Dan’s Cellar Notes: February 2005

By Dan Mouer

Getting the Bubbles into the Bubbly!

Last month I discussed preparing the “cuvee” to make sparkling wine using the Champagne method. Just to recap, quickly: the base wine should be a dry white or pink table wine, rather high in acid, and rather low in alcohol. For specifics, see last month’s column; January 2005 Bubbly wine on New Year’s Eve

Of course, it is the sparkle that makes sparkling wine special, and here is how to transform your still wine to something very special. To your clarified, stable, base wine you will add sugar, dissolved in a little warm water or warm wine, in order to start a second fermentation in the bottle. That is where the bubbles come from. You will use approximately 1/3 cup of sugar for each gallon of wine. Next add a “prise de mousse” type yeast, such as Lalvin’s EC-1118. If you are making a 5- or 6-gallon batch, then use two envelopes of yeast. Also add a pinch of tannin powder, which will help to settle the sediment following bottle fermentation, and a good dose of yeast nutrient.

I prefer to leave the base wine in the carboy for the next few hours, or overnight, until I can see sure signs of fermentation in the form of small bubbles forming around the neck. Then, immediately after fermentation begins, siphon your wine into 750-ml champagne bottles. Do not use anything but champagne bottles. Cap the bottles using crown caps. This requires a bottle capper of the sort used by home beer brewers. If you like, you can add a small plastic capsule under the crown cap, called a “bidule.” These help to collect sediment for the process known as “disgorging,” which we will cover next month.

At this point, I prefer to place all the bottles back in the cartons in which the champagne bottles were packaged. I lay the cartons so that the bottles are lying on their sides. Leave these in a moderately warm room to ferment. Each day, shake the cartons vigorously in order to slosh the growing yeast sediment around inside the bottles. After three or four weeks, I suggest that you remove one bottle and chill it well. Open it up and see if fermentation has completed: in other words, note whether or not the wine is fully carbonated and free of the sweet taste of any residual sugar. Oh, and enjoy a glass or two of your cloudy, but highly sparkling, wine. Allow your bottles to remain in their cartons, lying on their sides, for at least 6 months. One or two years is even better. It is this aging on the yeast lees that gives fine champagne its characteristic richness. Every few weeks, turn the cartons to move the yeast sludge around in the bottles.

When you feel the time is approaching to declare your “champagne” ready to drink, you will have to find a way to get the yeast sediment into a single compact cake lying against the cap. This is so you can “disgorge,” or get the yeast out of the bottle without losing much wine or carbonation. The traditional champagne method for settling the yeast is called “riddling,” and it is far too time consuming for THIS home winemaker, so here is what I do, instead. Set the cartons so that the bottles are upside down, with their caps on the bottom of the box. Raise each carton off the floor by a few inches, and drop it. Do this easy little ritual every day for at least two or three weeks. When you can lift a champagne bottle out of the carton, carefully, and see that the contents are crystal clear, and the sediment is resting on the cap, it is time to “disgorge” the sediment. Tune in here next month, same time, same station, for the secrets of disgorging your bubbly.

Q&A

A reader writes:

I have ordered some cabernet sauvignon grapes from a supplier in California. After fermenting them I am planning to press them and then to add a wine kit to the skins. The idea is to extract more color/tannins and have a really good second batch. I read in a magazine that you could add water to pressed skins and still do a decent batch. Instead of adding water I will add a wine kit.

Is this a good idea or not? Can I do a third batch with another wine kit or would the
skins have no effect at this point. (My guess is that the first two batches will take 10-12 days. In theory you can extract color and tannins for up to 20 days. Therefore I could do 3 batches...do you recommend it?

Do you prefer using sterile juice or wine kits?

Roger

Roger, I have done this on several occasions, and I recommend it highly! In fact, for the past couple years I've fermented kits on top of the pumice from some of my Virginia wines. You won't need to bother adding the yeast from the kit. Whatever yeast you use for the California grapes will be there in great abundance.

Choose a good quality kit! Instead of adding water to bring the kit up to 23 liters, just add enough to make 21l. --there will still be juice/wine in the skins. As for making a third batch…I wouldn’t. After a while you may begin to extract bitter and coarse components from your skins.

As for your question about whether I prefer sterilized juice or concentrate kits, I have to say I have no a priori preference. In general, I believe that the kits, which are “engineered” to make a good wine, tend to be better, but I have lucked out and had some very nice wines made from sterile juice or must. It all depends on how good the grapes are that produced the juice, and how gently the juice was pasteurized.

Dan

Comments? Questions? Write me at dan.mouer@verizon.net

Also, see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CentralVirginiaWinemakers/