Today we went to the winery to check on the Sauvignon Blanc fermentations in barrel. Mia has always fermented the Sauvignon Blanc in Stainless Steel barrels and 100% new French Oak barrels. The Sauvignon Blanc was innoculated (yeasts added) and put down to barrels two days ago.
Once again, Mia is doing yeast trials, so she wanted to taste a sample of juice from each yeast trial. We have three different yeasts this year. Two of them are what we used last year, and one is a new one Mia hasn’t ever used before.
You can see how fast or slow the fermentation is by looking in the bung holes (notice the amount of foam or little bubbles). The first yeast is slowly fermenting.
Yeast number two is going pretty good in this oak barrel. This tastes really good, and already has a nice mouthfeel.
Mia wanted to get to the brand new yeast she hasn’t tried before.
This yeast (the new one for this year) in this stainless steel barrel is cooking away!! Look at that foam. This one tastes the best so far of the three, and has a really long finish.
It’s hard to describe how good Sauvignon Blanc Musque juice is. The flavors are like peach, nectarine, mango, papaya, and pear. (Tasting somewhat like a nectar would, without being as thick as a nectar.) Mia will continue to taste these every day or so to check on how they are doing. – Skippy