2012 French Colombard

Went to the wine store, and as is my custom, I walked around and looked at the grapes first. I wanted white grapes, and it was picked over as it is late in the season. They had seedless Muscato which I did not want and French Colombard. I tasted the French Colombard grape, and it was delicious. I bought four cases and brought them home.

When I got home I looked up French Colombard, and found it is popular, but not highly regarded. On the other hand it did taste good to me. It seems it is easy to grow but critics don't think it works well as a varietal wine.

I crushed and pressed the grapes. I took the raisins in the crates, and soaked them overnight in water to extract the sugar. I want to stress the citrus and floral notes so I added orange rind and columbine tea.

Sugar content of the juice with the raisin water was 24.3% which was determined from the 1.095 g/ml density and the 22.6 degree Brix refractive index. My target alcohol content for this wine is 12.5% alcohol which corresponds to 24.3% sugar so I added 2.1% cane sugar (710 g = 2.1/100*8gal*3.8L/gal*1.09g/L).

2012 French Colombard Wine Recipe

144 lb French Colombard Grapes (crushed)

9 g potassium sulfite (to kill wild yeast)

710 g cane sugar

10 g Pectic enzyme for clarity

6 g potassium carbonate (to reduce acidity)

Rind from three oranges

8 Celestial Seasonings Columbine tea bags
6 Twinings Echinacea & Raspberry tea bags

16 g yeast energizer

1 Packet Red Star Pasteur Cote des Blanc yeast

After one week of fermentation, I put 32 liters into glass for aging. Fermentation was nearly done, and the gas bubbling was pretty slow at 7 days. 

I have thought a lot about how to make the wine more floral, and herbal tea sees sensible. I am a little concern as I think the Columbine tea really tastes like straw more than flower, so we will see.


========================== 2 week update=================
I waited six days before transferring it to my glass demijohn, but now it is barely bubbling (fermenting.) I am worried that the fermentation has stopped.