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Muscats are the original wine grapes. Archaeologists, wine chemists, botanists and others believe that Muscat grapes were domesticated and being used to make wines perhaps as early as 10,000 years ago. Virtually all extant varieties of Vitis vinifera are descended from a Muscat.
Muscats are a class of varieties that share certain characteristics. Primarily, they are hot-country grapes that are very susceptible to damage by freezing. They contain certain organic compounds which give them very distinctive aromas and flavors. Muscats are often described as being floral, sometime rose-like, and sometimes more like jasmine.
Muscat wines are usually finished slightly to very sweet. Depending on variety, they can be white, golden, red, or pink. Both still and sparkling Muscats are made. The off-dry, low-alcohol Italian bubbly known as Asti Spumante is made with Muscat grapes. Small amounts of Muscat are added to other white wines to enhance aroma; most notably to Champagne.
Okay, so you’ve taken the plunge. You bought some grapes…perhaps you picked them yourself. You crushed them and pressed them and now a week has gone by and the fermentation is almost over. Your first white wine from grapes is becoming a reality. Except it looks like a bucket of mud! You get brave and draw out a little taste and it takes the enamel right off your teeth! It’s yeasty and cloudy and harsh and green tasting and very tart. Yuk!
Now there are decisions to be made. You’ve made kit wines, so you expected the yeast load, but this has much more junk in it! Well, if you didn’t settle the wine completely and rack before fermenting—and if you didn’t use Bentonite or similar finings agent to do so—then your new wine will contain more solids, more grape “stuff.” And, because it IS new, it will taste “green.” But that harsh, surprisingly tart flavor may be more or less permanent.
Grape wine contains three principal acids: tartaric (in abundance), malic (varies, depending on ripeness and grape variety), and citric (usually just a hint). Your new wine will not be as acidic as the original juice, because, among all the other things in that mud in the bottom of your bucket, there are lots of crystals of potassium bitartrate which originally existed as tartaric acid in the juice/must. But, you say, it tastes much more acidic? Well, that’s because the sugar is gone. Sweetness balances acid in flavor, and the sugars have all turned into alcohol. SO now your flavor is out of balance and is heavily leaning towards the acid end of the spectrum.
One way to further reduce acidity is to put your wine through a secondary malolactic fermentation (mlf). Malic acid is sharp and tart. It’s the prominent mouth-puckering flavor in under-ripe apples. Well, there are little bugs that love to eat up malic acid. These malolactic bacteria digest malic acid and excrete lactic acid and a little bit of CO2. Lactic is the acid of sauerkraut and sour milk. It’s a much gentler-tasting acid that malic. What’s more, the process produces some side effects and by-products which tend to make your wine smoother-tasting, rounder, more vinous. The aroma may be enhanced as well.
You can allow the native “malo” bugs living in your must to do the job, but they may not be up to it. They may cause raunchy flavors and smells in your wine, or they may just lay down and die and do nothing. Or they may conduct a thorough malolactic fermentation—next spring, or worse, a year from now, after you’ve bottled the wine. That’s not what you want. So do as the pros do. Buy a commercial culture of malo bugs, feed them some nutrient and put them in your wine. If all goes well, they’ll do their thing over the next few weeks.
Here are some things to understand about malo bugs and mlf:
There are two good tests home winemakers can use to detect if malolactic fermentation is complete. The cheaper method is called paper chromatography. Kits are readily available with complete instructions. It takes about two days to complete a test. A much faster method is to use a new test kit produced by Accuvin. The Accuvin test uses a special paper test strip and a proprietary micro-pipette. A measured amount of wine is placed on the strip and, after two minutes, the color is judged against a standard.
Until very recently, it was not easy for home winemakers to conduct malolactic fermentations using selected, pure bacterial cultures like those available to wineries.. The cultures were only available in large (expensive) quantities, and the somewhat elaborate and tricky preparation of starters was essential to success. Now pitchable dry cultures, available in home winemaking sizes, are readily available. I have had mixed experiences with the liquid cultures made by White Labs, but I have had very good experiences with the “Bacchus” dried cultures made by Lalvin.
Chardonnel nearing harvest time
If you’ve been following along since last month, then you know we are making a white wine. Most, or many, white wines are not subjected to malolactic fermentations. The reason is that folks often want that extra bit of acid bite—often balanced with a touch of sweetness—in their white wines. They also usually want to presser the maxim fruit in the flavor and aromas of most whites. If your goal is a fresh, fruity white wine, skip the mlf.
On the other hand, there are a number of white wine styles that benefit from mlf. Chardonnay is one grape that usually (but not always) undergoes malolactic fermentation. Doing so adds richness, complexity and buttery notes to the wine. Pinot Gris also can benefit from mlf, but if you are making it in the typical Italian style, ala Pinot Grigio then leave this step out. Likewise, if you like Sauvignon Blanc in the crisp New Zealand style, skip mlf, but if you like the smokey style of Sancerre or California Fumč Blanc, by all means, malo away!
When malolactic fermentation is complete, it is now time to fine, rack, sulfite your wine for cold stabilization and bulk aging.
Pat wrote:
I have a question about my black raspberry melomel. I had intended to leave some residual sweetness but after primary fermentation the S.G. is .998 and the mead tastes very tart. There is lots of raspberry flavor, which is what I was shooting for, but no sweetness left. The yeast is Lalvin 1122 which has an alcohol tolerance of 13%. I don’t know the OG as I partially fermented the honey and then added the berries after about 3 days and refermented. The question is, would you recommend adding more honey now or waiting until stabilization and sweetening then?
I don't like the idea of bottling wine/mead with residual sugar unless:
Now, if you're asking me what I would do: I'd sweeten to taste using Splenda and not worry about residual sugar problems!
Rick wrote:
Hello! I hope you can answer a question for me. I started a batch of champagne about 8 months ago. My wife then became seriously ill for several months and I let the champagne just sit. She's better now and I don't know if the "sparkling wine" is any good. It's been sitting in the primary fermenter since Dec/06. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.
First things first: I hope your wife is doing much better.
As for the sparkling wine...you said that it's in a "primary fermenter." I assume you mean some sort of food-grade plastic or stainless steel bucket. The best way to answer that question is for you to open the bucket, look at it, sniff it, and taste it. It can't hurt you! However, wine generally cannot stay sound once it has stopped fermenting and producing a protective "blanket" of carbon dioxide. Once the air (oxygen) gets to the wine it begins immediately to transform wine to vinegar. It also permits the growth of bacteria and wild yeasts that transform the wine into something not very tasty. Like I said, it won't hurt you to taste it, but it probably won't taste too good.
If it does taste good, then continue on with your process of bottle fermentation and enjoy it!
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For info on the Central Virginia Winemaker’s group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CentralVirginiaWinemakers/
Copyright 2007 L. Daniel Mouer