INTRODUCTION During this November trip 9 wineries have been visited 5 wineries had been audited in March and 4 were new to join the program. Some wineries are already producing sparkling wines and some are completely new in the business. Presses The old presses (Vaslin type with 2 plates, a screw and chains to brake the cake) have disappeared now everybody is using pneumatic presses. Willmes is the main brand which we can find in 7 wineries. One is a Bucher and on is from Puleo from Italy. Everybody has a sparkling wine program set in the computer. Therefore it should be adapted according to the type of grapes and to the quality of the grapes. The Champagne grapes are completely different from the British grapes. Harvest Only one winery is collecting the grapes in a trailer and this should be change in 2011. It is important to use small crates to respect the bunches and to avoid maceration with stems. Everybody else is using small crates containing 15 to 25 kg. They are easy to handle, to load into the press as well as destemer and crusher. Fermentation Equipment Everybody now has proper tanks. Settling is done for 24 hours before racking and fermentation is generally done under temperature control. For the new wineries a decanting arm or elbow has to be fitted to be able to carefully rack the juice, the flap valve is not enough. Profession Libérale-Siret 420 984 007 0013-APE 748K 1
Pumps All type of pumps has been seen from piston, screw pump to rubber impellor and centrifugal pumps. The type of the pump used has to be decided in relation with the type of process. Filtration is generally done on kieselguhr (DE filter) a vacuum filter has been seen to recover more juice mainly on the juice sludge. Some wineries are still using pads which are a little bit heavy to use. It has to be rinsed with water and the loss is important and some cartridge. For cartridge filters, to avoid choking up the cartridge, which are expensive, a fining must be done beforehand to reduce the colloid level. For sparkling the fining with bentonite will decrease the foaming capacity and albumin fining and ichtiocolle (isinglass) fining (which are non veg products) are always used in excess which means it will reduce the saturation field and limit the cold stabilisation. New techniques of filtrations have to be experimented like stain less steel candles, filtration on tatrate crystals or cross flow filtration. Bottling The first bottling is done on the premises by the winery itself or with a contractor local or French. Some bottling lines are now coming from France and those machines are doing a good job because they are working all through the year and well maintained. Some precautions have to be taken for a good result. 1. Bottles have to be kept in a room to be clean and warm at the same temperature of the wine to avoid a thermal shock which will decrease the wine temperature due to the condensation. 2. Wine temperature should be at 12 C 3. Yeast culture has to be prepared to ensure a good population. (see the protocol given during the Denbies symposium) 4. A good aeration has to be made yeast need to have O2 to multiply Profession Libérale-Siret 420 984 007 0013-APE 748K 2
5. SO2 levels has to be checked: free SO2 done by Ripper must be below 15 mg/l with aspiration method you have to be very care full the SO2 levels shown are a little bit lower. Always do your bottling SO2 with Ripper. The final SO2 correction will be before the cold stab for sparkling wines. 6. A control of the seal (crown cap) is very important. The use of incorporated bidules has to be limited for sparkling wines which are not kept for long lees ageing. For long lees ageing separate bidules have to be used. To limit the CO2 pressure drop and oxidation. 7. An addition of DAP and Thiamine is required to ensure a completion of the prise de mousse. Riddling It is the same as for the bottling. The riddling can be optimized if the bottling is better managed as well as if the riddling helpers are used in a proper and a better way. Riddling helpers have to be used and introduced according to recommendations of the manufacturer. If the yeast culture is done according to the protocol given at Denbies the population of yeast will need a rate of 60 to 80 ml of riddling helper per 100l of wine. For quick riddling it is better to use a blend of bentonite and alginate. In terms of results the riddling helper from Bolland (oenofrance group) and the one from Laffort give the best results for a riddling of 7 days program: a small volume of sediments, a good shining wine, and an easy riddling wine Also the riddling quality depends directly from the base wine preparation and filtration. A cloudy base wine will not give a shining sparkling wine and will be difficult to riddle in 7 days which is the target. Profession Libérale-Siret 420 984 007 0013-APE 748K 3
