Cellar Craft CC Showcase Chardonnay: Yakima Valley

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RJB

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Good morning to the Forum, and happy Monday...

Cellar Craft's web site shows a Yakima Valley Chardonnay listed in their Showcase White Wine section:

(URL deleted)

Evidently this is a new kit, and the wording suggests something of a work-in-progress. Furthermore I can not find this kit listed on internet supplier sites.

Does anyone have any knowledge of this kit? Is it available yet? Any idea of the price?

thanks in advance for any help

Bob, Maple Valley, WA
 
Well, nothing's better than answering your own question.
Yesterday I visited my local supplier (Larry's Brewing in Kent, WA) - where the lovely Heidi checked with the local CC distributor, and yes, the Yakima Chards kit is in production, and they have one kit on the floor. Which now has my name on it. With any luck it will be on the property at Chateau 20518 by this weekend, and bubbling its heart out.
Bob, Maple Vly, WA
 
That should be a really nice chardonnay. Washington has some nice fruit-forward offerings and what good can't you say about Cellar Craft?. Let us know how it turns out.

Does it come with oak? I have never fully decided if I like oaked chards or not. It all depends on the winery, I guess.
 
I picked this guy up before Xmas. Wonder what Acacia brings to the party over some lightly toasted Oak?
 
It does indeed come with acacia cubes. I picked up my kit yesterday, and have just put it into primary fermentation. It has yet to throw a bubble, but I have confidence my new brew belt will help =:O
 
Mine is starting to clear nicely. I topped off with a couple bottles of Columbia Crest Two Vines Chardonnay.
 
Well, this wine is proving to be different from my previous CC kits. I racked it off into secondary ferm last Saturday (4 days ago), and it now appears to be doing almost nothing. The bubble lock bloops about every 5 to 10 minutes. I keep the temp around 70degF, and SG was 0.996 when I racked it from the primary. My other CC's were all more active at this stage. So... may rack it again this coming weekend, and let it sit and clear a while.

The other thing about this kit, there was not much sediment in the primary bucket, but the entire wine is still cloudy - quite different from the Viognier that i made a few weeks earlier.

Anyone else done this kit? (Showcase Yakima Chardonnay)

thanks in advance,

bob
 
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Different is what way?

They all ferment out uniquely in some way that's for sure. When I stabilized and fined mine a few weeks back I kept in warm for 72 hours then removed the heat and let it drop to room temp (58) and it just sat there all cloudy with no further clearing for a solid week. I did have a good dump of fines on the bottom of the carboy but the wine was still cloudy. I saw slight improvement after letting it sit another week but nothing major. I hit it with the heat belt and brought it back up to 69 degrees and have had it there for a week and its now see through clear with only a slight haze at the bottom.

They all ferment differently and they all clear differently in some way or another.
 
Different in that my previous wines were still somewhat active after racking them into secondary. This wine (the Chard) was very active in the first 2-3 days of primary ferm, but quickly slowed right down. So I decided to rack it into secondary after one week of primary.
Which gets back to my earlier post about "what defines the boundary between primary and secondary?" - seems to me it is basically a SWAG. It appears to me that this wine is almost fermented right out. But... what do I know about anything?
Fortunately it seems that wine is smarter than we are, and can make up for some of our personal ineptitudes =:O
bob
 
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This is a very forgiving hobby which is why I like it so much plus I kinda like the product I have to admit......

Fermentation will be faster or slower depending on things like temperature, health of the yeast, availability of nutrients. The kit instructions are good guidelines on when to transfer from primary to secondary based mainly on the SG. Taking SG readings every day or so is a good practice to learn how things are progressing. I transfer my whites pretty close to the kit instructions (or at least I try). Reds I definitely go longer in the bucket since I have a grape pack or raisins usually and I want them in contact for as long as possible. Just use your airlock in primary when things start to slow down so you limit unnecessary exposure to O2.

And 0.996 is a very good ending SG in any book and you will not be able to tell the difference in taste or alcohol if it goes lower. People fermenting at sea level seem to be able to get down to crazy low SG's but I am hard pressed to get lower than 0.996 at 6500ft elevation.
 
Acacia Cubes question

Hi to all.. my Yakima Chardonnay kit appears to have finished its secondary ferm, (a bit quicker than I expected).
The instructions indicate that I should now rack it, close down the fermentation, add the K/C, stir etc, and then add the acacia cubes.

Okay... so does acacia sink? or float? Not sure what to do with them.

Can anyone give me some acacia advice?

thanks in advance

Bob, Maple Vly, WA
 
Just did this one. Let the Acacia sit in it till it sinks. Its very dense wood so it will take even longer than oak. It will add a nice dimension to your wine but not any vanilla like oak.
 
Thanks Mike, that answers that. Incidentally, how long did you leave it with the oak in there? Until bottling, or did you rack it after a few months?

thanks
Bob
 
I will be racking off my fines probably next week. This one has been sow to clear for me and I actually had to hit with the brew belt for another week to warm it back up and then it seemed to clear better. I will rack the fines as well as the acacia off more than likely next week end. I think that will be 4 weeks since adding the fining agents. I topped off with some two vines chardonnay.
 
CC Yakima Chardonnay - clearing

Interesting Mike, your chardonnay is behaving differently from mine. I racked mine into the clearing phase on Tuesday afternoon. Attached is a pic of it exactly 24 hours later (yesterday PM) - it is almost clear. Also, when I was taking this pic I noticed, with alarm, that the bubble-lock was blooping about every 2-3 minutes =:O
WHAAAT!!! It is not supposed to be fermenting any more - looking closer I realized it was coming from the acacia cubes, presumably slowly becoming waterlogged. err... winelogged. I am guessing that, as you said, they will slowly sink.
regards, Bob

IMG_2920.jpg
 
Looking good Bob!

Seems like they all ferment and clear slightly different. Of the 3 CC Showcase Whites I have made since Xmas the Chardonnay was the only one that was a little stubborn. Warming it back up really did the trick nicely. The winery is ~55-58 degrees still so perfect conditions for storing wine, not so great sometimes for clearing!
 
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Your comment re temp is consistent with my experience with this particular white. Without a brew belt temperature in the carboy was around 65degF, and secondary fermentation was at a crawl. Then I started using the brew belt, and kept the temp around 70-75, and the fermentation sped up significantly - by the end of 7 days it had simply run out of puff, so I racked it off into clearing.
Bob
 
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