2011 Chardonnay / Semillon
March 2011 – I looked at the available kits in American Brewmaster, looking to pick a white. I kept coming back to this one so I snagged it. Chardonnay and Semillon are not a traditional French blend … but it sounded interesting.
I printed a special label for a friend’s birthday. It’s fairly easy to do, and the label makes the wine a personalized gift.
Ingredients
| Kit | Winexpert Selection Original Series Wine Kit — Chardonnay/Semillon |
| Bentonite | yes |
| Yeast | Red Star Premier Cuvee (included in kit) |
| Sulfite | yes |
| Sorbate | yes |
| Kieselsol | yes |
| Chitosan | yes |
Method
| Started kit according to directions. Used powered stirring rod to mix bentonite package into hot water.
Added concentrate and rinsed bag. Topped primary up to 6 gallons. Sprinkled yeast on top. |
03/15/2011 SG 1.082 |
| Racked wine into 5 gallon carboy and 1 gallon jug. | 03/21/2011 SG 1.001 |
| Directions indicate SG should drop to 0.996 or lower. Never got lower than 0.998.
Stirred sediment back into wine, racked back into 7 gallon fermenter. Stirred in metabisulphite & sorbate. Stirred inisinglass. Racked back into carboy & gallon jug. |
04/02/2011 SG 0.998 |
| Racked wine. | 04/17/2011 SG 0.998 |
| Bottled wine. | 05/20/2011 SG 0.998 |
Notes
| Yield | 27 bottles |
| Alcohol | 11.4% |
| 05/20/2011 | Surprisingly tasty at bottling. Didn’t taste as green as I’d expect. Still going to age a few months before tapping the next one. |
| 09/08/2011 | Four months is the bottle have done well by this one. I’ll make this kit again. |
| 11/09/2011 | This one is a keeper! I’m not massively fond of most chardonnays, the semillon rounds this one out. I’ll make it again. |
| 05/02/2014 | I’m down to just one bottle of this. I almost bought another kit, but purchased the Luna Bianca instead. We’ll see how that one turns out. |