Last year I made a barrel fermented Chardonnay from fresh, local juice (link to thread), the first time of making a white on this scale. I want to parlay the things I purchased (barrel) and what I learned from last year to make an even better wine this year. It was the first time I ever made a wine from anything except grapes picked the day of. I have to say, I was a little concerned about how the wine would turn out. I expected a thin wine without a lot of character. I was wrong. Even though I know I can do better this year, last year's Chardonnay is our favorite white wine we've ever made. The style we are wanting is a Rombauer: peach, citrus, creamy and some would call buttery.
The plan
- 55 gallon drum, three 6 gallon buckets of fresh Chardonnay juice.
- Barrel fermented, French oak supplement
- TR-313 yeast
- Beta MLF for diacetyl (buttery)
Improvement Opportunities
- slower fermentation: went dry in 5 days last year
- daily lees stirring: proved that more is better
- don't be shy on the Bentonite: showed that a larger dose cleared better, with very minor change in taste[ATTACH=full]105351[/ATTACH]
