William's California Wine Concentrates are made from 100% Central Valley varietal wine grapes, picked at their peak and gently concentrated with minimum heat under vacuum to 68 Brix. Sugar has not been added, nor is sugar needed to make 5 gallons of full-bodied varietal wine.
The 192 ounces of concentrate included in each pack is enough to make 5 gallons of wine with an alcohol content of 12 to 13%. Contains sulfiltes, so you do not need to add them before fermentation. Our California Wine Concentrates are also acid balanced, so you do not need to add acid or do an acid titration test (unless you want to).
Chardonnay is perhaps the most popular white wine grape, and the grapes used in our concentrate are grown in Woodbridge, California. This grape produces a full-bodied white wine, full of fruit character and perhaps a buttery softness. Add some oak chips to this one to give the increasingly popular (and expected) hint of oak that goes with this style.
Note: This includes concentrate only, and does not include yeast, oak, or other additives that may be needed to ferment 5 gallons of wine. For complete wine kits, see our William's California Wine Kits.
IMMEDIATE REFRIGERATION IS REQUIRED ONCE THIS CONCENTRATE IS RECEIVED
A vineyard in Lodi, California, where grapes are grown for our California Wine Concentrates.
Jul 14, 2019 by Paul
Q: What is the volume of each can of concentrate?
A: 96 fluid ounces, so there are 2 cans in the 5 gallon package.
Mar 24, 2019 by k. Spence
Q: what's the concentration of bisulfite in the concentrate?
A: SO2 levels are less than 100 ppm.
Excellent quality Chardonnay
Purchased concentrate late in 2011. We did not put this chardonnay through malolactic fermentation nor did we oak. The final result is a beautiful golden colored wine with a pineapple, apricot nose followed by an intense white peach taste with a hint of pineapple and apricot. The body is lush and silky. Far better than any chardonnay "kit" I have made. Easily 20.00 to 30.00 dollars a bottle.
pineapple!
9 months old right now, still in carboy. Took on an intense pineapple nose and taste at the time of fermentation. Had to add a lot of acid blend in the beginning (8 tbls) to get the ph where I wanted (3.4). The fermentation was a little stressed in that it was inactive for a day after being quite good, but then it picked up again and was fine. I was planning on doing MLF and oak aging but I am going to keep this oak and MLF free as it took on an excellent pineapple and tartness. I aged the wine sur lie for 8 months, stirring every month. The people at William's Brewing were very helpful with technical questions regarding the use of potassium sorbate (they said none is added). All in all I am very pleased, the quality of this concentrate seems better then wineexpress kits.
Chardonnay
A fruity aroma and mellow softness. Used Lalvin EC-1118 yeast. Very pleased with results.
A great value
Pros: This made an excellent wine, comparable to commercial chardonnays costing 10 - 20 bucks per bottle. In fact this was better than one or two that cost more than that. It absolutely was much better than any chardonnay I've had that cost less than 10. Used White Labs 730 chardonnay yeast, some yeast nutrient, bentonite, and took six months from start to bottling. One thing about these concentrates is that you don't know the level of sulfites. Over the ageing period I added 2 tsp metabisulphites and 2.5 tsps sorbate, and noticed no problems. Of course this did not even make it to one year before it was all gone...