Chardonnay Fermentation Comparison with Four Yeasts

Last year, we fermented about 1 gallon of Chardonnay from the very few fruit that grew and used the yeast that we used for fermenting Chenin Blanc, QA23. Our Chardonnay turned out to be exceedingly tart tasting which we ascribed to the malic acid that was not converted to lactic acid since we did not do any malolactic fermentation.
This year, my husband has instructed me to do some research into how we ferment Chardonnay since we will (fingers crossed) have a decent amount of grapes to do the "experiment". I do believe that the right yeast can lead to the appropriate flavor profile that the enologist is trying to achieve. I came upon an article in WineMaker called Same Grape Different Yeasts that I think is a good start on figuring out which yeast we will need to order.
Chardonnay is a very versatile grape and can lead to various styles ranging from big, buttery examples to crisper, more “steely” types and this difference is due to the fermentation conditions that were employed. In this article, Chardonnay grown in four different regions were used and fermented with three different yeast strains.
I have summarized the article in table form here:

Region	CY 3079	ICV D47	EC1118
Stellenbosch, South Africa	Produced a very fruity wine	Showed greater complexity with both fruity and buttery aromas	Produced a wine with mixture of tropical fruit, vanilla and butter
Alexander Valley, CA	Fruit with more stone fruits such as peach and apricot and no citrus aromas	Showed buttery, caramel notes	Produced nice mixture of nutty, fruity and honey notes
Abruzzi, Italy	Fruity and spicy, with vanilla and herbal notes	Fruity and floral
La Rioja, Spain	More toasty and spicy notes	Represented by vanilla and honey aromas, as well as peach

The conclusion reached by this experiment was that regardless of the origin of the Chardonnay, yeast strains showed similar trends that would enhance fruitier aromas, as well as more toasty, vanilla-like aromas. I have a lot of research ahead of me that I need to do before harvest!

Beserkers at Salute

My husband let me tag along to a get together organized by Jonathan at Salute in Hartford. This was a gathering of Beserkers, an online forum which my husband belongs to. Tuesday was going to be a light work day in the vineyard because my husband was going to spray, but when he went to the land, the vines were covered with dew, so a light workday turned even lighter when a pop up storm came through around 11 a.m. That worked just fine with me. We did manage to get up to the vineyard when there was a break in the weather to do more shoot positioning. That work is just never done. However, we finished up on the early side and headed to Hartford for the get together at 6:30. Just as we made it into the parking lot, a deluge of rain came out of nowhere. When we arrived, the Foleys, Chris and Kevin were already there. Then Jonathan, the organizer came followed by Jay and Joe and a quorum was reached. (Picture below doesn't show Jonathan, alas.)

Kevin brought two sparkling wines, a 20 year old Argyle and a 2000 Bollinger which we paired with mussels and sweet potato ravioli. Both champagnes were delicious, but I leaned toward the Argyle. We brought a Chenin Blanc sec that we made in 2015 to drink with the appetizers.
Our entrees were ordered and the reds that would pair with dinner were opened. The first was a 2000 Chateau Lynch Bages (Jay), followed by 1999 Chateau Monbuosquet (Gary), 2005 Chateau Bellevue (Chris), 1997 CastelGiocondo Brunello de Montalcino (Joe) and 2004 Maybach Family Materium (Jonathan). All the wines were excellent, but the consensus was that the Materium and Chateau Lynch Bages were probably the most liked.

When it came to dessert, Kevin brought out the 2003 Chateau Climens for the pairing. Yum! I really enjoyed meeting my husband's forum buddies. Being in the company of wine aficionados was a great way to spend a Tuesday evening.
A plug for Salute: Everyone there was so accommodating of our needs. The wait staff was courteous and efficient, our food arrived promptly and was delicious! At the end of the evening, they sent us home with complimentary biscotti. This was a great venue to hold a Beserker event. Kudos, Jonathan!

1998 Chateau Clerc Milon

Tasks are never really "finished" in the vineyard, but when we finished the shoot positioning of the penultimate row of Chardonnay, we decided that we were in need of a smoked steak that my husband has perfected. I was to make the baked potatoes. I can handle that. So, while the steak was slowly acquiring it's smokey exterior and the potatoes were in the oven, my husband brought out this 1998 Chateau Clerc Milon to pair with dinner. The Chateau Clerc Milon was listed as a fifth growth in the Bordeaux Grande Cru Classe of 1855. It was acquired in 1970 by Baron Philipe, of Mouton Rothchild and was run by his daughter, the Baroness Philippine until her death in 2014. Her son, Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, has now succeeded her as Chairman of the family company’s Supervisory Board. There is a lot of information on the Chateau Clerc Milon Site, including information on the intriguing label design. It depicts the decorative work by 17th century German goldsmiths, a pair of dancers made of precious stones, that resides in the Museum of Wine in Art.

