Finer Wine Kit H2S with Tavola Riesling

[vinny]

Hey Vinny,

The riesling is the first wine I've made that's in the drinking window. I started a chardonnay last Fall that still needs some time. I have been completely enamored with white wines. That is all I plan to make for now. I have my eye on some viognier and chenin blanc this coming Fall.

My chardonnay batch is from a juice bucket. The numbers are good and so far everything has gone well. It's about 7 months old right now and is.....just okay. It doesn't taste bad, but it reminds me of the riesling around this same time. I think young wines are really just not that exciting.

Fortunately, I had a great experience recently with the riesling so I am optimistic the chard will be in a similar place around xmas.

I'd be curious to know more about your bourbon oak chardonnay! Did you ferment in barrel? MLF? I've discovered that my favorite retail chardonnay is cool-climate and barrel fermented. There's just something about the creaminess that only barrel fermentations can create. My chardonnay is in carboy. I will likely add some oak at some point, but it does not have the same texture of barrel fermented lots.

It was a Vineco Global Passport kit. The limited release kits they do yearly. The third white I have tried. The others were a pinot gris and a pinot grigio and I am not a fan of either. They lack the crisp acidity that you expect from the varietal. I just started making sausage and what came from using the wine was delicious, so there is nothing lost. It will just take a long time to turn that much wine into sausage a cup at a time.

The oak was about 7 BIG chunks of toasted bourbon barrel. They were so big one wouldn't fit through the mouth of my carboy. I was done with making whites from a kit. I was talked into this one with a taste test at my LHBS. Half way through, around 7 months, I was thinking I should have known better. It wasn't hitting the mark. Wine is strange. You taste it and think I am not going to like this one, then 3 months later. Mmmmm. That is good. I am sure that yours will come around in time, as well.

I did age this the entire year on the fine lees. I had it on a lazy Susan and I would spin them up a couple times a week for the first few months. Then I just let it sit. I really wish I could compare a bottle of a kit done as written to see the difference in flavor. The lees offer nutty smooth buttery notes, but without anything to compare it to all I can say is it is good.