1988 Chardonnay / Seyval Blanc
September 2007 – I had an idea that Seyval and Chardonnay would make a good blend. This wine is the result.
Ingredients
| Fruit | 6 gallons Seyval juice, 20.5 brix, 1.15 acid, 60ppm sulfite |
| Pectic Enzyme | 3 tsp |
| Nutrient | 4 tsp nutrient + 3 tsp energizer |
| Yeast | Red Star Epernay II |
| Tannin | 1/2 tsp powdered tannin |
| Acid | 1/2 tsp ascorbic acid + 1 tsp citric acid |
| Fruit | 6 gallons Chardonnay juice, 23.0 brix, sulfite 30ppm |
| Grape Tannin | 1 tsp |
| Pectic Enzyme | 3 tsp |
| Nutrient | 5 tsp nutrient |
| Yeast | Lalvin kv-1116 |
| Acid | 1/2 tsp ascorbic acid + 1 tsp citric acid |
| Aging Oak | toasted oak chips probably American, quantity not recorded |
Method
| Started Seyval, adding pectic enzyme, nutrient, and energizer | 09/22/1988 SG 1.081 |
| Racked Seyval | 09/29/1988 SG 1.000 |
| Racked Seyval, added 1/4 tsp K-sulfite + tannin | 10/09/1988 SG 0.994 |
| Started Chardonnay, adding pectic enzyme, tannin, and nutrient | 10/17/1988 SG 1.092 |
| Racked Chardonnay | 10/22/1988 SG 1.014 |
| Racked Chardonnay | 11/14/1988 SG 0.998 |
| Racked Chardonnay, added 1/4 tsp K-sulfite, ascorbic acid + citric acid | 01/25/1989 SG 0.994 |
| Racked Seyval, added 1/4 tsp K-sulfite, ascorbic acid + citric acid | 01/28/1989 SG 0.994 |
| Seyval filtered, #1 filter | 03/27/1989 SG 0.994 |
| Chardonnay filtered, #1 filter pad | 03/27/1989 SG 0.994 |
| Seyval & Chardonnay blended, filtered w/ #2 filter pad; Half of blend bottled; remaining carboy of blend put on toasted oak chips | 04/09/1989 SG 0.994 |
| Oak removed | 05/30/1989 SG 0.994 |
| Bottled | 11/12/1989 SG 0.994 |
Notes
| Yield | 32 bottles regular, 25 bottles oaked |
| Alcohol | 12.6% |
| Afterthoughts | This was an interesting blend, one that I would try again. The oak was less successful; this one was better with more of a Chablis flavor than a White Burgundy flavor. |
| October 2018 | I took a bottle of this to a Rochester chapter American Wine Society meeting. It was not a hit there, but friends liked it. Like with all my blends of this era, if I could do it against I’d have let the wines age 6 months and done bench mixes. I suspect that a 40/60 Seyval/Chardonnay or the reverse (60/40) would have been better. This was two good wines of different character battling it out, rather than supporting each other. |