# Make it your own, 3 Winemakers, Chardonnay 2017



## NorCal (Jul 28, 2017)

Collectively, @4Score and @Busabill and I are getting 1100 lbs of Chardonnay grapes to net 20, 20 and 15 gallons for each of us. We will get the grapes, crush and press the grapes together at my house. However, each winemaker must leave that day with their juice. From there, they will make their wine their own. While I think we all agreed on the yeast and mlf, all other aspects are individual choices. 

I'll keep this thread going to track the story of my Chard. We are all coming off a good season last year, each of us earning gold or better medals at the state fair this year, with different wines.

Hopefully 4Score and Busabill will do the same.


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## 4score (Jul 28, 2017)

I think we all agreed that MY Chard was the best of the three, so I'm not sure I want to divulge too many of my secrets.


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## Boatboy24 (Jul 28, 2017)

4score said:


> I think we all agreed that MY Chard was the best of the three, so I'm not sure I want to divulge too many of my secrets.



Maybe you should just make all of it, then give @NorCal and @Busabill their share.


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## ibglowin (Jul 28, 2017)

Hmmmmm, what happened to if one of us does well we all do well........ 



4score said:


> I think we all agreed that MY Chard was the best of the three, so I'm not sure I want to divulge too many of my secrets.


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## NorCal (Jul 29, 2017)

Hey, what's funny in reality, it is the exact opposite; I don't feel any sense of competition (and I'm competitive by nature). I was thrilled by the success of my partners last year. 

Last year everything was fermented together. This year, I don't have the room, so we are parting ways at the juice stage.

Here is the vintage data from last year. Would you change anything?

2016	Chardonnay	
8/20/2016	harvest date
900	lbs of grapes
23.5	brix
14.0	ABV
3.20	pH
no adjustments 
D47	yeast
68 peak fermentation temp
Beta mlf
Aged in glass with American oak staves

Mine won Silver at the State Fair.


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## Boatboy24 (Jul 29, 2017)

NorCal said:


> Here is the vintage data from last year. Would you change anything?



I don't know that I would. My only temptation would be to split the batch and do half unoaked (and maybe aged in stainless if that were an option).


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## NorCal (Aug 8, 2017)

Talked to the vineyard owner yesterday. The Chardonnay is already at 22 brix! We've set a harvest target of 11 days from now. He will measure the brix a few more times before then. I suspect the brix will be 24-25; higher than last year.

@4Score has graciously agreed to do the Chard crush/destem/press at his house, since I'm doing the 2 ton Cab ferment at mine.

Same thing, @BusaBill and I will leave with our juice at the end of the day and free to make it our own.


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## NorCal (Aug 29, 2017)

On 8/8, the owner said the brix were twenty two, which I took as 22. When I followed up a week later, he said that he was saying twenty......two; 20.2.

Regardless, the brix are around 25 now and they are coming off the vines on Saturday! We wanted a little more time on the vine, so hopefully this will give us some more deeper flavors, that I'm looking for.

Last year I was able to keep the fermentation temps in the '60s. I stirred the lees, but not too frequently. I also fermented under airlock. Since I'm going for the big, buttery, Rombauer Chardonnay, my plan is to ferment with D47 without airlock, stir the lees daily, keep as cold as possible, mlf and not be shy with the oak. 

Any other thoughts to create that Rombauer flavor profile?


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## Johnd (Aug 29, 2017)

NorCal said:


> On 8/8, the owner said the brix were twenty two, which I took as 22. When I followed up a week later, he said that he was saying twenty......two; 20.2.
> 
> Regardless, the brix are around 25 now and they are coming off the vines on Saturday! We wanted a little more time on the vine, so hopefully this will give us some more deeper flavors, that I'm looking for.
> 
> ...



I did a boatload of research when I did my chard this past spring, and found a lot of impressive information on CY 3079. While I'm not exactly sure if this fits your desired outcome exactly, my chard project is coming out very nicely.

http://winequip.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/CY3079.pdf

Maybe it's an option for you as well....................


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## NorCal (Sep 2, 2017)

Chardonnay is pressed and we each went our separate ways with the juice. Brix 25.6, pH 3.3. We netted 80 gallons gross, from 1175 lbs of grapes. A 15.6 abv Chardonnay is pretty hot, so I'm considering watering back. The fruit was about the same as last year, which wasn't that great. But, the wine really turned out good.

