Helluva long day getting the grapes - left Peterborough 1 a.m. arrived at Alain's place outside St- Paul d`Abbotsford between 8 and 9 in the morning. Had to drive north of Montreal to pick up some wine and back to Peterborough, where some friends helped destem, crush and press the grapes before dark. Grapes were not in ideal shape as they had been sitting most of the day in the trunk and/or back seat of the car, and it had been fairly warm. Refrigeration would help, but the best wines will certainly come when they are pressed where picked as picked.

This settled overnight in a carboy, and I was able to get it to go through the rough filter of my mini-jet. Tasted the juice, which with this variety is a bit on the thin and neutral side, but shows absolutely no "hybrid" character. After this, I added pectic enzyme, BA 11 yeast, Opti-White (which enhances mouthfeel, midpalate, and reduces the impression of acidity) and put it into two one-gallon bottles to start primary. Decided not to chaptalize, or to reduce acidity which was very nice.

Primary was quick and straightforward, and done at about 17C. Added the malo culture (forgot which one) and this proceeded quickly as well, with just one small addition of OptiMalo (1/4 recommended amount). Brought the free SO2 up to 30 ppm and rough-filtered it into a 6-litre container (an old imperial sized bottle).

Cold-stabilized it in a fridge we purchased this summer for this purpose (gutting it almost completely allows the temperature to be controlled in the entire fridge from what was once the freezer compartment). Added cream of tartar which enhances and speeds formation of potassium bitartrate crystals. One week at -4^o C won't remove all traces of wine diamonds, but it comes close. The tradeoff with electricity and the elimination of the risks of doing this outside balance with the need to process a hell of a lot of wine to make this seem good to me.

Once cold-stabilized it was rough filtered again and returned to the 6-litre container, with a tiny bit of distilled water to top it up. Also added AR 2000 enzyme (enhances aromatics of some but not all white varieties) on December 8th at the rate of 2 grams per hectolitre. After sitting until January 1st the nose had developed in a very positive fashion, displaying more aromatics than is considered normal for this variety. Added polyclar (a plastic fining agent which "polishes" white wines) at 0.2 grams per litre and left it alone until January 3rd. This stuff works in less than a day, but you can leave it for quite a long time with no off-flavours. It also goes nicely through a fine filter despite the visible sediment.

Wish I had 30 litres of this instead of 6. I am in possession of some Pro-Elif (DV 10) yeast which is in effect seaweed beads with yeast trapped inside them. Wine can flow through the beads, but the yeast and residues can't come back out. I want to turn this wine into champagne-style using these beads, but I would also like to see how the base wine itself would do in the hybrid class in a competition. And I can't help thinking that this would be delightful on a summer fishing trip, served cold with fresh fish on the shoreline...

Talked to Alain Breault, and we agreed that this small quantity of wine should be used in competitions, both the 2.25 litres that was bottled as six 375 ml bottles of still wine, and the 3.75 litres that was bottled with the pro-elif beads to try to make sparkling wine (3 x 750 ml & 4 x 375 ml). Small amounts will be used to allow wine writers to test the wine.

March 5, 2006 - AWO Growwine Club Competition judged by four judges from the Wine Judges of Canada:

From Chair of WJC Steve Gunning "Citrus, floral, herbs - lemons, clean, light body, full grip on finish, firm acid balance, good length." Score 77, Bronze

WJC Judge Richard Karlo "Very pale straw, orange blossom nose, granny smith apple, mineral, round mouthfeel." Score 75, Bronze

WJC Master Judge Bill Thornton "pale yellow clear, slight musky note with melonPale yellow clear - light but clean fruit aroma, peach and melon, attractive - light citrus/lemon nose, on the thin side, fruit fades. Flinty finish, ok acids a bit of tannin on end, modest length." Score 73, Merit

WJC Judge Stew Wood "faint yellow with touch of brown/pink. Subtle fruit, faint herbaceous grassy notes, mouth follows nose, lacking back palate weakened out by acid. Firm/fresh profile needs sugar to bring fruit forward, touch of astringence in finish." Score 73, Merit

Taking the above to mean the wine was a bit tart, I included a bit of dessert wine made from Quebec-grown Coquine Gris to back-sweeten the wine and entered it into the Quebec Amateur Provincial Championships June 17, 2006 where two other members of the Wine Judges of Canada rated it respectively at 84 and 80, both Silvers. {Sorry no comments or permission to publish them yet.}

Larry Paterson Jun 28, 2006

Wine Growers www.littlefatwino.com