This wine is now nearly 20 years old. Since my husband had stored it on it's side, there was noticeable sediment that had precipitated out of the wine. The wine was inky purple and tasted of black cherries and the tannins had smoothed out wonderfully. It went very well with the steak and potatoes.

Olly Olly Aux in Bloom

In keeping with my husband's request to keep more detailed information on the bloom period of our various vines, we saw our Auxerrois beginning to bloom on June 22. The beginning of bloom for our Chardonnay was a week earlier on June 16th.
We only have 40 Auxerrois vines that survived from our initially planting in 2013, so these vines are now 4 years old. Interestingly, many of the shoots have 3 sets of inflorescences.
Meanwhile, the Auxerrois that we planted this year were budding out en masse. (My use of the term en masse is to suggest the visual that there was a mass of growth around the graft union.) Even these small vines had little infloresences on them, which we removed. We knocked down the shoots that were growing from unproductive areas around the graft union to allow for air flow and hopefully to concentrate the energy of growth into the remaining shoots. Here is what I mean:

As I approached the end of the row that I was working on, I got a view of our Auxerrois that shows the difference between the plants we planted this year and the plants we planted in 2016.

The Auxerrois seem like very vigorous growers.

2015 Burlotto Barbera

One of the Barberas that my husband has in our wine cav is this 2015 Comm. G.B. Burlotto Barbera d'Alba Aves. This is a Barbera that is less than $20.00 and well worth it. It is inky purple in color and is a wine that can be matched with food from pizza to a hefty steak. In other words, it is a very versatile wine.
We have just planted 200 Barbera vines so we are very keen on how Barbera wines taste and match up with food.

Pretty in Pink: Dianthus armeria

Today is the first day of summer and it is a beauty. On tap for us was more shoot positioning and leaf pulling, which is now taking 2 people 2 hours to finish a row. Nevertheless, we persisted and finished one row in the morning. I work from the north to the south and my husband works from the south to the north and we meet in the middle. I took a little time to take a picture of this brilliant hot pink, tiny five petaled flower and looked on the Internet for what it could be. It is a Deptford Pink or Dianthus armeria, a member of the Dianthus genus, carnation and Sweet Williams are also Dianthus. I have seen these flowers in our vineyard for years and never was curious enough to take a photo. But I was surprised to see that on close up, the edges of the flower are serrated. This is another blogpost that will find its way on to the Vineyard Sightings Tab.

Shoot Positioning

These are the tasks that we have on our agenda these days: One of our tasks these days is shoot positioning. We are also putting in the hardware so that we can string the last set of catch wires on 9 of our rows. We also have to lower the irrigation hose that we raised in order to plant our vines and we should mow the alleys.
We have been "hampered" by rain. On Friday, June 16th it began raining around noon and by Saturday morning, our gauge showed that we had 1-3/4 inches of rain. Rain is a good thing during the early period of vine growth. Here is what our advanced Chardonnay 76 looks like:

Rain is good but not so good during bloom. I was shoot positioning while my husband was mowing and noticed that since Friday, the Chardonnay was now at around 50% bloom. The rains that we had over Friday and Saturday can lead to a situation called Millerandage. In the above photo, the vines are almost reaching the top of the linepost where there is no catch wire. That is a task we should get to soon. While I was shoot positioning, the lyrics to the song "Just the Two of Us" came into my head over and over again:
          Just the two of us
          We can make it if we try
          Just the two of us
When I went home to look for more information on this song, I learned that it was written by Bill Withers and Grover Washington and was on the album called Winelight released in 1980. How appropriate is that!

Chardonnay in Bloom

Yesterday, as we finished up our shoot positioning task in the Chardonnay row, we saw the start of bloom in the vineyard. From previous experience, we believe that our Chardonnay is the first to bloom. I had calculated that we should be in bloom on June 19th, because in previous years (only 2 data points), the period between budburst and bloom was 50 days in 2015 and 51 days in 2016. Here is what our Chardonnay looked like on Monday, June 12th.

