2024 Chelois

by Bryan · Published October 6, 2024 · Updated October 10, 2024

Yesterday my son & I drove 4 hours to Glade Spring Vineyard, crushed 125 lbs Chardonnel, 300 lbs Chambourcin, and 300 lbs Chelois.

This one takes some figuring, as it’s definitely fermenting, so I had to do some figuring

Fruit	300 lbs Chelois, divided into 2 batches
Maceration Enzyme	12 ml ScottZyme Color Pro enzyme, divided
Yeast	4 tsp Renaissance Avante 4 tsp Renaissance Bravo
Sugar	5 lbs, divided
Nutrient	14 tsp Fermax + 4 tsp YAN, divided
Starter	1/2 tsp Fermax + 3 Tbsp sugar for each yeast
K-meta	as required
Malolactic Bacteria	Lalvin 31 (see below for amount)
Fermentation Oak	8 cups shredded, medium toast American oak, divided

Crushed the grapes and divided into two containers. Did not check brix or SG.	10/05/2024 SG —
Checked SG on both batches — 1.078. After picking the brix was 22 (SG 1.092), and the wine is well into fermentation. Chaptalized bucket A with 3 lbs sugar, bucket B with 2 lbs sugar, raising the SG to an average of 1.083. Based upon this I’m using 1.097 as the OG. Made 2 starters with Avante and Bravo, respectively.	10/06/2024 A: SG 1.097 B: SG 1.097
Added Lalvin 31 MLB. This was difficult as the package is designed for 66 gallons of wine, but it’s a very small amount of material. Since it’s supposed to be dissolved in water for best use, I did so with most of the package, then added 1 part to each batch of Chardonnel and 2 parts to each red batch. Added 6 tsp Fermax + 2 cups shredded oak to each batch. I forgot to check oak supply and didn’t have a lot left. Did the first punch down. Fermentation produced a strong cap. Did not bother to check SG yet.	10/07/2024 A: SG — B: SG —
Added 2 tsp YAN + 1 tsp Fermax, then did second punch down in afternoon.	10/08/2024 A: SG 1.042 B: SG 1.042
Added 4 more cups oak chips at first punch down.	10/10/2024 SG
	10/XX/2024 SG
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	10/XX/2024 SG