Wine Making Part 2 - Holiday Gifts

[phillysrt4]

Having had such a good experience with my first kit (and having learned a few lessons to avoid some minor technique mistakes), I decided to pick up a higher-end 6 week kit. Looking over some options, I decided on Cellar Classic's "Rosso Grande Excellente". See attached pic for box (sorry I photo'd the french side but its pretty much the same thing on the English side). I decided to go with this red kit for a few reasons:

1) The juice is not as concentrated as the Chai Maison kits. Instead of starting with 7.5 litres and adding water to make 23 litres, you start off with 18 litres in this kit. Water that you add is merely a "top off".
2) The juice is from a high quality Merlot fields. I enjoy Merlots as well as Cabs and I thought this might make a nice gift.
3) In addition to real toasted oak chips, the kit also includes 2.5kg of real merlot grape skins. This will add character to the wine and also help it develop with less bottle aging. With a 6 week kit, they'll have about 2 weeks in the bottle to age before giving them as gifts. This means they'll be nice to drink right away but can also be cellared to develop more complexity.
4) It won a Silver Medal in 2008 at the Winemaker International Amateur Wine Maker competition. How bad could it be?

I bought some extra supplies so I could get this kit fermenting tonight as I started another kit a few days ago (to be posted as a reply here).

I'll be updating with pics and notes as this and my other kits progress over the next 4-6 weeks.

[phillysrt4]

I have a friend who is also an amateur winemaker, but due to space and environment constraints no longer makes wine. After giving a friend of mine a case of my first wine attempt, he bought me two kits to ferment. Both were good table wines with fruit slants to them. The one currently fermenting is a Strawberry White Zinfandel from Niagra Mist (see attached photo). This 4 week kit has a separate juice pouch of strawberry to add body and flavour to the basic white zin. Starting with a base of 7.5 litres of juice concentrate, it will make 23 litres (30 bottles) after 4 weeks. I'll keep this updated as it progresses.

[stieny]

I'm in the city, Philly.....


Send a few bottles my way!

[phillysrt4]

You got it stieny... as soon as I get back to the States... LOL

UPDATE: Stuck Ferment on my Merlot!

Yeah, I wasn't very happy. Basically a stuck ferment is when you add the yeast and for whatever reason they don't eat, grow, and multiply. I suspect it was one of two things, either a) the juice was too cold when I added the yeast, or b) I had it in the kitchen on the floor near an exterior wall which kept things chilled.

Fortunately, my strawberry white zin was well into fermentation in another room. I took about 250ml of the zin juice since I havent added the strawberry juice yet and added it to the merlot (so basically its less than 1% zin and more than 99% merlot) in the hopes that the yeast I transferred to the merlot would kick start fermentation.

It appeared that the yeast survived the transfer and after moving the juice to a warmer locale, fermentation was vigorous. What a relief because I spent more than I wanted to on this kit due to the lure of the fresh grape skins adding character.

On to the strawberry white zin. Fermentation on that started a few days before the merlot, so the primary fermentation is winding down. After supper I'm going to take an SG reading and if I'm below 1.020 I'm going to rack it to the carboy to begin secondary fermentation.

[phillysrt4]

Happy Halloween!

White zin is now in the glass carboy for the secondary ferment of about 6 days. After that the fining/aging process begins.

The merlot has another day or 2 in the primary. I'll take an SG reading tomorrow night and if I get a reading of 1.020 or lower I'll rack it to its secondary where it will sit for 2 or 3 weeks.

[AdamantiumSilvr]

I luv wine I wouldn't mind doin this at some point in my life. Um actually drinkin some now, cheers to a safe and Happy Halloween! lol

[phillysrt4]

Thanks! you too! Im having a nice $10.00 cab. Jackson Triggs. Surprised me with how good it was for 10 bucks.

You should give it a shot. It really is stupid simple. You put a little hot water in the fermenter, add a packet of stuff, stir to dissolve, add your grape juice concentrate, stir, add water to hit 23 litres (or SG 1.090-1.100 whichever comes first), add yeast, and wait.

and rack

and wait.

then kill the yeast with some potassium sorbate and fine the wine and you're done!

[phillysrt4]

Much delayed because I totally forgot about this thread update:

Niagra Mist Strawberry White Zin - The starting SG was on the low side of recommended and so the final alcohol content was probably only around 10%. Nonetheless, as a "wine cooler" type beverage iced down on a hot day I could see drinking it.

Cellar Classic's "Rosso Grande Excellente" - HOLY CRAP THIS IS GOOD!!!! Really good tannin structure (probably due to the grape skins that actually come with the pack) with a pleasant level of oakey flavor. The oak definitely plays a role in both the nose and the palette but isn't strong enough to be overbearing. Excellent finish. Already aged about a month, I can't wait for this thing to age a few months to really bring out some complexity, but you could drink it now no issues and would totally stand up to a rosemary lamb or beef tenderloin. The kit was $125.00 CAD and made 30 bottles so if you add the costs of filters and corks (I already had bottles) it came to about $4.50 a bottle. Without a doubt the potential is there to take the pepsi challenge with this against any french red in the $40.00 or less price range. I'll definitely be buying this again after I explore a few more of the options from Spagnol's.