Four days later, this is what we are seeing:

This is just the beginning stages of bloom, but the above photo shows how the calyptra or cap, which are really modified petals that are covering the pistil and anther, seem to pop off. This year, my husband wants me to take more specific notes regarding full bloom for each of our grape varieties including Auxerrois, Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay.
I have blogged a few times about bloom. For more technical treatment of what bloom entails, please see this post:
Perilous Journey to Fruitset
Two really good references are provided below.
References:
1. Nick K. Dokoozlian, Grape Berry Growth and Development.
2. Ed Hellman, Grapevine Structure and Function.

Spined Soldier Beetle Life Cycle

The past three days have seen a spike in our temperatures as we are in the midst of a mini-heat wave with temperatures nearing 90 degrees on June 11, 12th and 13th. We are still working on leaf pulling and shoot positioning of our Chardonnay so, more opportunity for taking some cool photos. I came upon a mother spined soldier beetle, Latin name Podisus maculiventris (Say), laying eggs!

We are very partial to spined soldier beetles because they are really great insect predators. They are members of the stink bug family, but are the good members in the family.
Last year, I blogged about Soldier Patrol in the Vineyard, when we witnessed a spined soldier beetle in the middle of feasting on what I assume is a gypsy moth caterpillar.
Here is the life cycle of the spined soldier beetle with photos taken from in the vineyard.

When we first came upon the eggs of the spined soldier beetle, we thought that they were the most interesting looking eggs. The University of Florida site has more information on the Spined Soldier Bug. I've also included this blogpost on my tab Insect Pests and Predators.

Sisyrinchium montanum

Vineyard Wifery Duties have turned into shoot positioning duties as the vines are in their "grand period of growth" that continues until just after fruit set. It's a little difficult to focus on a task that is now taking 3 hours to do one row of nearly 200 vines so I often stop to take pictures. One of the photos I took was of this cute little blue flower called Sisyrinchium montanum or blue-eyed grass. Anything taken this close is stunningly beautiful, isn't it. Details are revealed on close up. For example, I didn't know that the tips of the petals are notched and end in a needlelike projection. I learned more about the Mountain blue flower, Sisyrinchium montanum on the Minnesota Wildflower Site. It is a member of the Family Iridaceae (Iris). The flower itself measures at most 3/4 inches and is comprised of 6 tepals, 3 petals and 3 sepals that look alike. This photo also shows what the fruit looks like. I'll put this blogpost under the Vineyard Sightings Tab where I've collated other interesting sightings.

2014 Domaine Amiot Guy et Fils Chardonnay

This is one of our go to Chardonnays. It is pale yellow in color and smells of lemons and peaches, with a little spice. I don't taste any oak on the palate and if it is fermented in oak, it is very well integrated. I like to read about the how the Chardonnay is made and I found this on the Internet: About Domaine Amiot Guy et Fils.
Domaine Amiot Guy et Fils is a wine producer situated in the village of Chassagne-Montrachet in Burgundy, founded in 1920. The grapes are harvested by hand, crushed and then fermented in 100 percent new French oak barrels. This is followed by battonage and malolactic fermentation. The wine is first aged for 12 months in barrel and a further 6 months in a single tank prior to bottling.
The wine is priced around $25.00 so doesn't quite make my "Wines Under $20" category, but it is a very nice Chardonnay for the price.

Grapevine Epimenis Psychomorpha epimenis

Today, more blogging about things seen during vineyard wifery duties. I saw this caterpillar on the bottom of a leaf. You can do that when you are only 6 inches away from any leaf. At first, I thought that this was the caterpillar for an eight spotted forester, and knowing that the eight spotted forester caterpillar feeds in grapevines, after taking a picture, I "got rid" of it. But in looking on the Internet, it was not the eight spotted forester caterpillar. It turns out that this is the Grapevine Epimenis or Psychomorpha epimenis caterpillar.
Pamm Cooper wrote an article for the University of Connecticut Extension on the Grapevine Epimenis which was very detailed. The Grapevine Epimenis life cycle:

• Epimenis moths emerge in the spring after overwintering as pupae
• The female moth lays eggs on or near the new foliage
• The emerging larva lives in a nest-like structure formed by fastening several leaves together with silken threads where it feeds
• The fully grown larva/caterpillar is about 3/4 inch long
• By early to mid-June the caterpillar completes its development
• The adult moth is about an inch long and on each hind wing there is a large, smooth-shaped orange-red or brownish-red patch
• By the beginning of summer the caterpillar has completed its growth and pupated in soft wood or other dense plant material to overwinter in its cocoon

Take home message: These caterpillars are generally no cause for concern, and have little to no adverse effects on the overall health of the grape plant.

