We harvested our Chardonnay on September 14th. We harvested a total of 5 pounds 10 ounces of grapes. I know, it is a pathetically small amount of grapes, but we were determined to see what kind of wine we could make. Winemakers can tell you that it is very difficult to make a small amount of wine. We made ours in a glass gallon jug fitted with a fermentation lock. We started our fermentation on September 19th after our usual must clarification step and saw signs of carbon dioxide evolution on September 20th. Although the fermentation began on the 20th, the kinetics of the fermentation were exceedingly slow. On October 6, we took a Brix reading at it was at 12. The fermentation finally ended on November 1st. We put the gallon jug in our refrigerator to cold settle.
Today, we were able to bottle three 375 mL bottles of our very first Chardonnay. We took all the necessary precautions, sanitizing the bottles, nitrogen flushing and minimizing oxygen in the bottling process. Some information:
pH = 2.73
TA = 7.2 g/L
My husband was shocked at how low the pH was and looked on the Internet to see what other beverages have such a low pH. Apparently, lemonade is pH = 2.6. When we took out some of the wine for testing, we also tasted it. This wine has a ways to go to settle down! It was, however, drinkable and the nose was very fragrant. It reminded me of some kind of spice and peaches.
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