I've got the juice with 40ppm SO2 in the cold box (65-69 degrees) and I'll be rotating in frozen gallon containers of water, to keep the must as cold as possible. I'll decide if I'm going to water back and if I'm going to rack, before I inoculate in the morning.


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## ibglowin (Sep 2, 2017)

Dang, that would be some powerful stuff if you don't water it back at least down to ~14% or a little less.


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## stickman (Sep 3, 2017)

Yea, D47 may have some trouble at high ABV.


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## NorCal (Sep 3, 2017)

stickman said:


> Yea, D47 may have some trouble at high ABV.



Good catch, spec sheet says 14% abv (23.5 brix), which is what we started with last year.


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## NorCal (Sep 3, 2017)

Pretty good (bad) layer on the bottom, so I racked off the gross lees, watered back to 24.5 brix, acidulated to 3.4 pH and inoculated with D47 / Go-Ferm. Ferm-K is waiting by. Hopefully I'm done messing with it until it's done fermenting. I lost about 3 gallons off the bottom, I'll put it in the fridge and see what I can reclaim.


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## NorCal (Sep 3, 2017)

After a few hours. I'll let it go until tonight to see if it drops anymore. I really don't like the good juice sitting in that stuff.


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## NorCal (Sep 3, 2017)

Cool pic from yesterday


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## NorCal (Sep 12, 2017)

The Chardonnay is fermenting away in the '65-'69 degree wine box. Rotating 1 gallon ice jugs in daily and stirring the fine lee, once per day. Down to 10 brix, no off smells or taste.

Once fermentation is done, I will rack to glass and mlf.


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## stickman (Sep 12, 2017)

No oak yet? I'd figure like barrel fermented Chardonnay you'd have some oak sticks in there. Looks good to me; you should be getting some tropical flavors and aromatics with the level of ripeness you have.


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## NorCal (Sep 12, 2017)

stickman said:


> No oak yet? I'd figure like barrel fermented Chardonnay you'd have some oak sticks in there. Looks good to me; you should be getting some tropical flavors and aromatics with the level of ripeness you have.



My plan was to oak in the glass post fermentation, do you see a benefit oaking during primary vs. post?


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## cmason1957 (Sep 12, 2017)

I might have some oak chips in the mix or other sacrificial tannins, but not oak chips or staves. Most of the oaking done in primary just gets lost in the mix. YMMV.


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## stickman (Sep 12, 2017)

I know, everyone looks for a definitive answer and there never seems to be one, but I have to assume there is a reason why many wineries go through the trouble of fermenting Chardonnay in the barrel. I agree, I don't think oak adds much flavor during primary with all of the lees etc, but I think texture is what they are after. I'm sure it will be good either way.


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## NorCal (Oct 21, 2017)

The wines are resting in our respective wineries and the tests last week showed that they are not done mlf. I can’t say that our wines would taste any different at this point. 

I’m going to rack mine today, just because I don’t like the layer of lees that the wine has develop. Pics later.


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## NorCal (Oct 21, 2017)

25 gallons racked and back in the wine box. Based on the shape of the fruit, I was concerned about developing H2S. Perhaps heavy handed, but I think the upside of racking at this point outweighs the downside.


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## NorCal (Nov 28, 2017)

It’s been a month since the last update. MLF is still progressing, smells and tastes pretty darn good. I’ve added a lightly toasted oak spiral to two of the carboys.


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## 4score (Nov 28, 2017)

Still haven’t racked my Chardonnay (other than the very first one after primary). I have 30 gallons in a flex tank. ML (Enoferm Beta) added on 9/23. Still in progress. I want to catch it just as it completes so as to maximize the Diacetyl. It’s just going slooooow.


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## NorCal (Mar 17, 2018)

It’s been a while since we had an update.

I think the three of us have bottled this year’s Chardonnay. @4score entered into the CA state fair. I felt it is a bronze/silver level wine and held onto my $20.

We are however getting together on Sunday to do some Cabernet barrel tasting and hopefully @Busabill will be back in town soon enough to join us.

I’ll try to remember to take some pics.


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## zadvocate (Mar 18, 2018)

How long did you leave it on oak?


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## NorCal (Mar 18, 2018)

Oak...I think this will be the differentiator between the wines. Having “ruined” (to my palate) some really nice wines with too much oak, I am real shy on the oak. I made 23 gallons; two 6.5, two 5.0 gallon carboys. I used a French oak spiral in two carboys and an American oak spiral in the other two, for 6 weeks, combining the wine in the end, before bottling. @4score is more of an oak fan and added a big stave to his 30 gallon flex tank. @Busabill also made his in a Flex, not sure his oaking regiment.


