Process for making white wine (seval)

[PaulS]

HI, New member here.

I have been making wine (from grapes) for about 15 years. All of it red. I now have a chance to purchase some white seval grapes from a winery about 30 miles away.

My question is this, Can anyone offer advice or recomendations on making white wine? I know it is different then red and that you do not need to let the wine sit on the skins. Outside of that, I am not sure of any recomeded steps.

Any help here would be a big help.

 

[JohnT]

YO PAULIE! (sorry, being from new Jersey, I could not help myself)

IMHO, making white wine is all about management of tannins. For a crisp,light white, you want to make sure that you pressthe grapes right away. You do NOT want to macerate the wine for any length oftime.

If you have a press, I would even recommend tossing the grape clusters intoyour press without crushing them first. IMHO, crushing white grapes only increases the tannins that end up inyour wine. Simply press the wholeclusters under gentle pressure for a nice long time.

johnT

 

[mjrisenhoover]

Welcome! Here is a link to a Chardonnay recipe, it might help a little. The recipe is down toward the bottom of the page

Chardonnay: Varietal Focus

Michael

 

[winemaker_3352]

Keep the acid and ph in check - as seyval grapes run higher in acid.

Cold stabilize this will drop out excess TA in the wine - maybe look at using EC-1118 and use a DAP nutrient.

I have also noticed that this wine tastes better with just a bit of sugar to sweeten it. SG around 1.000 - 1.003 ish.

 

[BobF]

There is a good description of the white process in this pub:
http://mtngrv.missouristate.edu/assets/publications/MS28MWFHUweb.pdf

 

[PaulS]

Thanks for the advice. Looks like I have a little reading to do.