Hello!
So the winery I’m at this harvest has two barrels of somewhat oaked screaming high acid riesling that we don’t know what to do with. We’ve tasted it and it is just too high acid to drink as a table wine, and we thought it would be really cool to do a small batch of methode champenoise. Does anyone have a good recipe/guidelines? We understand the entire process, but we’ve never had to do it ourselves, so we’re looking for numbers, exactly how to make the liqueur de tirage, etc. etc. We’ll be doing this all by hand, so if you have any tips on setting up to disgorge, how to riddle without a riddling rack (maybe just transferring to clean bottles?) that’d be awesome.
Thanks in advance! Cheers!
Jennifer try reaching out to Barry Jackson of Equinox in Santa Cruz. He may help guide you but have no idea.
There is a winery called Ser that made a sparkling wine from Riesling from the Wirz vineyard that they decided was too high acid to release as a table wine. They might also be a useful source of information.
-Al
Alternatively, some small wineries I know have sent off juice to http://www.rackandriddle.com/ with good results. (Don’t quote me, but I think Ser uses them. Waxwing and Loma Prieta do.)
Jennifer,
Barry Jackson is the godfather of methode champenois sparkling in the area, so that’s a great place to start. Alternatively, Denis Hoey at Odonata in Salinas learned from Barry and has begun making some very good sparkling of his own starting with his 2012 vintage. Both are great people and open to helping good projects.
Ian