Is white wine trickier to make than red?

I have a white wine kit (Winexpert Selection International French Chardonnay) and would like to get it going, but I'm held back by a book I read that suggested whites were more finnicky than reds and required a cooler fermenting temperature. Dire warnings about white wine turning brown and all. The closet where I ferment is pretty close to the 70-degree mark. Is this going to make for a less than ideal fermentation for white wine? Should I wait a month until normal house temp is 67-68? Whatever you folks can offer will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Remember that making wine from kits is a much more forgiving process than the average batch of beer. Yes, lower temperatures are the norm for fresh white grapes and fresh red grapes can tolerate higher temps but we're talking about a kit. 70F is perfect. If wine kits were difficult to make they wouldn't be so popular and very few "normal" people have the capability to devote a space kept much cooler than that. You're ok fermenting at an ambient temperature of even 75F. Kit manufacturers choose yeast strains with common household temperatures in mind. I took a Best of Show at the Nebraska State Fair this year with a Wine Expert Luna Bianca (also a Chardonnay) that was fermented last July at common household temperatures.

summersolstice said:

I took a Best of Show at the Nebraska State Fair this year with a Wine Expert Luna Bianca (also a Chardonnay) that was fermented last July at common household temperatures.

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That is so cool! I'm hoping to make it to the fair this weekend. Where can I see your wine?

I've actually never been to the state fair but I assume they'll be with the other "crafty" sorts of entries. You know - the dresses, photography, jams and jellies, etc.

Our local brewing club, the Kearney Area Brewers, mopped up this year with 16 awards. I was the only one from our club to enter wines and all three of them placed. I'm sure my beers wouldn't do as good!

Making white wine from grapes is quite a bit harder than the reds. To get a light colored wine, you must seperate the juice and the skins quickly, or else you get a yellow wine.

The kits are also fine with higher fermentation temperatures. They're really made to be fermented in the 65-70F zone. Although you might have a bit better result if you used the right fermentation temperatures, it would take much longer (like a 2-3 weeks for primary fermentation).

Basically, white wine kits are just as easy to do as the red kits.

Thanks for the info. And summersolstice, congrats for the ribbon. Must have been a nice chardonnay. I'm curious, how long did the Luna Bianca age? And when did it become "drinkable"?

gimmebeer said:

Thanks for the info. And summersolstice, congrats for the ribbon. Must have been a nice chardonnay. I'm curious, how long did the Luna Bianca age? And when did it become "drinkable"?

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Thanks - The Luna Bianca was 11 months old when it was judged. It became "drinkable" at about 6 months. I did "tweak" it a little bit and did battonage (The process of stirring wine while it remains in the carboy on the yeast lees) on it for 30 days.

A few degrees one way or the other won't make that much of a difference with wine kits. Everyone here make wine kits and don't have a clue about proper temperture control for fermentation, yet still make those kits with success.
I just make blueberry wine from scratch and usually ferment at 64f for the duration.
Beer fermentation temps are more closely regulated than wine as I make a lot more beer than wine and space in my lager/fermentation fridge is limited.