WTN: Two Skin-Contact SauvBlancs..(short/boring)

WINE TALK
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JoshKates was in town and we tried:

  1. Novy SauvBlanc RRV (Skin soaked; 13.1%; www.NovyFamilyWines.com) SantaRosa 2012: Light gold color w/ slight onion-skin tinge; some herbal/melony/SB very slight phenolic/earthy/apple cider quite interesting nose; fairly tart/tangy/lean light phenolic/apple cider/earthy rather saline/savory very light herbal/SB flavor w/ light/astringent/tangy tannins; rather long quite savory/saline slight earthy/phenolic/cider finish w/ light tannic bite; a very unusual white for Adam w/ lots of saline/savory character; a really interesting cross of herbal/SB and phenolic/savory character.
  1. CowanCllrs Isa LakeCnty (Skin-frmtd SauvBlanc; 13.1%; www.CowanCellars.com) SantaRoas 2010: Deep golden/burnished bronze slight murky color; rather strang phenolic/apple cider/earthy slight herbal/musky/waxy/earthy/resiny rather complex nose; very tart/tangy rather phenolic/savory/saline/resiny slight herbal/SB/earthy/grapefruiity quite complex flavor w/ light astringent tannins; very long/complex tart/tangy some resiny/savory/phenolic/apple cider finish w/ light astringent tannins; this wine is really getting interesting, needs food, and served at a red wine temperature.

And a wee BloodyPulpit:

  1. This was, I believe, Josh’s & Joe’s first exposure to skin-contact whites. Couldn’t really tell if they liked them or not, but they weren’t wildly ecstatic about them & dancing on the table.
    This was a pretty interesting comparison of skin-contact SauvBlancs made in a reductive manner. Clearly, Adam’s didn’t have the length of skin contact as Jim’s…there was some noticible SauvBlanc varietal character in there w/ the phenolic character. I believe Jim’s had skin contact throughout the entire fermentation. I recall it have no obvious SB varietal character when I first had it, but there seemed to be a bit peeking thru this time. His wine took me back to my JrHigh days when I played violin in the orchestra & had the hots for BarbaraMullin. It had the same resiny aroma I recall from those days, long ago, when I’d resin up my bow. His wine is starting to develop some secondary nuances and complexity and becomming quite interesting.
    Tom
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I assume that smell you describes came from the resin and not your bow?

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I hope you found a private place before “resining up your bow” after admiring poor Barbara Mullin.

4

This thread just made me spend five minutes learning the difference between resin and rosin, and about the Middle English origin of the latter. Damn it, Tom!

5

Hmmm…I forgot that it was called “rosin”, not “resin”. But it had this really distinct pungent smell that I remember well.
But to sit across the room and watch BarbaraMullin vigorously rosin up her cello bow…any kid would have the hots for her.
Tom

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big big fan of the Isa.

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ISA is, to me, one of those wines that changes rather markedly as the temperature of the wine changes. When cold it is a snappy acidic fairly straight forward wine. When allowed to move toward room temp the complexity picks up and a nuttiness (almond/cashew) elements appears.

A very interesting wine to say the least and one that I enjoy quite a bit.

8

Ah, Barbara Mullin. Tom’s followed her from the very start.

Adam Lee
Siduri and Novy Wineries

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Absolutely, Walter. When served at normal white wine temps, it (most skin-contact whites, not just Isa) is very austere & severe
and not much fun to drink…it hurts. Needs to be at room temp.
Tom

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interesting notes, Tom. I’ve had the Cowan–and liked it–but not the Novy yet. I’ll make it a point to try one soon.

It seems that skin-contact sauvignon blanc can come in a couple of different guises. Many, like the Cowan and Novy, seem to emphasize the savory/umami/cidery flavors, with an almost tannic texture that really drinks more like a red wine. But there’s another style of skin-contact sauv blanc that I’ve found in two wines–Kevin Kelley’s Salinia “Robinia”, and Abe Schoener’s Scholium Project “Prince in His Caves”–that express much more of a floral/spice character, almost like a Torrontes mixed with a little dry Muscat. It’s remarkable how different these two styles are given that they are from the same variety, although I suppose there’s a lot of room for diversity in the winemaking for this kind of wine (length of skin contact, vessel, clone of sauvignon, etc.). The point being that simply describing a wine as a “skin-contact sauv blanc” doesn’t necessarily tell you much about what the wine really tastes like. Fun wines to taste regardless.

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Tom,

FWIW, the 2012 was 24 hours on the skins. This year we are at 48…with a control beside it as well (same as last year). Fun to try them side by side.

Adam Lee
Novy Family Winery

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Sorry for the ignorant question, but Adam (or anyone else), can you briefly lay out the sequence of events with the skin-contact whites? Is this 24 or 48 hours at the beginning of fermentation, or just soaking as must before fermentation?

Thanks.

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Chris,

For us it was running it over the sorting table, thru the destemmer (which breaks it open…leaving the must and skins behind) and then soaking for 24-48 hours before fermentation starts. I imagine others are doing differently given Tom’s explanation.

Adam

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Chris,
We de-stem, cold soak, and ferment juice and skins together until dry. Then press to barrel and let ML happen. So pretty much the way one would make red wine.
Best, Jim

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Interesting, thanks both of you.

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Jim,

Do you mind sharing the numbers on your wine? Don’t know what you run, both in fermentation vessel and at bottling, but I’d love to see them and would be happy to share mine.

Adam Lee
Novy and Siduri

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Adam,
5.7 TA, 3.44 pH, 22.3 brix, 2.64 malic, 3.70 tartaric, 229 glu/fru, 78 Ammonia, 108 alpha-amino, 172 YAN, 1480 potassium, at the fermenter.
10 day cold soak.
Fermented up to but not over 80 degrees.
Total time on skins 18 days.
3.6 pH, 6.83 TA, ETOH 13.1, .052 VA, dead dry and ML complete, at bottling.
Lightly filtered at 3 microns (which IMO is more a “bug catcher” than anything else).
I assume the TA difference from fermenter to bottling was a sampling error - I have no other explanation because we did not acidulate. So much for numbers.
Best, Jim

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OhOh…definitely a case of “if I show you mine, will you show me yours??”
Didn’t you boys outgrow that when you graduated from grade school??? neener
Tom

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Actually more like, I will show you mine…but not while driving.

Thanks Jim.

We were at: 7.6TA, 3.2pH, 21.9 brix, 3.32 malic, 6.51 tartaric, 230 glu/fru, 60 ammonia, 104 alpha-amino, 153 YAN, 1350 potassium at the fermentor.

We bottled both a skin soaked and non-skin soaked, with most numbers being the same (no ML on either): we did see notable differences in pH (3.29 on skin soaked vs. 3.17 on non) and difference in VA (.33 on skin and .40 on non). The VA difference surprised me and was the opposite of what I imagined.

Adam Lee
Siduri and Novy