Eichhorn-Lorenz Stage 15

This year, we are seeing a lot of evidence of inflorescence (flowers) on our Auxerrois, Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay. On May 28th, most of the inflorescence are at Eichhorn-Lorenz Stage 15.

I began tracking the various stages of our vines beginning in 2015, when I first saw flowering. I got this timeline online from Ed Hellman's excellent article called Grapevine Structure and Function. I finally have a few data points on our timeline which now looks like this:

This tracking is helpful because it will tell us the dates of the interval between flowering and harvest and how to plan for our spraying. This year, spring has been exceedingly rainy, so there is a lot of spraying going on to beat down any chance of powdery and downy mildew getting a foothold.

About a week later, on June 5th, most of the inflorescences are at Eichhorn-Lorenz, stage 17. At this stage, the inflorescences are fully developed and flowers separating. And after all, if stage 17 is here, can bloom be far behind?

Reference:
1. Ed Hellman, Grapevine Structure and Function.

Phidippus Audax in the Vineyard

Yesterday, while I was busy with my Vineyard Wifery Duties, I saw a spider which I readily identified as a jumping spider tightrope walking the catch wires. What caught my eye was when the spider flashed these iridescent "eyes" at me and so I quickly whipped out my camera that I always carry with me on wifery duties, you never know when you see something interesting. I got this photo of the jumping spider, Phidippus Audax. The name conjures in my mind, an ancient Greek warrior.

Okay, the picture of the Phidippus Audax appears MUCH larger than it actually is. It was perhaps no more than 1/2 inch in length, otherwise I would be running out of the vineyard screaming. Wikipedia mentioned that what I thought were "eyes" are actually chelicerae, or "jaws", which in the case of this jumping spider may contain venom. Apparently, the spider was warning me to keep away or else!

Nursery Choices Matter

As a rule, I don't put anything negative on my blog, preferring to stick to the factual or the positive aspects of viticulture and enology. But, I'm going to have to make an exception for this topic. This year, we were in our last phase of replanting the original vineyard we planted in 2013 which consisted of 6800 vines. In the devastating winter of 2014, we lost 6300 vines and began our replanting odyssey. This year was to be the conclusion of the replanting, to get to a full vineyard once more.

• In March, 2017, we learned from our nursery that instead of the 2200 vines we ordered, they were only able to fulfill 1500 of the total order
• We asked for shipment to arrive on May 3rd. Our numerous requests for a tracking number, went unheeded. The nursery shipped our vines without a tracking number, saying that it would arrive by UPS. The shipment arrived on May 1st via FedEx. It was only by chance that my husband was on the land to receive the shipment. No bill of lading was provided. Nine boxes of plants were unloaded and stored in a refrigerated truck.
• Upon opening the box labeled "Auxerrois" we found mold on the scion and the roots:

When we contacted our nursery, they said that they have done tests on that mold and it should not be a problem. We planted the Auxerrois on May 7th.

• On the third day of planting, we opened up the last box of the vines we ordered which was Chenin Blanc ENTAV clone 982. The box only contained 175 vines. On our invoice, it stated that we were to receive 300 vines, and were charged for 300 vines. Because the vines were in bundles of 25, we felt that perhaps the nursery didn't ship the last box of Chenin Blanc. My husband contacted the nursery and eventually, we received information that there is a new invoice that will be sent to us amending the 300 Chenin Blanc ENTAV 982 to 175 Chenin Blanc ENTAV 982. No other explanation was given.
• Furthermore, when we opened the box of Chenin Blanc, this is what we found, more mold:

• The vines that we received failed to meet our specifications for length of rootstock to the graft union. The vines came in all manner of sizes:

• It has been nearly a month since we planted our vines and this is what we found for the Auxerrois and the Chenin Blanc 982 that came covered with mold. Out of 275 Auxerrois provided, 94 failed to bud, a 34% failure rate. Out of 175 Chenin Blanc ENTAV clone 982 provided, 77 failed to bud, a 44% failure rate. As a comparison, the other vines that did not come covered with mold, i.e. the Barbera and Chenin Blanc FPS-1 have all budded out.

Note to self: Nursery choices matter.