Full Disclosure

That's a term I see from time to time on wine blogs when they want to let people know that they received a certain wine as a sample and didn't purchase it, so I thought I'd borrow it here to tell you more about this year's inaugural white. 

For those of you who are new to this blog , I just want to back up a bit and give you some background on our farming and winemaking philosophy.  We do our best to do everything as naturally as possible, from farming to winemaking to bottling.  That said, we don't want to go overboard and loose 90% of our crop or end up with vinegar, so we do fall back on things like copper and sulfur in the vineyards and SO2 in the wine.  And, up until this year we have never used commercial yeasts in our wines.  For the reds this has presented no problems, our fermentations may take a bit longer to start and they may last a few days longer than the average ferments, but we have never added yeast, and don't intend to start.  For the rosé and whites however, this presents a different problem due to the fact that the juice doesn't have extended contact with the skins, which is where most of the wild yeasts come from.  In our first year, 2005, our rosé fermented just fine and was a big hit, everyone loved it.  In 2006 and 2007, the ferments didn't start and didn't finish, to the point where as a last resort we tried to get it going again by adding yeast, but by that time the wine was so weird that in the end we didn't even bottle them and they ended up at the distillery. 

Enough already, at some point you have to realize that you're being too idealistic and that you grow   grapes in order to make wine, not to pour the unfermented juice down the drain!  So this year as I said in an earlier post, I decided to give the white 5 days to start fermentation, if not I was going to yeast it.  Well, it turns out I had to yeast it.  After 5 days there wasn't a bubble, not a thing just grape juice and I would be damned if I was going to ruin it.  So we added half the recommended dose of yeast, and off it went.  It fermented nicely in our one year old Damy barrel that smelled so good I wanted to bring it in the house.

This year I look at our white as an experiment, we only have one barrel, less than 300 bottles so we're playing.  It may turn out that it's too oaky, and lord knows I really don't like oak, but I feel like experimenting.  So, it's a blend of Roussane and Clairette, which is a great combo, fermented and aged in oak, AND we are going to let it do it's malo-lactic fermentation.  Normally here in the South most wineries block the malo in order to keep the freshness of the malic acid,  since often southern French whites can become heavy and flabby due to their ripeness and low acidities.  If you don't want a wine to go through malolactic fermentation, you first have to add a good dose of sulfur to stop it, then you have to sterile filter it at bottling, neither of which I  want to do.  

So we'll see how it turns out this unconventional Rhône white, I'm not sure that I will love it, but I'm sure I will learn a lot from it. Next year we may approach it differently, we'll see.  If you want to taste it, you'll have to make a trip over here, since there is so little we plan on selling it only at the winery!

Hey with the exchange rate going in your favor, that trip may not be out of reach!

Comments

[Alex]

I was over at Dme des Escaravailles in Rasteau at the end of September and they're doing some experimental stuff with oaked whites. I don't have my notes to hand (not sure what the blend was) but I imagine if you were to get in touch with Giles Ferran (the winemaker) he'd be more than happy to have a chat/compare notes/share experiences. They seem to be increasing the amount they make each year so it can't be going too badly wrong! :)

[ryan]

Well sounds like fun, and it will be interesting to follow along to see the progression.

[David]

Hi
In ancient times, white or red clusters were foot trodden upon harvest, the ferment started with this juice, and the solids sent to press. In other words, slight skin contact for both colours (unless they were made tgether - much more common than is thought.) Pale reds, darker whites than common wine today. Recent scientific research shows that the highest concentration of yeasts is on the stems, not the skins. Why not pick a bucket or two of white 5 days before your main harvest, foot crush it/them, get it going, press or take free run, and add this (best one) to your main white/rose must? this isa the perfect starter bucket method. cheers, david