Grapes a bit delayed, had to wait for another bin to be filled...arg
Just secured 2018 white wine grapes - Viognier!
- Thread starter NorCal
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Hard to imagine this ups colored juice becoming a nice wine, but I think it will. 
Reflecting on the day, overall it went well, but two things stand out that I wish were better.
#1 better fruit. I give the fruit a B-. Maybe a bit critical, but I expected better. We paid $900 for our 1,000 lbs.
#2 crusher set-up. I took apart the crusher when I bought it and moved the rollers as far apart as I could. This has worked well for reds, but did not do us any favors for this small berry Viognier. I press using a vacuum 55 gallon Wineasy. I would characterize it as a very gental press. When I saw that are yield was short of target, I was looking into why. While the press was doing its job, there wasn’t enough force to break open the 20% or so of grapes that made it through the crusher as a whole berry. We ended up rerunning the pressings through again and picked up another 11 gallons of juice.
#1 better fruit. I give the fruit a B-. Maybe a bit critical, but I expected better. We paid $900 for our 1,000 lbs.
#2 crusher set-up. I took apart the crusher when I bought it and moved the rollers as far apart as I could. This has worked well for reds, but did not do us any favors for this small berry Viognier. I press using a vacuum 55 gallon Wineasy. I would characterize it as a very gental press. When I saw that are yield was short of target, I was looking into why. While the press was doing its job, there wasn’t enough force to break open the 20% or so of grapes that made it through the crusher as a whole berry. We ended up rerunning the pressings through again and picked up another 11 gallons of juice.
One more thing. I met this guy last year who grows all his own vegetables, fruits, nuts and meat. I’m talking cows, goats, pigs, chickens. His animals love the grape pumice, so it went to a good cause; win, win situation.
It is hard to imagine, but it always seems to transform, my first from white grapes really freaked me out. I look at your bucket of juice and and it looks beautiful!!
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I'm thinking hard about trying my first white from grapes this fall. Haven't decided what though. Really this will be my first white ever except for an Island Mist. I'm starting to get an appreciation for whites.
Grapes on Thurs with family plans for the Labor Day weekend. Racked and inoculated grapes on Friday @23.7 brix. Came back Monday evening to a ferment temp of 70 degrees and brix of 11.4. Added second dose of Ferm K. This is way faster than the previous years Chards, where I was loading gallon jugs of ice to cool ferm.
It is what it is and I had a great weekend with the family. It will be interesting to see how this wine tastes vs. @4score, which could not be made any different.
It is what it is and I had a great weekend with the family. It will be interesting to see how this wine tastes vs. @4score, which could not be made any different.
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It seemed to go quite quickly, but the Viognier is dry in 7 days with a fermentation temperature of 68-70 degrees. I'll rack tonight, do some tasting and see what the wine is wanting to be. I need to decide to mlf and to oak, and if I do oak, how much of which oak. I'll try to get @4score to post here to share the direction he took with his 1/2 of the Viognier juice.
4score
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I'm more of a red wine guy than a white, but these offers of participating in a Chardonnay project the last two years were hard to resist. They turned out well, so when NorCal approached again with a Viognier option, it was intriguing. It became more than intriguing when I learned he found a great source in Amador County. We refer to Amador as our "little Napa". My son went with NorCal and returned with a full bin's worth (roughly 1000 pounds). We crushed together and split the juice. Extraction rate was not very high. On top of that, the juice was quite cloudy and didn't settle much inside the time (24 hours) I needed to rack. Being impatient, I hardly racked much off. I know....I know.....patience. Probably should have waited another day. NorCal tried to separate his clean juice by taking the bottom "cloud" of his settling container and cold-chilling it. I think he saved a little, but less than he thought. I just figured I'd catch it after primary fermentation. So, our initial racking after settling was our first difference in approach. Of the 26-27 gallons I have, I bet I'll end up with 20 gallons of finished wine in the end.
The next departure in our approaches to this wine came with a fermentation step I inserted before the traditional yeast. I'm experimenting this year with a non-Saccharomyces yeast from Chr Hansen called Prelude. They say another dynamic shift in the fermentation process is occurring. In this new step, a non-sacc yeast fermentation is performed to target flavor, aroma and tactile development. You do this until brix levels are reduced 1-4 brix (1-3 days) and then apply your traditional yeast which quickly will overwhelm the first yeast. We chose "Prelude" for our Cab Franc project and we're trying it out on the Viognier as well. This non-Saccharomyces yeast strain has been carefully selected to mimic successful wild ferments, increase aromatic complexity, enhance fresh fruit-forward wines, and develop a round mouthfeel.
We used Prelude for about 2.5 days and a 2 brix reduction then went with normal D47 yeast. We've gone all the way to about 5.5 last night and I can tell you the smell is amazing! I'm not familiar with Viognier, but the entire fermentation room smells like fresh pear. When we complete this wine, it will be interesting to compare NorCal's traditional fermentation to ours. Of course, we need to make the same choices on oak and MLF if we're going to compare accurately.
I'm also doing two bins of Cab Franc and intend to use Prelude on only one of the bins and keep all other variables the same. Isn't this fun?
The next departure in our approaches to this wine came with a fermentation step I inserted before the traditional yeast. I'm experimenting this year with a non-Saccharomyces yeast from Chr Hansen called Prelude. They say another dynamic shift in the fermentation process is occurring. In this new step, a non-sacc yeast fermentation is performed to target flavor, aroma and tactile development. You do this until brix levels are reduced 1-4 brix (1-3 days) and then apply your traditional yeast which quickly will overwhelm the first yeast. We chose "Prelude" for our Cab Franc project and we're trying it out on the Viognier as well. This non-Saccharomyces yeast strain has been carefully selected to mimic successful wild ferments, increase aromatic complexity, enhance fresh fruit-forward wines, and develop a round mouthfeel.
We used Prelude for about 2.5 days and a 2 brix reduction then went with normal D47 yeast. We've gone all the way to about 5.5 last night and I can tell you the smell is amazing! I'm not familiar with Viognier, but the entire fermentation room smells like fresh pear. When we complete this wine, it will be interesting to compare NorCal's traditional fermentation to ours. Of course, we need to make the same choices on oak and MLF if we're going to compare accurately.
I'm also doing two bins of Cab Franc and intend to use Prelude on only one of the bins and keep all other variables the same. Isn't this fun?
Sunday is the day that this transformed juice will meet up again. We will have 3 to taste.
1. 100% Viognier in glass, no oak, beta mlf
2. 100% Viognier in glass, non saccharomyces yeast, CH16 mlf, oak spiral
3. 85% Vio / 15% Chardonnay in glass, beta mlf, oak spiral
My two are 1, 3 above (C &A below). It is nice to see the ups brown juice clear to a nice light yellow color.
1. 100% Viognier in glass, no oak, beta mlf
2. 100% Viognier in glass, non saccharomyces yeast, CH16 mlf, oak spiral
3. 85% Vio / 15% Chardonnay in glass, beta mlf, oak spiral
My two are 1, 3 above (C &A below). It is nice to see the ups brown juice clear to a nice light yellow color.
I was doing some research on yeast choices for my 2019 Chilean Viognier and I came upon this thread. Did you ever report the tasting notes of the various different techniques used?
Cheers,
Chuck E.
#1 didn’t make it, so we only had the two to taste. Honestly, they were different, but I don’t remember them being all that different. However, they did take two different roads when I dropped a lot of the acid out of mine; I just didn’t like how tart the wine was. This has overshadowed any differences in the yeast. Both wines were entered in the CA State Fair (over 2,000) wines entered annually. We’ll see what the judges have to say.
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