Wine fault in whites

[zadvocate]

I have made 4 white wines from juice buckets. 2 chardonnays and 2 Sauvignon Blanc. I notice a continual off flavor that is bugging me. I'm not sure what it is. It is kind of green and/or a bit yeasty type flavor. I was drinking the chardonnay last night and it was good accept for this hint of a yeasty kind of green. I fined and filtered the wine. It is 15 months old. I did try some sur lesse aging. I'm just wondering if this is something I am doing or is it inherent in the Juice buckets. They are the first to come in at harvest so I wonder how great the grapes that make them are or their level of ripeness.

Or am I not filtering enough?

On this chardonnay, I have used FT Blanc, Opti White, and Oak chips at fermentation time. Undergone malolactic fermentation.

I may forgo making whites from here on out unless I can get some good grapes.

 

[Johnd]

I have made 4 white wines from juice buckets. 2 chardonnays and 2 Sauvignon Blanc. I notice a continual off flavor that is bugging me. I'm not sure what it is. It is kind of green and/or a bit yeasty type flavor. I was drinking the chardonnay last night and it was good accept for this hint of a yeasty kind of green. I fined and filtered the wine. It is 15 months old. I did try some sur lesse aging. I'm just wondering if this is something I am doing or is it inherent in the Juice buckets. They are the first to come in at harvest so I wonder how great the grapes that make them are or their level of ripeness.

Or am I not filtering enough?

On this chardonnay, I have used FT Blanc, Opti White, and Oak chips at fermentation time. Undergone malolactic fermentation.

I may forgo making whites from here on out unless I can get some good grapes.

I've done quite a few white wines from juice buckets and have found most to be quite good, and have read of discontent from some folks about wine from red grape juice buckets. Not surprising for the reds since the red juice bucket wine is made without the benefit of fermenting with the grapes, but the whites are pretty much the same product you'd get if you were making your own white wine from grapes. The whites I've done have been from pressed, settled, and frozen juice, with no preservatives added.

I believe that if you get that type (pressed, settled, frozen, no additives) from good grapes picked at the proper ripeness, you should be able to produce a pretty darn good wine. The Chards have been really good, so has the Sauvignon Blanc, the Pinot Gris was just average. I attribute that to the quality of the grapes or the level of ripeness. When you buy, if you can see the BRIX, TA, and pH of the product before buying, it can give you some indication of the quality of the juice, and you should consider the growing location as well. All of my frozen white juice has come from Brehm, where you have access to all of the information that I've referenced above.

Your wine seems to be of reasonable age, so that shouldn't be an issue, maybe experiment with buying some good juice, use some different types of yeast that are particularly suited for each varietal, ferment in closed containers at lower end temps for the yeast. My best have been done this way (airlocked carboys filled to the shoulder, at 55 F) and none have been filtered. I've never fermented with oak chips for a white, did MLF on the Chard, limited sur lie aging (30 days), and no other additives other than yeast nutrients.

Hope something in there helps you!!

 

[zadvocate]

Thanks, these buckets are the california juice or chilean juice that comes in seasonally. I haven't tried the brehm juices but I would expect them to be very good.

 

[Johnd]

Thanks, these buckets are the california juice or chilean juice that comes in seasonally. I haven't tried the brehm juices but I would expect them to be very good.

I would expect that the Cali stuff would be pretty good, there's lots of good grape growing to be had, don't really know about the whites from Chile. The Brehm whites were from WA state IIRC............

 

[user 36973]

I was drinking the chardonnay last night and it was good accept for this hint of a yeasty kind of green. I fined and filtered the wine. It is 15 months old. I did try some sur lesse aging. I'm just wondering if this is something I am doing or is it inherent in the Juice buckets.

It is possible that the juice is sub-par. I've bought California Riesling juice before and found the juice to be flabby and lacking the characteristic aromas expected from the grape. I suspect the grapes were harvested later than they should have been, given the low acid and high sugar of the juice.

However, if you are consistently getting the similar result with all your white wines, it is worth looking closely at your equipment, ingredients and procedures. Is there someone you know who also makes wine that could help taste the wine and identify the fault? Is the wine oxidized?

 

[mainshipfred]

The little I know on the subject is there are a couple processes juice producers use to extract juice from grapes, thermovinification and flash detente. Although it is becoming more commonplace in commercial wines they are the few ways they are able to extract the juice and phenols at a rapid pace and provide color to reds. Even though heat processed wine has been around for quite some time it has recently become popular for processing wines with lesser quality grapes. The green grass/green pepper comes from under ripe grapes and these processes appear to reduce the sensation. This is not to say all juice buckets come from lesser quality grapes but it is an efficient way for the producers to extract the juice. Brehm on the other hand, I believe, truly crushes and presses their juice form quality grapes the conventional way. Probably why they are so expensive but consistently provide good juice.