An experimental batch of Sabrevois wine is being made in Ontario by the littlefatwino from grapes provided by Simon Naud of Vignoble la Bauge. A fun way to reach across the Quebec / Ontario border!
left to right:The great Elmer Swenson, creator of ES 2 1 9 which is now called Sabrevois after the wine made in this Quebec town by Gilles Benoit of Vignoble des Pins
Larry Paterson, littlefatwino, who is currently ruining some wine made from this variety (see below)
Alain Breault, Quebec based Nurseryman who delivered the grapes to lfw in Peterborough
Dr. Bryan Pell, president of COVA, who has some Sabrevois planted in Peterborough on his farm, Peregrine North.
When we worked at Wally's Folly near Buckhorn we were accused of getting more ink than wine! True enough!! Now the same will be true of this tiny (3+ litres??) quantity of Sabrevois wine.
The grapes were harvested at Vignoble la Bauge about 10 days after the rest of the harvest, on or about Sept 20th. The grapes were frozen in a 5 gallon food grade plastic pail. These grapes were delivered to Peterborough by Alain Breault on October 20th after thawing for 3 days at room temperature. They were promptly crushed and started with BM 45 yeast culture and Go-Ferm nutrient. Alain Breault pitched the starter...
The stems were dark brown, and when tasted showed none of the particular unripe vegetal bitterness that has been noticed while chewing green stems from certain red hybrid grapes. They contained wood and tannin, but little else immediately apparent to the palate.
The grapes came in at slightly over 19% sugar (brix), with a pH of about 3.4 and acid that "tasted" about 7.5 to 8 grams per litre. It must be remembered that in such a small lot there is no juice to spare for such testing!!
15 grams of top-quality French oak chips were added and the whole was placed in a small food-grade plastic container with a lid. Within a day it was happily fermenting.
After two days all stems were totally removed, as were any dried out, hard or green grapes floating on top of the wine. As of October 24th, it is developing a wonderful earthiness / barnyard character that seems reminiscent of some of the stronger Northern Italian wines. This may or may not be due to the fact that the grapes were frozen. The colour is very dark, almost opaque at this point.
October 24th: Fermentation has slowed and it will soon be time to "feed" the wine a bit more sugar. The plan is to slowly add 90 grams of white sugar to the wine, in an attempt to bring the final alcohol level up to 12%. Additions will be in small increments to extend the primary fermentation and cap formation. This should afford maximum protection to this tiny quantity from oxidation.
October 27th: Sugar feeding is working to keep the cap just floating, still a few grams of sugar to add. Seeds have pretty well sunk to the bottom. Almost time to rack the wine and skins off the seeds and put the result into a gallon jug to finish. Colour is intense, black-purple. Aromatics have tamed a bit, but still big and earthy. Hands still show stains from five days ago despite trying a solution of Javex and water to get rid of it.
October 31st: Skins are getting mucky now, so off they come on the 12th day, hand pressed. It must be mentioned that they were frozen first, which helped break them down. Put 3.5 litres including muck into a 4-litre jug, added another 15 grams of french oak chips and a few ml of apple juice that has been hosting a malolactic conversion/fermentation. Topped with nitrogen. Will be lucky to get 3 litres finished wine. No "hybrid" character evident. Smells good and clean and big.
November 8th - seems to be going into malo well, still has that big "Italian" something to the nose. Most interesting little jug in the house.
November 28th - malo finished, pH 3.65, time to rough filter and add a bunch more oak chips...
November 30th - rough filtered, 2.25 litres of wine, plus a glass or two that had to be disposed of. Wish this had time to age a year or two before consumption, but it looks like it will disappear in February.
December 28th - chromatography confirms malo conversion is complete.
January 4th, 2002 - fine-filtered the wine, had to add about 4 ounces of cabernet franc rose to top up the 2.25 litres (it's no longer pure!). Nearly Nouveau timeframe... Happy with the result given the fact that it was not fresh fruit to start... Next year, will have to try to get significantly more.
Larry Paterson
www.littlefatwino.com