We have the fans blowing and doors open at Santa Barbara Winery today now that fermentation has started. If you have never visited our tasting room, it shares the same building as our production facility where we process all of our white wines (the reds are made up at Lafond Winery & Vineyards). This means that visitors get a chance to see and smell harvest while tasting through six or seven wines featured on the tasting list.
Fermentation is the chemical reaction that produces wine from grape juice. Yeast reacts with the natural sugars found in grapes to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is released into the air so we’re really smelling it in the facility.
We just inoculated the Orange Muscat with yeast strain QA23, which is very aromatic. The fermenting juice is in stainless steel tanks. Unlike red wine, white wine needs to be brought down to a cooler temperature in order to ferment (less than 60 degrees is ideal). This first stage of fermentation for the white wines lasts about 10-15 days.
According to Assistant Winemaker Ralston, “We are in a lull right now. A couple of things have come in [some Sauvignon Blanc and Orange Muscat], but we won’t see more fruit for another week. We are waiting on more Sauvignon Blanc to come in next.”
Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager, Santa Barbara Winery
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