Disgorging Jean-Manuel JACQUINOT The tendency is to do the disgorging in the winery. Some investments has been done in this direction. The number of units is increasing which is good to ensure the quality of the final product. The SO2 management is better. Harvest 2010 The harvest 2010 was of a very good quality and of a very big quantity. It was the first crop for a lot of vineyards and there was a lot of grapes on the market. A lot of grapes has been processed in the way of producing a base for a production of Sparkling wines. The grapes hand picked had been pressed full bunch without desteming and crushing using a Champagne programme Acidity was very high at the time of harvest. Due to the climatic conditions it has been difficult to determine the best date of the harvest. Everybody was expecting to have a high sugar level and a lower acidity therefore the rain has diluted the Total Acidity. IMPROVEMENTS DONE OR WHICH HAS TO BE MADE The September day symposium was very good and a lot of wineries have followed the advice given. Pressing Handling of grapes and the pressing will determine the quality of the base wine SO2 The SO2 management at the time of the harvest has to be improved. Higher SO2 level has to be fixed to avoid correction after AF mainly if the MLF is searched. The rate of 60 to 70 ppm has to be targeted. It can be higher if the grapes are touch with diseases or sensible to oxidation. Profession Libérale-Siret 420 984 007 0013-APE 748K 4
Yeast Culture A small yeast culture has to be made to ensure a complete fermentation (see the Denbies sparkling wine symposium) to avoid some slow fermentations at the end and so to avoid volatile acidity. A new yeast strain B8000 has been used mainly for trying to decrease the malic acid. Generally this yeast is sensible to temperature and SO2. In England the harvest temperatures are low and it is difficult to finish the AF. Such kind of yeast strain mustn t be used for base wine. They are used in Loire Valley to make late harvest. I am using them to make wine in India with residual sugar using cold temperature and SO2 to stop the AF. It is important to select a yeast which is working at low temperature and at low ph. The yeast strain will be selected according to the type of grapes used, to the type of wine made and also according of the final product: a long lees ageing or a short lees ageing and according to the characters of the wine Malolactic Fermentation In some area it seems that it is very difficult to start the malo. May be it is due to a high level of malic acid due to a low maturation of the grapes. It is important to start the malo during the AF to use the heat of the AF. A culture must be started at the beginning of the harvest. The culture is done according to the recommendation of bacteria supplier. Just notice that malic acid can be a inhibitor of MLF if the level is to high. Blending Most wineries are bending, only a few are doing single varietal wines. To ensure the good foaming capacity it is important not to do bentonite fining on the juice or after AF. We have seen some wines with low foaming capacity. We have noticed also that some base wines are too closed, no flavours, no perfume. The use of Argon or Nitrogen or CO2 is used too much and some wines have no expression. To much reductive wine making conditions can Profession Libérale-Siret 420 984 007 0013-APE 748K 5
slow down the expression of the wines and they will need more time on lees ageing to have some characters. Prise de mousse It is important to do a proper yeast culture. The protocol has been given during the Dembies sparkling wine symposium. One winery has done a very good bottling after doing a good yeast culture and so the final product is very good. In terms of flavours and taste as well as riddling capacity. This protocol has been given in September. The use of separate bidules should be developed instead of the incorporated bidules mainly for the long lees ageing sparkling wine. Also everybody now is going for neck-freezer disgorging so there is no technical problems at disgorging. The oxidation will be limited. It is important to do a bottling before the cold temperature to ensure to finalise the prise de mousse. That is why it is important to do it when the temperatures are increasing. Disgorging Sugar Solution (dosage) Some works can be done on the sugar solution to give the final touch and to improve the quality SO2 A good management must be done also at this level. David Cowderoy did a good presentation at the Denbies symposium Conclusions: Profession Libérale-Siret 420 984 007 0013-APE 748K 6
We can notice that the quality of all the base wines has improved and the quality of the 2009 sparkling is good. Now marketing will be very important for all the wineries. The quantity of wines which will be released soon will be increasing very quickly and the market has to be developed. The image and the name of English sparkling wines has to be promoted. Profession Libérale-Siret 420 984 007 0013-APE 748K 7