Still fermenting!

Incredibly, the rosé still hasn’t finished fermenting — nearly 5 months after it started. The hint of CO2 in the head space does give the game away, but I’d assumed that was simply residual. So I checked the sugar: 1.75%, oceans away from dry. And it tastes it, too. Lovely nose, but too sweet in the mouth, like strawberry jam.

A long, cool fermentation is apparently just the thing for whites (and semi-whites like rosés), so I haven’t been too concerned. And the CO2 tells me the yeasts are still alive in there — it’s just been too cold to do much of anything, something with which I think we can all sympathize. But it’s time for these guys to get off the couch, shed the Snuggies, and finish the job. Unlike last year, I’d like to get this rosé sealed up early enough that it’s over bottle shock by the time the first warm Saturday afternoon rolls around.

So we’ll wrap the carboys in our electric mattress pad and apply just a hint of heat. I’m a little worried that malolactic fermentation will also jump-start (while malo’s just the thing for reds, it can muddy and over-soften whites), but que sera, sera. Malo seems to proceed much more slowly than primary fermentation, so with luck, the yeasts will race far ahead of the malo bugs and we can seal up a lovely rosé before things get too mellow.

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