The path I have chosen, to not filter my wines and yet still expect them to be beautiful in both the bottle and the glass, is a stressful path.  My first iteration of a soft effervescent white wine has failed.  Although there was a very small amount effervescence and the flavor is not impacted, the wine is by no means pretty. I was so confident in my skills that I announced we would be doing a sparkling wine day so that everyone could enjoy making a little bubbly.  Fortunately, I can laugh at myself and muster the humility to explain what really happened.   

I received the lab results back for the Sauvignon Blanc and there is residual sugar. This is not necessarily a bad thing because it is only 5 grams and adds a small amount of sweetness to what is still considered a dry wine.  It is a very good wine as is.  However, my thought process went like this, “S*#t, there is 5 grams of sugar in the Sav Blanc.”  “If this kicks off a second fermentation people will ask why their wine is fizzy.”  As I continue to stress, I think, “A little fizz is not a bad thing in a white wine.” 

Veuve (Widow) Clicquot is known in the wine community as "Grande Dame of Champagne" and to me she is heroic.  She discovered the riddling method which is the technique that clarified champagne. Between Clicquot’s methodology and reading lots of “recipes” from the winemaking community, I ventured forward with injecting a small amount of yeast and yeast nutrient into a few bottles of the Sauvignon Blanc.  I did not have the right bottle capper, so I corked the bottles with champagne corks.   

I riddled the bottles which means, store them upside down and turn them over once a day for a month or more.  One by one I negated lessons and advise I had been privy to over the years.

“Anything over 0 grams of sugar will kick into another fermentation.”  -  This is not true, unless perhaps you leave your bottles sit in the sun.  5 grams, even with yeast hydrated in nutrients added to the wine did not render the effervesce needed. It did, however, effervesce softly.  

“The bottles will explode.” - PFFFT! 

My next experiment will be adding a very small, controlled amount of a dissolved sugar solution along with the yeast and nutrients.  I’ll try the riddling again, but with different bottle caps to complete the process correctly.  In the interim, it’s a Syrah kind of weekend anyway!

À votre santé!

Sharon