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## 4score (Mar 18, 2018)

I used a giant (60 gallon size Medium Plus French Oak) stave on my Chardonnay in the 30-gallon Flex Tank. It was bathing for about 3.5 months, although its effectiveness was probably mostly spent after 8-10 weeks. Should be a fun comparison.


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## NorCal (Mar 19, 2018)

We all came equipped with multiple glasses and the wine was flowing. Unfortunately @Busabill couldn’t join us, but we had a good size crowd. The results were surprising to everyone. The little spirals in the carboy out-oaked the big stave in the flex tank. Both were good and similar in taste, but I have to say the extra oak made a difference in the flavor, without being too much.


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## Guasto-IS (Dec 9, 2019)

NorCal said:


> Hey, what's funny in reality, it is the exact opposite; I don't feel any sense of competition (and I'm competitive by nature). I was thrilled by the success of my partners last year.
> 
> Last year everything was fermented together. This year, I don't have the room, so we are parting ways at the juice stage.
> 
> ...


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## Guasto-IS (Dec 9, 2019)

Hi NorCal. I was reading your initial post in this thread and was wondering what type of oak stave you used in the Chardonnay that won the silver (belated congrats BTW!!!!). Was this a toasted stave, stave from a barrel etc??

I currently have a Chardonnay going from a kit and was looking into viable best options to improve my vino!


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## NorCal (Dec 10, 2019)

anthony toto said:


> Hi NorCal. I was reading your initial post in this thread and was wondering what type of oak stave you used in the Chardonnay that won the silver (belated congrats BTW!!!!). Was this a toasted stave, stave from a barrel etc??
> 
> I currently have a Chardonnay going from a kit and was looking into viable best options to improve my vino!


I’m a fan of oak spirals, when needing to add oak. Labelpellers have always provided the best value that I could find. I would go with the American med + toast, but now go nothing more than medium.


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## ZebraB (Dec 10, 2019)

I have never used the spirals only the chips in a kit. How do you sterilize the spirals?


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## NorCal (Dec 10, 2019)

ZebraB said:


> I have never used the spirals only the chips in a kit. How do you sterilize the spirals?


I sanitize the spirals by spraying them with Starsan.


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## ZebraB (Dec 10, 2019)

Good to know. Thanks! I ordered up some from Label Peelers to add to a few carboys. Based on the few kits that I got brewing, I think the oak in primary doesn't do much for oak flavor. They have more of an Avant Chard (unoaked) vs Kendal Jackson (oak) flavor profile.


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## BI81 (Dec 12, 2019)

@NorCal do you have some sort of conveyor system (Photo from post #16) on your sorting table or are you manually pushing the grapes down as you go? Also, how do you like the Spiedel ferment/storage tanks? I'm looking to upgrade to some HDPE tanks for larger volume aging instead of my 6 gal carboys. I like the FlexTanks and Intellitanks, but the Spiedels are much more appealing from a cost perspective.


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## NorCal (Dec 12, 2019)

BI81 said:


> @NorCal do you have some sort of conveyor system (Photo from post #16) on your sorting table or are you manually pushing the grapes down as you go? Also, how do you like the Spiedel ferment/storage tanks? I'm looking to upgrade to some HDPE tanks for larger volume aging instead of my 6 gal carboys. I like the FlexTanks and Intellitanks, but the Spiedels are much more appealing from a cost perspective.



Wow, an oldie from 2017, including my now upgraded, one owner, 200K mile F-150. 

I made that slide from common materials from Home Depot. The sliding surface is melamine and the edges are sealed with food safe silicon. The grapes are spread out, MOG picked out and any bad clusters removed. I do like fermenting the whites in the Spiedels. I stir them daily, but ferment under airlock. I've had 30 gallon FlexTanks, but found them difficult to clean, because they are so deep. Recently I purchased the new square-ish format of the Spiedel, which is a big improvement over the barrel type.


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## BI81 (Dec 13, 2019)

Ha, I was thinking of commenting on how pristine the truck looked for the year, definite pride of ownership!!

Any issues with the melamine warping over time from the juice? 

Appreciate the feedback on the Spiedels, I'll go ahead and track down the new square models.


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