2019 Wines - Chapter 7 - Chambourcin Rosé

The first time I made Chambourcin in 2016 I sourced the grapes from our very generous neighbor Bill. I made a red wine which turned out very nicely and took a medal at the KC Cellarmasters Wine Classic. It has aged well and would have probably scored better had I waited another year.

But my Chambourcin this year seemed to want to be a rosé. The numbers lagged in part I think because the vines are young (year 3) and also because, as with the Chardonel, they were overcropped.  Next year, more thinning, more leaf pulling. But this year, rosé it is.

We picked on 9/5. Destemmed, crushed, and pressed, yielding 9.75gal of must. TA 10.8, pH 2/77, SG 1.070. I cold settled for two days, then rewarmed, chaptalized with 1937g sugar to 1.090(est). 20g Opti White, 10g Booster Blanc, 4.5t tannin for color stability, 4.5t pectic enzyme, and 48g KHCO3 to move the pH to 3.05. Then QA 23 with GoFerm and we were winemaking.

I step fed per protocol and added 15g bentonite on day 3. By day 7 it was down to 1.020, so it was moved to carboy. Two days later, just like the Chardonel, it was dry, so it was racked and sulfited.

This is Lisa's 2019 rosé. Fingers crossed!