Hello folks, coming out of lurking to pose a question from some
results of mine. I recently started winemaking and have nine batches
going (a couple are meads).

So I have noticed that the batches I used Cote des Blancs on have no
"rocket fuel taste" that I can pick up. Indeed, I can barely detect
the alcohol in them (the missing .12 gravity point say it is there).
Most of them were started with OG in the 1120-1130 range and less than
two months old. My strawberry hasn't even cleared yet and tastes
divine already.

I do know what hot tastes like, I have a blueberry/banana that took
1136 down to 0.992 in seven days and the alcohol slaps you in the
face. Didn't expect that from Lavlin 71B.

So is this a common thing with this yeast? I must say that I like how
it behaved. It wasn't fast, but steadily chugged along without foaming
or getting violent. I chose it for low alcohol tolerance on some
experiments with letting the ABV kill off the yeast with residual
sweetness. My theory is that the slow ferment and low flocculation
allow a complete chemical reaction during ferment instead of needing
months/years for this to happen once the wine becomes still.
How will this property translate into long term aging? Is this because
it is missing in "chemical complexity" that reduce aging potential?

Just curious about all this because I really like this yeast now and
am contemplating using it almost exclusively until I run into musts
that it doesn't like. I'm trying to build up a style similar to the
mead guys that use starvation and cold-crashing to leave high OG musts
semi-sweet. I am doing some dry wines, but just used less sugar
instead of a "killer yeast".