Viognier Buckets - Tweaks?

[Boatboy24]

I've done a handful of white wine kits, but no buckets yet. And with the exception of barrel fermenting a Chardonnay, I haven't really tweaked any of them. I've got a Viognier bucket on order and am considering a number of things. Just looking for some thoughts from the gallery.

Viognier is said to have very floral notes on the nose - honeysuckle, orange blossom, sometimes jasmine. I'm not sure how to encourage these, other than a cool ferment. I'm going to use BA11 for yeast. According to MoreWine's write up, BA11 "encourages the fresh fruit aromas of orange blossom, pineapple and apricot". Tasting notes consistently mention peach and apricot - often mango and citrus as well.

So, all that being said, I'm considering a number of additions to this juice bucket. I could add white raisins, dried apricots, mango (dried or fresh), peaches. These would all go in the primary both for body and flavor enhancement. Right now, I'm leaning toward some dried mango and apricot. Another consideration would be a hint of orange zest either in secondary, or in bulk aging. I'm not sure if I want to go there - I'm afraid it could be overdone too easily. I could always split the batch when aging/clearing though and do one with and one without. One other question is: should I use bentonite in the primary? A lot to consider, but I'd appreciate any and all advice and commentary. Thanks!!!

Jim

 

[drumlinridgewinery]

I wasnt going to do much more than just add golden raisins but the orange zest now has me thinking.

 

[geek]

I've never really tasted a Viognier white wine and will be watching this topic. I typically like whites off-dry. I did a Riesling last year and back sweeten it a little bit to get SG to ~1.005. For me it came out very good.
This time I was also thinking of making a white varietal juice bucket, probably white Zinfandel but would be reading and maybe buy a bottle of Viognier just to see how it is.

 

[Boatboy24]

Varis,

I've had a local Viognier that had 0.5% residual sugar. It was excellent.

 

[jas3019]

The viognier I made from last year's California juice I didn't do much to. I used D47 yeast because it's a Cotes du Rhone yeast and figured I couldn't go wrong. Didn't add any other flavoring but I did backsweeten before bottling. I originally thought I'd leave it dry but after doing a bench trial I really preferred about 1.5% RS so that's where it is.

It's almost 7 months old and been in the bottle nearly a month. Might have to chill one down this weekend and see how it finally turned out!

On a side note, I'm planning to use BA11 on my Chilean sauvignon blanc in a few weeks so it'd be interesting to see how the yeast works in two different varieties. Have you used that yeast on other whites before?

 

[cimbaliw]

I've made two Viognier WE Selection Series kits and my only after thought was maybe golden raisins. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy as is. As of now it has this delightful cantaloupe, mango, citrus thing goin' on. It's still a little green so I'm expecting this to be a summer favorite. The kit used EC-1118, the Chardonnay I pitched at the same time used Premier Cuvee.

Despite the dusting of snow this morning, I'm confident summer will arrive at some point this year.

 

[ScottyB]

The viognier I made from last year's California juice I didn't do much to. I used D47 yeast because it's a Cotes du Rhone yeast and figured I couldn't go wrong. Didn't add any other flavoring but I did backsweeten before bottling. I originally thought I'd leave it dry but after doing a bench trial I really preferred about 1.5% RS so that's where it is.

It's almost 7 months old and been in the bottle nearly a month. Might have to chill one down this weekend and see how it finally turned out!

On a side note, I'm planning to use BA11 on my Chilean sauvignon blanc in a few weeks so it'd be interesting to see how the yeast works in two different varieties. Have you used that yeast on other whites before?

Jas3019 - I have 3 buckets of Chilean SB and have BA11 for one, VL3 for another and R2 for the last. Was going to add opti ehite and booster blanc to each - hopefully it will be a good experiment.


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making