Chaptalisation ?

[DerekSmith]

In the tutorial on Chaptalisation, three cases were given, none of which fit the following situation and I am wondering if Chaptalisation is the right term for this application or if it has a term all of its own.

I started with 500lb of wonderful Italian Merlot grapes, crushed them and fermented them using BDX. When the ferment had nearly ended, I drew off the wine from beneath the cap into carboys to finish. Under normal conditions, I would have pressed the cap for the remaining sharper, tannic juice, but the wine was already acidic and tannic enough.

The cap contained about 15lt of wine and the skins were still full of taste and acidity.

So I made up 60kg of 23% Cane Sugar syrup (Coop Fair Trade, because it had a nice warm aroma) and poured it over the cap, then stirred it all up. It had the consistency of a cake mix. Within an hour it was fermenting strongly and the temperature shot up to 27C, slowly creeping down to 20C over the next five days as the refract fell from 23% to 10%, at which point I drew the wine off from under the cap into a carboy to finish.

Was this Chaptalisation?

And when I repeated it a third time, was this also chaptalisation or just being plain greedy?

Derek

[lockwood1956]

Hi Derek,

No that isnt chaptalisation, that is what is commonly called a 2nd run (and a third run if you did it again)

chaptalisation is the raising of the Sg or Brix level before initial fermentation.

regards
bob


(I moved the thread to here, as i dont want the tutorial section cluttered, i thought i had locked the tutorial section down....but obviously not )

[Cellar_Rat]

.. just being plain greedy

[DerekSmith]

Hi Bob,

So there seems to be a 'cloudiness' in the terminology:-

chaptalisation is the raising of the Sg or Brix level before initial fermentation.

regards
bob

In your tutorial, you take a must, ferment it down to 1.010, then add more water and more sugar (after initial fermentation?) and finish the ferment.

In my example, I took a must, fermented it down to 1.005, (removed some) then added more water and more sugar and finished the ferment.

It seems that the essential difference is that chaptalisation is aimed at fortification of quality, whilst 2nd run is aimed at fortification of quantity, (because the quality is already there) and aims to maximise the recovery of precious flavour, colour and acidity from the skins.

My 3rd run is already a very pleasant rosé and this morning had dropped to a respectable 0.996 with a refractometer brix of 6.4% suggesting an ABV of around 10.3% heading perhaps for ca 12% ABV when finished..

Today, my grape skins will have been feeding an active ferment for exactly a month, and still seem able to feed a 4th run. But I don't think I will be going there as I have now run out of storage facility...

To paraphrase from "Jaws" - 'I'm gon'na need a bigger cellar'

Derek

[Cellar_Rat]

Chaptalisation is generally understood to be a 'topping up' with sugar when a particular vintage harvests so low as to not make minimum levels. It is proportionally a small amount.

IMO Chaptalisation applies to the first ferment (if used)
Anything else is 'a recipe' Although the process is the same, the added sugar is now the majority.

Just a thought - does it help!

[NorthernWiner]

Strictly speaking, chaptalization is defined as any correction required to make up for a deficiency in the must. So it could be the addition of sugar, but it could also refer to an addition of tartaric acid, as is often the case with warmer climate grapes.

I'm with Bob, though. I believe the process described above would be second run winemaking, i.e. using the remains from one batch of wine as a basis to produce a second (or third) wine.

[lockwood1956]

ooo Chaptalisation is defined as increasing the sugar content of the grapes and is regulated to an increase of 3.5% (was 3% previously) here in the UK, maybe it is different over the pond.....

but we very rarely have to add acid here maybe thats why?

regards
Bob

[Rich]

Derek,

In your second and third runs, have you added any acid, or just extra sugar?

[NorthernWiner]

ooo Chaptalisation is defined as increasing the sugar content of the grapes and is regulated to an increase of 3.5% (was 3% previously) here in the UK, maybe it is different over the pond.....

but we very rarely have to add acid here maybe thats why?

I believe that's correct. We have the opposite problem in that we rarely have to add sugar. In fact, it's illegal to add sugar in California.

[DerekSmith]

Chaptalisation is generally understood to be a 'topping up' with sugar when a particular vintage harvests so low as to not make minimum levels. It is proportionally a small amount.

IMO Chaptalisation applies to the first ferment (if used)
Anything else is 'a recipe' Although the process is the same, the added sugar is now the majority.

Just a thought - does it help!

So if my grapes (or blackberries etc) only make make say 10% and I add a further 12% to make a reasonably stable wine - is that Chaptalisation because it was added at the first ferment, or 'a recipe' because it is now the majority?

Derek

[DerekSmith]

Derek,

In your second and third runs, have you added any acid, or just extra sugar?

Hi Rich,

I did not press, I just drew out the wine from beneath a very firm cap, leaving a quantity of liquid in the pulp and skins.

The skins were still very tasty and quite full of acid, so I just ran in the syrup, and stirred it all up. I had already drawn off 110lt of wine - essentially the 'free run', so the amount of syrup I added back made it a very thick mix. I presumed there would not be much left in the skins and that it might make a bit of Rosé or some handy 'top up' wine. By day five, it was deep red and had an excellent flavour with a strong fresh bite of acidity.

This is what made me go for a third run - draining off the second run without pressing, and tipping in nothing but syrup. So far, this will be a Rosé and again has drawn significant flavour and sharpness from the residual in the skins which are now starting to break down quite badly.

No acid, no nutrient, nothing but a cane sugar syrup.

PS. needless to say, the free run from the first ferment is quite something...

Derek

[DerekSmith]

ooo Chaptalisation is defined as increasing the sugar content of the grapes and is regulated to an increase of 3.5% (was 3% previously) here in the UK, maybe it is different over the pond.....

but we very rarely have to add acid here maybe thats why?

regards
Bob

If Chaptalisation is regulated to a maximum of 3.5% sugar (UK), does that mean that it is a term relevant only to regulated wine for sale?

Does this also mean that making 2nd Run wine is illegal?

Derek

[NorthernWiner]

If Chaptalisation is regulated to a maximum of 3.5% sugar (UK), does that mean that it is a term relevant only to regulated wine for sale?

Does this also mean that making 2nd Run wine is illegal?

Derek

I think you're greatly overthinking this.

As home winemakers, we're allowed to do whatever we please with our wines, provided we're not selling it.

[Cellar_Rat]

If Chaptalisation is regulated to a maximum of 3.5% sugar (UK), does that mean that it is a term relevant only to regulated wine for sale?

Does this also mean that making 2nd Run wine is illegal?

Derek

Commercially yes.
I think we use commercial nomenclature as home winemakers, for clarity, but we are not bound by the legal ramifications, so we can blur the edges somewhat without risk.

[lockwood1956]

If Chaptalisation is regulated to a maximum of 3.5% sugar (UK), does that mean that it is a term relevant only to regulated wine for sale?

correct

Does this also mean that making 2nd Run wine is illegal?

no, sorry if I confused the issue


The rules on chaptalisation only apply to commercial wines, and as Steve rightly says as home winemakers we can do what we want to our wines, and make them from what we want (hence the appearance of parsnip wine)

making 2nd run wine is great, its almost like wine for free (apart from the cost of the sugar) and chaptalisation of course is almost 100% with 2nd runs

regards
Bob