Making Bottle-Fermented Wine using encapsulated yeast
WHAT IS PROELIF DV10??: From the Scott Labs Website: "ProElif® DV10 #15570 1 kg -
For Secondary Fermentation in Sparkling Wine Production
ProElif is a DV10 encapsulated yeast product developed and produced by ProEnol in collaboration with the SOEC. DV10 was chosen for its well-known ability to produce balanced sparkling wine. The yeast cells are acclimated to high alcohol and other harsh conditions prior to being double encapsulated into an alginate bead. No riddling is required during secondary fermentation. When the fermentation is complete, simply invert the neck of each bottle to encourage the beads to drop. Then, proceed with traditional freezing and disgorging methods. The use of ProElif results in a fresh sparkling wine. If greater yeast character is desired, you may make changes to the base wine with this in mind.To date, ProElif may only be used in hand dosing operations. A dosing machine will be available at a later time."
What was planned?: The intent was to use the ProElif DV10, added 1.4 grams per standard champagne 750 ml bottle, to attempt to make sparkling wine as per manufacturers instructions. I started with stable, fine-filtered wines (either fully through malolactic, or with low pH (riesling)). These wines had generally had OptiWhite added to them to create some sur lies effect, intended to contribute to mouthfeel and a touch of Champagne-method taste. Next I added the amount of plain white sugar to produce 6 atmospheres of pressure (25.2 grams per litre, or 18.9 grams per 750 ml bottle). For those wines starting at 12% alcohol, I dissolved the sugar in sufficient distilled water, which, when added to the wines, reduced the alcohol to 11% for a starting point. This was intended to provide an endpoint alcohol of about 12.5%. The sugar, water and wine was added to the proper bottles, and sealed with plastic champagne corks and wires (beer caps would be even better, but I don't have a capper!).
February 2006: I periodically upended the bottles every few days "playing with my snow-toys" to move the wine through the beads. Portions of the kilo of beads purchased were shared by other serious winemakers in Quebec, Manitoba and Ontario, and I hope that some of these winemakers may add their notes to this article. I opened a bottle of riesling at a two-club pro-am tasting on February 12th to see if carbonation/fermentation was indeed proceeding as planned, with positive results. The wine was partially fermented, with some residual sugar left in the wine, but significant carbonation experienced. On February 18th, I opened another bottle of Riesling (from another batch) at the AGM of the Quebec Amateur Association (AVAQ) and was quite happy with the result. Carbonation was present, the bubbles were appropriately small, and most of the sugar had fermented. The wine was nearly done at 7 weeks.
March 5, 2006 - AWO Growwine Club Competition I entered some of the ProElif sparklers into competition, but most of them had not yet finished refermentation, and were awarded only merit at this level (although both a Gamay and a Gewurz received Silver, and Peterborough White received Bronze). Taking the judges comments into account, I decided to enter what seemed the best-primed into the Provincial competition, where the Riesling earned a Bronze June 10th from a panel of 5 members of the Wine Judges of Canada
I entered the same wine into the Quebec Amateur Provincial Championships June 17, 2006 where two other members of the Wine Judges of Canada rated it respectively at 80 and 81, both Silvers.
Invited by the Quebec association I entered this wine into Class H, Sparkling, at the Canadian championships in August in Montreal, where the judges awarded it a Gold Medal. It is developing a full creamy/yeasty/bready/doughy character that is normally found in quite good "Real Champagne". Happy is we, me and my seaweed...
Larry Paterson September 9, 2006
Next: The next step, after adding everything together, was to periodically invert the bottles, letting the beads drop from top to bottom, stirring up the wine and allowing it to flow through each bead. I did this every few days. The information I received suggested that this would accomplish its purpose over a 6 to 8 week period. The plan was to do this between 10oC and 15oC. The pro-elif, which looks like some kind of brownish orange rice in air, looks much like fish roe inside the bottle. Turning it over to move wine through the beads is very reminiscent of the Xmas/winter toys I had as a kid where you turned the globe over and snow fell inside.
What did I bottle?: January 7, 8 and 9 I bottled as per plan the following wines
2005 Gamay Rose Watson Vineyard Niagara - 6 x 750 ml, 1 x 1500 ml
2004 Gewurztraminer Eastman Vineyard Niagara - 6 x 750 ml
2005 Gewurztraminer Watson Vineyard Niagara - 6 x 750 ml
2005 Riesling Watson Vineyard Niagara (VL3 yeast) - 6 x 750 ml
2005 Riesling Watson Vineyard Niagara (BA11 yeast) - 6 x 750 ml
2003 Riesling Eastman Vineyard Niagara (high acid) - 6 x 750 ml
2005 Peterborough Vineyards White (mainly hybrid blend) - 16 x 750 ml, 3 x 375 ml
Results of competitions or tastings will be posted here as they accrue. I will try to get judges / writers permission to post their notes where possible.
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