ZABIBU

Chardonnay has come in, again we picked very early morning and because it was slightly too soon and we had very little of it, we saved two short rows of Pinot Noir to make a blend as a bit of an experiment. There was very little fruit this year- we had only one large basin of Chardonnay grapes and a quarter basin of the Pinot Noir. We have a total of 40 litres of juice to ferment.

We left the must to settle after we put the grapes through the press and separated the free run from the pressed wine and have put these into glass carboys.

pH 2.9

TA 1. 95

Temp at pressing 18.5 degrees celcius

Potential alcohol 12%

To all you large operations out there- this must seem an insignificant amount but we are still in the research and development phase in our vineyard and very much so with white wine. Its hard to do here with the high temperatures, lack of winter and no refridgeration. We have a straw bale winery which keeps the rooms considerably cooler with the thick walls.

Well we added a good yeast for Chardonnay which Louisa Hargrave kindly came out with, the Zymaflore VL2 with some yeast nutrient. We did not sulphite the wine at this stage as we think it is definately going to run an ML and really need to encourage it.

I have also added a malolactic culture to both the Pinot Noir and to the Chardonnay Pinot blend to get this going while temperatures are warm and can get this finished with and shut down the operation sooner than later.

Pressing the Chardonnay Pinot Noir blend and putting it into the glass carboys.