Spring '17 White Wine Project

[balatonwine]

At this stage of the game, I've not been able to discern much minerality out of the wine, but it is quite fruity and aromatic.

You are right, I did not expect one yet to get the mineral tastes, just asking if that was what you were after. Yes, Pinot Gris should have a fruit aromas, that is the nature of the grape.

That is, the Italian style, and the quintessential Pinot Gris, should have distinct fruit and be crisp on the palate with possible notes of mineral or brine. .

French style would be more complex with the fruit bouquet, and with more soft fruit on the palate since this style is also less acidic.

 

[Johnd]

Devoted the better part of Sunday to working / catching up in the wine room, and amongst my chores, were the PG and Chardonnay.

Racked the PG (6, 3, 1 gallon glass) off of the sediment from clearing and ended with 9 gallons and a glass to sample. Really nice wine, smooth, aromatic, great taste, pH 3.35. Will probably boost the acid during aging, this is a really nice white wine.

Ran a chromo on the Chardonnay, its finished up MLF, will sulfite and start clearing in a couple of weeks. It has a really nice, balanced aroma, fruity, bready, I think it'll be ready to come off of the lees and am looking forward to a sample in a couple of weeks.

 

[Johnd]

White wine project is pretty much into slow mode, both wines are crystal clear, PG on the left, Chard on the right.

I put one M+ French Oak Wine Stix in the 6 gallon Chard carboy, the 3 is unoaked, Chard was on lees for a few months until MLF was completed. Chard pH ended up at 3.89 and it's a bit flabby, will be tasting and slowly working some tartaric into it during sulfite additions, but the wine is very nice even now.

PG didn't go through MLF, is unoaked, and was racked off of the lees several times during clearing. pH finished up at 3.43, it is a very nice wine today, but we like a little more acid zing to PG, so it'll also get tasted and worked down with some tartaric over the next 6-8 months.

Both wines, sitting at 58F in the wine room, have some very slight diamond formation. The plan is to taste, adjust and let them age through the winter when I allow the temps in the room to go down to 54/55F. Probably bottle them in April/May '18 when they're a year old. Fun project, results looking pretty solid.

 

[stickman]

John, looking good, did you use any fining agents or did they fall clear on their own?

 

[Johny99]

Really nice John. Do you plan on blending the chard, or bottleing separately?

 

[Johnd]

Really nice John. Do you plan on blending the chard, or bottleing separately?

An excellent question, which I cannot answer. Once I'm happy with the oak in the 6 gallon, I'll probably try a little blending and maybe end up with three wines, fully oaked, blended, and straight chard with no oak. Maybe just the two, oaked and unoaked, guess time will tell.

 

[Johny99]

An excellent question, which I cannot answer. Once I'm happy with the oak in the 6 gallon, I'll probably try a little blending and maybe end up with three wines, fully oaked, blended, and straight chard with no oak. Maybe just the two, oaked and unoaked, guess time will tell.

Isn't that just the fun of all this. I hope you love whatever you choose.

 

[Johnd]

It's been nearly 10 months since I started the white wine project (last April), and it was "completed" yesterday.

The Chardonnay, which yielded 9 gallons of wine and underwent MLF and some aging on the lees, was in two carboys, a 6 and a 3 gallon. The 6 gallon has spent the last several months with a French M+ Wine Stix in it, and was actually bottled about 2 weeks ago, the 3 gallon was bottled yesterday. Both wines ended up fairly "fat", with not a lot of yeasty qualities, extremely aromatic, flavorful, and rich with really nice body. Post AF / MLF, some tartaric additions, and a little diamond dropping in the cellar, pH was 3.78, TA 6.3. After some acid bench trials, I bottled it as offered, without adding any acid. The oaked version is very lightly and pleasantly oaked, wife says its the best white wine I've ever made. I'll take that!! The unoaked version is equally as enjoyable. It'll all get capsules and labels this weekend.

The Pinot Gris, also 9 gallons (6 & 3 carboys) was bottled yesterday as well, both carboys also had some light acid deposits on the bottom. I didn't add any tartaric to the PG, and the pH decreased, as expected, as a result of the acid precipitation, finishing up at 3.32. I like a little acid zing in PG, so did some bench trials with tartaric, and ended up deciding that I wasn't improving the wine by adding acid, so it was also bottled as offered. The wine has a wonderful bouquet, dominated by pears, which come through on the palate with some crisp green apple flavors as well. There is a distinct stony minerality in the wine, maybe a little less than I would have liked, but it's very nice indeed. Wifey likes it too, said to cellar it til the summer.

All in all, 90 bottles of wine, pretty solid effort and really good wines from some pretty darn good grapes. I'll definitely do this again when it's time for some more whites.