# "King of the North" varietal



## cfiffpm (Sep 3, 2013)

I am about to make my very first wine...ever. (I have brewed a lot of beer, but this is the first wine) 
I have a good crop of "King of the North" (Wisconsin hardy varietal) grapes and am excited to make two or three bottles of really bad wine out of my VERY OWN GRAPES! (this might not go well, but this year is just an experiment...do my best with the grapes that are in my own backyard, as a novelty. Next year=more serious) BUT...I know nothing about this varietal, and none of the "Ideal harvest sugar level" charts even list it. 
Has anyone heard of this varietal? Or what the ideal brix should be for harvesting? I think that ultimately it is a "labrusca" style "concord" grape, and the only thing I've seen in print is that Concord grapes should be harvested at 16-17 brix. 
The internet says this:
King of the North (V.labrusca X V.riparia) is a labrusca type grape that is winter hardy to -40F. It is very vigorous and productive and ripens early with high acidity, but can produce a somewhat fruity, rich, aromatic, Concord-style red wine. 

Any specific advice for when to harvest, or general advice on how to make it palatable? Thanks in advance, everyone!


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## GreginND (Sep 4, 2013)

These are high acid grapes. The KOTN I got last year here in ND were harvested Sep 19. They had plenty of sugar at 23.5 brix and too much acid (pH 3.1, TA 15.5). I would suggest if you can let them hang longer, let them hang. 

I made two wines out of this - The first wine was made from just juice lightly pressed (basically the free run) a few hours after crushing. The second wine I took the pulp still with a lot of juice, added some water and sugar back to it it and fermented on the skins. The TA of this batch was much better (8.9) but the pH was still very low.

Both wines turned out pretty good and "grapey" but they definitely needed to be sweetened a lot to balance the acid. Without sugar they were just way to tart to drink.

It makes a nice grapey sweet rose style wine.

I used K1 V1116 yeast. You may want to use an acid lowering yeast like 71B. Also, cold stabilizing to drop a little more of the tartrates helps. I don't think the style of grape would be good for mlf - haven't done it. Does anyone else have experience with mlf on KOTN?


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## crooked cork (Aug 21, 2018)

Starting a batch today. Cold pressed grapes , picked at a local vineyard. havent come up with a good recipe yet.
Starting with 4 gallons juice to make 6 gallon batch. We mostly drink semi sweet wines in this family so thinking a Premier Rouge or a Premier Blanc yeast.


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## crooked cork (Aug 21, 2018)

Well here is what i decided on.

KING OF THE NORTH WINE RECIPE FROM MORRISTOWN,MN.

4 gallons cold pressed juice then heated to 150 degree to kill wild yeast.
2 gallons water to cool and make 6 gallons.
4 tsp nutrient
1 tsp yeast energizer.
1 tsp pectic enzyme
2 tbsp acid blend
sugar to make 11% potential alcohol on my hydrometer
1 packet of Premier Blanc Red Star yeast , because that's what i had, i was thinking a lalvin D47 would be nice to bring out more fruity flavor but i have none in the freezer.


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## salcoco (Aug 22, 2018)

possibly use calcium carbonate pre fermentation to reduce acid or potassium carbonate post fermentation. cold stabilizing post fermentation would also help.
Here is a method I used developed by mistake but seemed to work.

add water to concord must to get ph and acid values in range.
add dried elderberries to get tannin back and raisins to get body back. 
came out with a aromatic Concord style wine but tasted like a balance red , no foxy flavor.

dosage 150 lbs of grapes, water?, 8 oz dried elderberries, 2 lbs of raisins.


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