White Merlot - Yeast? Ferm Temp?

[Ignoble Grape]

Hi All - getting really excited about the 2020 season. I have Merlot, Cab, and Petite Verdot lined up. This will be my 3rd year with the Merlot and I'd like to try to make a dry rose from some of it using the bleed off method. My questions for those who've done this: Do you use a white wine yeast for your roses? I've used RC212 with success for Merlot in the past, I like it, but I'm thinking something a little fruitier perhaps for the rose. Recommendations?

Also, do you recommend doing primary at a white wine temp for the rose? If so, I think I'll need to move it into the house and put the primary bucket in an cool water bath.

Time to plan.

 

[salcoco]

handle the rose as you would a white wine. 71B or Rhone 4600 are good yeasts among many to use

 

[CDrew]

I did this in 2019 and it works well. My yield was 2 cases, so not a whole lot but enough to explore the method. I used myregular red wine yeast (Avante) but a white wine yeast and more temp control would have been nice. I made some mistakes, but it's still pretty good. Here is some info from Scott labs:

https://scottlab.com/tips-rose-winemaking
Good luck. I'm planning to do this again in 2020.

 

[Ignoble Grape]

I did this in 2019 and it works well. My yield was 2 cases, so not a whole lot but enough to explore the method. I used myregular red wine yeast (Avante) but a white wine yeast and more temp control would have been nice. I made some mistakes, but it's still pretty good. Here is some info from Scott labs:

https://scottlab.com/tips-rose-winemaking
Good luck. I'm planning to do this again in 2020.

Thank you so much! I just finished reading the Scottlab page. Bookmarked. Also planning on about 5 gallons. I was thinking about doing small 1gl batches to experiment with the yeast styles for next year.

 

[CDrew]

For 2020 I'm going to do Rose with the last grapes of the season hoping my garage will be cooler. Also, will take steps to prevent MLF. I'm going to follow the Scott suggestions and add some white tannin to preserve more of the color. My final color in 2019 was too light, and more orange than pink. A fun experiment though. Here's the thread from last year when I went through this.

https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/saignee-real-time-help.70162/

 

[Ignoble Grape]

For 2020 I'm going to do Rose with the last grapes of the season hoping my garage will be cooler. Also, will take steps to prevent MLF. I'm going to follow the Scott suggestions and add some white tannin to preserve more of the color. My final color in 2019 was too light, and more orange than pink. A fun experiment though. Here's the thread from last year when I went through this.

https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/saignee-real-time-help.70162/

Excellent diary! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Chuck Rairdan]

Any yeast recommendations for dry rose from saignee? Planning to do cool fermentation to boost the esters and phenols to around 12% abv.

 

[Ignoble Grape]

Any yeast recommendations for dry rose from saignee? Planning to do cool fermentation to boost the esters and phenols to around 12% abv.

I ended up going with Lalvin 71B. I did a direct press because of smoke taint concerns - it's a sandy white color, which is evidently hot with trendsetters at the moment. Overall pleased, but I don't feel I got enough esters or phenolics. It's nice, but not complex by any means.

I did do co-ferment with Dry Malolactic Wine Bacteria - VP41, which is a low diacytle ML bacteria in order to help stabilize in lieu of lysozyme. It's subtle, but you can tell it's there.

I fermented over 2 weeks in large tubs with 2 liter frozen soda bottle ice cubes that I swapped out. It was around +/- 57F throughout.

Good luck with this!

 

[Chuck Rairdan]

I ended up going with Lalvin 71B. I did a direct press because of smoke taint concerns - it's a sandy white color, which is evidently hot with trendsetters at the moment. Overall pleased, but I don't feel I got enough esters or phenolics. It's nice, but not complex by any means.

I did do co-ferment with Dry Malolactic Wine Bacteria - VP41, which is a low diacytle ML bacteria in order to help stabilize in lieu of lysozyme. It's subtle, but you can tell it's there.

I fermented over 2 weeks in large tubs with 2 liter frozen soda bottle ice cubes that I swapped out. It was around +/- 57F throughout.

Good luck with this!

Yes, I'm seeing a lot of references with the direct press and minimal skin contact. The 71B sounds like a good yeast for Rose. I'm planning to skip induced MLF as the grapes in our region tend to be lower acid and, depending on when I bottle, may add some micro carbonation from delayed MLF, which I tend to like in a chilled Rose.

 

[Chuck Rairdan]

I've decided to go with your VP41 route. It seems well suited for cool fermentation and I don't want to risk having the bottles cork off from too much CO2. Thanks again for your input.