seyval blanc

I am certainly not an authority, but I made what I consider a superb wine from seyval last year. As it's a cold weather grape, it often produces high acid, low Brix grapes. My batch, harvested here in Maryland, was sweet enough, but it was incredibly tart. Once completed, it basically just tasted like whie tart wine...completely undistinguishable. At that point, I blended it 60% seyval, 30% chenin blanc, and 10% riesling. It has a wonderful stone or flint quality.

Lee

Sounds great, I make it too. I usually sparkle it; the acid is pretty high in NY too. It makes a wonderful sparkler, lasts about 5 years before starting to come apart... Regards, Joe

Does ML help?

It may, but I don't use it as a rule. I have had decent success just using calcium or potassiumm carbonate. If I do that I do the double salt method. (Add all of the carbonate to a third of the wine and shake it like crazy let it sit for a day, add it back into the rest.... It looks god awful, but works.

Lately the acid came in around 8g/l which is pretty decent for sparklers, so I just let it go.

Malo may be a good thing to try; I just never tried it on Seyval.

Regards, Joe

Thanks for the info Joe!

You don't happen to have instructions on making a sparkler at home?

Joe

Lums instructions are very good; try that. My Seyval particulars are:

I shoot for 18-19 brix, 8.5g/l TA (initial acid value). I use 10 pressure bottles, you can get them from Presque Isle. I use 6 pressures, but want a little insurance...

I let them sit on the secondary fermentation yeast for at least a year, it develops a creamy taste that becomes more pronounced the longer you allow that.

The most important thing to remember is to measure the sugars well; bottles can blow up even if you do everything right. The first batch I made was at 4 pressures and it was still very good. You may want to consider that. Regards, Joe

Lum, Why do you add a dosage which is sweet? What is the purpose of sweetening it?

Tim

Thanks for the tip Joe!

I probably won't try sparkling wine this year but I will see if I can find someone in this area that does it and see if I can get some hands on experience.

Joe

Thank you for kind words Joe.

That doesn't sound very promising for the red grapes We had a late bud break and cool, wet weather durring bloom. Looks like a small crop with very uneven ripening. I have never made icewine. It doesn't get that cold down here in San Diego. Regards, lum

I'm not Lum, but I'll answer anyway.

Very few people like a sparkling wine with no residual sugar. Even most of the Brut Champagnes have some sugar added after the wine is disgorged.

There is "natural" Champagne which doesn't have any sugar added, but most people find it too dry/harsh because of the high acid content.

Andy