Saignee with Chambourcin

[Xnke]

I'm looking into this technique this year with some Chambourcin grapes. Depending on how many I have, and how the acidity and sugar stacks up, I am considering the following:

Crush all the grapes, and allow an hour or so maceration
Bleed off 20 to 40% of the juice, to make a saignee rose
Reduce acidity of the red wine must
Use the extra high skins-to-pulps to increase the usually low tannin content of Chambourcin grapes.

Anyone played this game before?

 

[cmason1957]

That's what I do nearly every year, except for adding extra tannins. The Chambourcin I get is generally tannic enough. I'll make 500 lbs of it this year, probably 12 gallons will be rose. Mine soaks for the about three hits it takes to get home with the crushed grapes.

 

[Xnke]

I don't plan to add *extra* tannins, just crush all the grapes, then bleed off some of the juice. The fact that there will then be more skins than the amount of juice would normally dictate, will naturally increase the amount of tannins in the resulting red wine, as well as anthocyanins and phenols that are released from the grape skins.

After a three hour soak, how dark/light is the resulting juice? I've seen Chambourcin roses that ranged from "are you sure that's not a red" to "That looks like water", but I've only had the mid-to-light pink shades-which were pretty dang good, I think. The three I tried, one was a little sweet, the other two dry. I liked the dry better.

 

[cmason1957]

I don't plan to add *extra* tannins, just crush all the grapes, then bleed off some of the juice. The fact that there will then be more skins than the amount of juice would normally dictate, will naturally increase the amount of tannins in the resulting red wine, as well as anthocyanins and phenols that are released from the grape skins.

After a three hour soak, how dark/light is the resulting juice? I've seen Chambourcin roses that ranged from "are you sure that's not a red" to "That looks like water", but I've only had the mid-to-light pink shades-which were pretty dang good, I think. The three I tried, one was a little sweet, the other two dry. I liked the dry better.

It ended up being a distinct red, but more pale than a red wine. It seems about right to me, but it almost has to be, can't drive back much faster.

We added just a touch of sugar to ours, not even to Semi-dry, but some. Just enough to take the dry taste away. It seems to me it was 8 ounces to 6 gallons, but don't count on that number I am 1200 miles away from my notes in North West Minnesota.

 

[mainshipfred]

That's what I do nearly every year, except for adding extra tannins. The Chambourcin I get is generally tannic enough. I'll make 500 lbs of it this year, probably 12 gallons will be rose. Mine soaks for the about three hits it takes to get home with the crushed grapes.

I'm going to do a Chambourcin rose, my first rose. you said 3 hits, I imagine that was a typo. How long are they sitting on the skins and how long should they. Also if I hadn't read this I wouldn't have thought of making a red Chambourcin, I would have added the skins to another wine. Thanks for that.

 

[Xnke]

I am pretty sure the three hits is three hours.

 

[cmason1957]

Yes, his should have been hours. I am sitting at a lake in Northwest Minnesota on my tablet and sometimes this swype stuff doesn't work so well.

 

[user 36973]

Chambourcin very quickly will become dark. Last year I crushed and immediately pressed my chambourcin and it was already as dark as a Pinot noir. Total time crush to press was a half hour. Could see through it but it was dark.

I'd suggest that you monitor the color closely and be prepared to start bleeding right after crush.

Cheers

 

[Xnke]

I've seen recommendations from immediately to three hours, so I figure I'll crush in batches since I'm doing it by hand. Crush through a mesh bag straight into the bucket, then I can soak the skins in it until it's the color I want. We will see how I get on with it, should be another week or two.