4 replies to this topic

[wjhaun]

I posted earlier about my first attempt to make wine from Frontenac Gris. One comment I received was to make an ice-wine style from the FG grapes (high sugar, high acid). While I will attempt that next year, I am still interested in making a dry (or off-dry) white table wine from these grapes. My question is two-fold. First, what grapes can we grow in WI (near Madison) that will be low acid that will blend well with Frontenac Gris? Second, assuming we find a suitable variety to plant next spring, what types of grapes/must should I look to buy next fall to blend with my Frontenac Gris wines while we are waiting for the new vines to come to production age?

[Seb]

Depending on the parameters of your Frontenac Gris you might ''need'' to make an off-dry style. Here in Quebec it usually ripen late but with 24+ brix with high acidity making it a real challenge to make as a dry white wine. I would recommend you use no more than 50% FG if you really want to make a dry white wine. You will have to do a whole cluster press on the FG to avoid getting some rosé color out of it...except if you want it. Some variety that I think could blend well are Louise Swenson, Swenson White, Prairie Star, ES 8-2-43 and probably many others.

If you make it off-dry, keep a portion of the juice not fermented for sweeten back later.

It was probably me who have suggested that you go with an icewine version because I do it this way commercially and this is really nice. I will do more this season. The numbers are perfect for icewine.

[wjhaun]

Seb,

Thanks for your help so far. My uncle and I have a vineyard in Madison, WI where FG is a good chunk of vines. Our intent is to sell to homewinemakers while also making some wine for ourselves. It is for that reason that offering grapes for icewine isn't really going to work for us and why I want to know how to make other more "traditional" wine styles out of this grape

Since FG comes in with such a high TA, I was hoping blending it with a low acid grape would them allow it to be made into a dry or off-dry white table wine. Do you suggest acid reduction in FG either before or after fermentation as another way to reduce the overall acidity?

This year's vintage came up on us kind of fast so I had little time to research how to make wine with FG. Right now I have 35 gallons of pink FG wine because they sat too long on the skins and no other grape to blend with it. I am going to back-sweeten down the road to bring the wine into balance and perhaps try to remove some of the color. Any other suggestions for making wine out of this grape so I don't make the same mistakes next year!

Thanks.

[Everett]

what grapes can we grow in WI (near Madison) that will be low acid that will blend well with Frontenac Gris?

I am growing some frontenac gris, in NH, and already have some edelweiss vines that are producing. Any thoughts whether the edelweiss would blend well with the frontenac gris? Has anyone tried this combination? If so, what percentages work well?

Thanks!

[Blossom Ridge Farm]

<!--quoteo(post=308723:date=Sep 30 2008, 10:11 AM:name=wjhaun)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (wjhaun @ Sep 30 2008, 10:11 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=308723"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->what grapes can we grow in WI (near Madison) that will be low acid that will blend well with Frontenac Gris?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I am growing some frontenac gris, in NH, and already have some edelweiss vines that are producing. Any thoughts whether the edelweiss would blend well with the frontenac gris? Has anyone tried this combination? If so, what percentages work well?

Thanks!

Hello - I've also been looking for a cold hardy low acid/low BRIX grape to "tame" the Frontenanc Gris in my hobby vineyard. You might check out Alpenglow (formerly E.S. 2-8-1), an Elmer Swensen hybrid. In North Dakota Wine Trials it ripened to abt. 19.5 BRIX, 3.4pH, .49 - .75 g/100L TA. It produces a neutral wine and therefore would help retain the F Gris aromas & flavors. For the percentage to blend with the F Gris - one could use this on-line resource to help determine the proportions needed to blend between 2 - 4 wines to achieve desired TA & alcohol specs. It also tells you how many bottles & cases you'd get from the blend. http://www.iwinemake...CFQGPWAodLRKlKA

Good luck with your search.

Attached Files

•  N Dakota Wine Grape Trials.pdf   1.26MB   5 downloads