I totally get it! There are some great articles about bottling in the WineMaker article archives at www.winemakermag.com. Though it’s a topic my fellow authors have covered before, I certainly can still give you some of my own insights as well as a checklist which is based on what I use when I’m prepping to bottle my own wines at Plata Wine Partners in Napa, California. The first step is to determine when it’s time to bottle. Sometimes the wine just has to “do its thing” and you just have to pay attention. Since you’re dealing with a white wine like Chardonnay and it’s vintage 2021 (as I’m writing this, it’s the end of May 2022), chances are that it’s ready to go. Whites and rosés almost always need less aging time than reds, with unoaked styles (like Pinot Grigio) needing the least time. All fermentations are complete Unless you want bubbles appearing in the bottle later, make sure your wine is dry (I usually go with less than 0.2% residual sugar as the benchmark) and your malolactic fermentation (MLF)
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