SG was lower than expected at 1.082, so I mixed in a cup of table sugar raising it to 1.085.

This evening the yeast was already forming a cap on top.The tempwas just over 75*, so I decided to move the primary into the garage where it's cooler. Hoping to ferment around 65*.

 

[Waldo]

Looks like it is off to a good start. Im not familiar with this one. Is it similiar to a Riesling, Zin or what?

 

[moto-girl]

I think its closer to a Sauv. blanc.

 

[K&GB]

Chenin Blanc is supposed to come from the Loire Valley in France where they make it into a lot of french sounding names I can't pronounce. The only one I'm familiar with is Vouvray, which can be dry, sparkling, or sweet. It's apparently also popular in New Zealand and South Africa. We stumbled onto a wonderfuloff-dry Chenin Blanc in 2005 in Washington's Yakima Valley and almost bought a case it was so good. We also really like the Vouvray from Belle Marie Winery in Escondido, CA. It's a light, refreshing white sipping wine that works great for a picnic.

 

[Wade E]

Sounds like a real nice wine.

 

[K&GB]

Here's a pic of the finished product. Ooops, posted the wrong pic at first. This is an edit.

We did a dry (left) and a sweet (right) version of this one. Turned out pretty nice.

 

[grapeman]

Pretty nice................. that's a heck of a description now Ken! We want a better description than that. Better sample a bottle and describe it in minute detail.

 

[K&GB]

Ooops, sorry. We bottled thisabout six weeks ago, and I haven't tasted it since. After degassing, I topped it up with almost two 750 mil bottles of a Muscat Bianca that I had handy at the time. Probably not the best choice for topping up. Boy wasit noticeable at bottling.Didn't blend well with the Chenin Blanc. I'm hoping it'll mellow out over time. Anyway, I haven't sampled it since bottling. We finally got around to putting on the labels yesterday. I'll chill a couple of these soon and give a better description.