Fermentation of Wine: Yeasts Produce a Bouquet of Aromas

Since lately I feel like I've been spending most of my time endlessly writing lab reports,  I figured it would be appropriate to share a snippet of an experiment from my Wine Production & Analysis class.

The fermentation process of wine can be a bit tricky, as there are quite a few things to consider while the freshly pressed grape juice transforms and ferments into a wine. In order for the juice to become alcoholic, we need two things: yeast and sugar. Yeast is essentially needed for a juice to undergo fermentation, but can greatly influence the quality and aroma attributes of a wine. In class, we performed an experiment to see the effects of 15 different yeast strains in juice during the course of fermentation, using the 2011 Chardonnay harvested in the UC Davis campus vineyards. 

 {Glasses of Chardonnay--each glass was introduced to a different strain of yeast}

{My aroma notes for each of the yeasty wine samples--it was amazing how much the aroma attributes varied. (Oh, and please excuse the typos!)}

Cheers,
B

[Read below if interested as to why some of the wines varied in aroma--in scientific explanation]:

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Wine Notes & Wine Blending

Today was an exciting day in the University winery. In my Wine Production and Analysis class, we usually have several projects we simultaneously work on and monitor each day. We are currently focusing on the effects of SO2 additions at different concentrations, ML additions, and various temperature treatments for fermentation.  

But today was a change of pace: we were given the opportunity to create our own blends of wine. (So cool, right??)

{Blending our groups' white wine}

A lot of our decision-making for blending choices relied on 

our sense of smell and what we picked up in the aromas of the available wines.
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 {Casey proudly holding our final product}

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{Red Blend}  

Did I mention that this is a contest, too? Ohh yeah. :)

 This is an in-class competition to see who can make the best wine while following all guidelines:

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