In the winery - January
January 2007
The 2006 Pinot Noir is maturing in 225L French Oak barriques, under controlled temperature and humidity. The barrels are checked regularly and topped up as needed. The maturing wine is tasted regularly, to determine when we will bottle it. Ideally it will be bottled in March, to free up the barrels for the 2007 vintage and to get the last of the bottling out of the way before the bedlam of harvest begins in March with the first of the grapes for sparkling arrive at the winery.
Our first sparkling (yet to be named) from vintage 2006 is about to be triaged. This is the point when the first-fermented "base wine" begins its second ferment to turn the “still” wine into an effervescent sparkling wine.
We bottle the "base wine", add a small amount of sugar and yeast, then seal the bottle with a crown seal. The yeast ferments the additional sugar and produces the effervescence. As a true bottle-fermented sparkling wine, it will remain in this actual bottle until consumed. The wine is left to age in the bottle for several years "on-lees" (the dead yeast cells from the secondary ferment) before it is "disgorged" (the dead yeast cell sediment removed, without losing the effervescent gas).
But that little trick is for another month.
© Brook Eden Vineyard 2007 | Lebrina, Tasmania, Australia | +61 (0) 3 6395 6244
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