Author: Ben

I think I can safely say that the wine is fermenting well!

I thought that fermenting at 15°C would give a long, slow fermentation recommended to preserve the subtle fruity flavours of white wine. However after less than 2 weeks fermentation is complete.  I don’t think this is a problem but I will try fermenting a few degrees cooler next time to slow things down a little.

I measured the specific gravity every 2 days and plotted the following graph:

As you can see, after 2 days the fermentation really gets going, and is more or less finished after 8 days.  It tastes pretty good, but is definitely on the tart side!

I’ll leave it for another couple of weeks now for the yeast to settle out and then transfer to another container for clarifying and ageing.

This evening I decided it was time to rack the wine off the yeast sediment into a 23 litre demijohn.  I was planning on leaving it longer but it was settling well and I wanted to get it out of the plastic bucket. Partly because they are not the best containers to store wine in long term, but also because I need the bucket for my next batch of beer!

Getting it off the sediment reduces the risk of off flavours from the wine sitting on dead yeast cells. Transferring it to a slightly smaller container also means it can be filled to the brim, keeping headspace to a minimum and therefore reducing the chance of oxidation.

It will sit for a few months now to clear.

Just as I predicted in the last post, I couldn’t wait 18 months (the minimum period required in the Champagne region) to lay down my 3 bottles of sparkling wine, and decided I wanted to open them for Christmas.  So for the last few weeks I have been gradually ‘riddling’ the bottles of now sparkling wine, which is the process during which the bottles are slowly turned upside down, giving them a little twist by hand every day or so to move the yeast sediment into the cap.  I used an old a wine rack to support the bottles :

Tonight I decided to open one of the bottles to work out the ‘dosage’ – the amount of sugar to be added.  This is how commercial sparkling wine is categorised:

Doux: 50 or more grams of sugar added per litre. This will taste outrageously sweet to most Champagne and sparkling wine palates—it’s about 2 teaspoons’ worth—but back in the day, Champagne tended to come a lot sweeter.

Demi-Sec: Dosed with 32 to 50 grams of sugar per litre. Again, higher on the sweet sparkling spectrum than most of us are willing to go.

Sec: “Sec,” in French, means dry.  But dry here actually indicates a medium-sweet sparkling. 17 to 32 grams of sugar, on average a teaspoon per litre.

Extra Sec: Literally “Extra Dry,” which would seem to indicate a lip-smackingly acidic wine but here means a bit less sweet than Sec, thanks to just 12 to 17 grams of sugar.

Brut: Up to 12 grams of sugar added, really for balance.  Slightly rounder than “Extra Brut” because of the increased added sugar, and the type of sparkling or Champagne we tend to drink most.

Extra Brut: With fewer than 6 grams of sugar added, this is going to come off higher-acid and accentuate the carbonation.

Brut Nature: No sugar added (or fewer than 3 grams), not common but a way for the winemaker to showcase the essential nature (hence the name) of the sparkling wine or Champagne.  Higher notes of minerality and acid, basically a party in your mouth, and everyone’s invited.  Except sugar.

I opened one bottle by turning the bottle upright while opening the cap at the same time to expel the yeast (degorging). Click here to see an expert doing this.

I was very pleased that the cap came of with a very satisfying pop, and on sampling decided it tasted great as it was, no need to sweeten at all.  In the interests of science I created samples containing 5, 10 and 15g/l of sugar and had a taste.  Definitely best ‘Brut Nature’ !

So now I have a bottle of bubbly to drink, what a shame!  This leaves 2 bottles from the 2017 harvest which will be enjoyed over Christmas.

This makes me even more excited about the 30 bottles or so that will come out of the 2018 harvest….eventually.

Tonight I disgorged the remaining 2 bottles of 2017 bubbly. As the temperature is so low at the moment it’s the perfect time. More carbon dioxide dissolves in liquid the lower the temperature which means less gas will escape during the degorging process and it should not bubble over as much as if it were warmer.

I took each bottle in turn, and simultaneously flipped the bottle the right way up while opening the cap to disgorge the yeast sediment, then quickly pushed in a plastic stopper. You need specialist equipment to force a real champagne cork into a bottle which is why I’m using plastic stoppers.

The first bottle was successful, but on the second one the bottle opener slipped and the cap didn’t come off. I got the cap off on the second attempt but it was too late and a lot of yeast sediment mixed into the bottle. There’s not really much I can do now, I’m sure it will be drinkable, but doesn’t look great. You can see the difference in clarity in the following photos:

I have put wire cages on the stoppers and they are now ready to be drunk. I’m disappointed that one failed, but I guess I’ll get better with practise. I just wish I had more than 2 bottles to improve my skills!

The wine has been settling now for about 5 months, and having had a cold spell at the beginning of February, also went through a cold conditioning phase.  Ideally the wine should be allowed to cool to somewhere just above freezing point for a week or so to allow tartrate crystals to precipitate out of the wine. This makes it less likely to happen when the finished wine is put in the fridge before drinking.

My plan is to bottle after six months of settling, which means end of March. The biggest problem is that I need 30 empty champagne bottles. They need to be either true Champagne bottles or bottles which have contained wine made using the Champagne method. These bottles are made from thicker glass than sparkling wines produced using other methods such as prosecco, as they need to cope with secondary fermentation in the bottle which can lead to bottle pressures of up to 100 PSI.

I already had about 12 bottles but needed to find another 18.  So I Googled ‘Cambridge Champagne’ and discovered Cambridgeshire Wine School which holds regular tasting sessions and runs various courses on all things wine related.  I emailed the guy in charge, Mark, who was very quick to respond, and I met up with him after one of his sparkling wine tasting nights.  I managed to pick up another 15 bottles!

So now I’m only 3 bottles short.  I either need to drink 3 bottles of Champagne between now and the end of March or find another source…

The wine has been settling now for 6 months so it’s time to bottle.  I managed to get a few more bottles which takes me up to the 30 that I will need. They have all been washed and soaked to remove the labels:

The first stage of bottling begins 2-3 days before, and involves creating a ‘liqueur de tirage’ which is a mixture of water, wine, sugar and yeast. This is left to ferment at 20°C until the yeast is at its peak of activity at which point it is mixed into the main bulk of wine with some more sugar and then bottled.  It is this yeast and sugar addition that ferments in the bottle, creating the fizz.

I created the liqueur de tirage using a spreadsheet I created which works out the correct quantities based on how much wine you have to bottle:

The mixture was then put into a demijohn with an airlock and left for the yeast to work its magic:

After 3 days at 20°C, the liqueur de tirage was ready to be added to the rest of the wine along with some more sugar. It had only got down to a specific gravity of 1.048, but this if fine, it just meant having to put a little less sugar in for the final addition.

Here are the figures from the spreadsheet showing that the final addition of sugar required was 398g.

Before adding the sugar and liqueur I racked the wine off the sediment, then stirred in the sugar and liqueur. It’s really important to make sure the sugar is fully dissolved and the wine is well stirred, otherwise you could end up with some bottles with not enough fizz and others that risk explosion which would not be fun.

After filling each bottle, they were sealed with a bidule, a small plastic hollow plug in which the yeast collects during the riddling stage, and a crown cap on top of the bidule.

My original calculations were spot on and I ended up with 30 bottles, which are now lying on their sides in the cellar, the best place to keep them at a constant 12°C for secondary fermentation. Ideally they will sit here for 18 months, but I will take a few bottles out in 6 months time to have some ready for Christmas and leave the rest for the following year.