Sur Lie Aging of Wine

We were able to make a few cases of wine from our 2016 vintage of Chenin Blanc this year. We are still bottling in half bottles, 375 mL so that we can make the most of our limited production. Yes, our wines are that "dear". So far, we have made 2 different styles of Chenin Blanc in 2015, a dry style we call "sec" and a style with sweet juice added back prior to bottling, a technique called "süssreserve" and in 2016 we left the wine on lees. Here is a tabular recap of what we actually bottled in 2015 and 2016:

Vintage	# 750mL Bottles	# 375mL Bottles	Style
2015	8	9	Sec
2015	4	10	Sussreserve
2016	12	27	Sur lie

On Thursday, we took a trip over to Long Island to visit Charles and Kareem Massoud at Paumanok Vneyards to have them give us feedback on our 2016 vintage. For our 2016 Vintage, we left our wine sur lie for approximately 10 months. What does sur lie do? It gives the wine a certain mouthfeel and flavor that Charles picked up on immediately!
At the end of fermentation, yeast and bacteria become inactive and settle out to the bottom of the fermentation tank. If the lees are fine in character without negative sulfur compounds, leaving the wine on this precipitated material can be beneficial. During this time, the yeast cell wall breaks open in a process called "autolysis", releasing mannoproteins and polysaccharides.

Sur lie aging accomplishes the following¹:

• enhances the structure and mouthfeel of a wine
• gives the wine extra body (an impact of polysaccharides on astringency)
• increases the aromatic complexity, flavour/aroma depth and length of the wine
• absorbs oxygen, assisting in maintaining a slow and controlled oxidation during wine maturation

Sur lie is not for all wine styles. But, with sur lie aging, we feel we have a new "tool" in our winemaking to call upon when necessitated by the vintage.
References:
1. Ben Rotter, Sur Lie and Bâtonnage, Improved Winemaking.
2. MoreWine!, Sur-Lie ageing.
2. Marta Dizy, Linda F. Bisson, Proteolytic Activity of Yeast Strains During Grape Juice Fermentation, American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, Jan 2000, 51 (2) 155-167.