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NCWC, Thanks for the update on your Apassimento wine. I'm excited about your project and can't wait to hear about the finished wine. WeimarWine

In defense of adding raisins to increase body in a fruit wine, my best fruit wine I have made is a Pear Wine 4 years ago, including chopped golden raisins. The wine was entered into the Austin County (TX) Fair Non-commercial Winemaking contest where it won a Gold medal in the Fruit wine...

Great advice above. I generally prefer to add chopped up golden raisins to my fruit wines to add some body to the wine. It does not detract from or over power the fruit flavors. WeimarWine

Our 2016 Vin Santo style dessert wine made with our Blanc Du Bois grapes won a silver medal at the Austin County Fair Wine Contest in Bellville, TX this past Sunday in the category Dessert/Port style wines. WeimarWine

Hallie, I would suspect that 20% alcohol would overpower strawberry wine to the point you would only taste the alcohol. If that does happen, you could blend some of the strawberry wine with the port until the alcohol is more in balance with the fortified wine. I think about 15 to 16% might be...

Yes, I mixed some metabisulfite in water and used a spray bottle to mist the grape clusters every couple of days. WeimarWine

Dietcola1984, My personal opinion is that 4 feet spacing between rows is not enough room for the grapevines and not enough room for you to be able to get in and attend to the vines. Working with the 17 foot side of your space, I would suggest you have 3 rows of vines which would allow you...

TXWineDuo, I'm a little too late for helping with this year's harvest, but for future harvests I can offer this advice on pressing the Blanc Du Bois - Please don't press it so hard that there is no juice left in the skins. If pressed too hard, Blanc Du Bois will give off some bitterness that...

Sorry for the late post to your thread, but I have been away from the site for quite some time and am just now getting back to reading it daily. Since you are considering growing Blanc Du Bois and/or Lenoir aka Black Spanish, you might want to look into another trellis training system sometimes...

Good luck with your Appassimento wine project. I am very interested in how it works out for you. Please keep us updated along the way. WeimarWine

Treeman, The 2017 pH and TA did not change as a result of the drying. These numbers remained at 3.0 pH and 10 TA. Because we also harvested and pressed nearly an equal amount of Blanc Du Bois grapes on the same day as we harvested the clusters for our Vin Santo wine, I was able to use the pH...

As part of the Austin County Fair & Rodeo in Bellville, TX, there will be a Non-Commercial Wine making contest on Sunday, October 15, 2017. Bring your kit wines, and wines made from grapes and other fruits.

NCWC, I posted yesterday under this forum about Vin Santo style dessert wine. We went from 19 Brix to 25 Brix in 4 weeks drying whole clusters in slotted harvest lugs and slotted harvest trays. Drying was inside my winery at about 60 to 69 degrees. Air was constantly blowing on the grapes...

In 2016 we used some of our Blanc Du Bois (white) grapes to experiment with making a Vin Santo style dessert wine by bringing back to our winery whole clusters of grapes stored one layer deep in slotted harvest lugs. The lugs were stacked to allow maximum air circulation and we used 2 box fans...

Spacing for Champanel HodgesVineyards, I have 3 Champanel grapevines. I didn't order these vines, they showed up as something obviously different from the vines I ordered once the bare rooted vines I planted started growing. The Champanel vines are planted 8 foot apart on their rows and...

Harvest Party Good luck on your harvest. Exciting times. A good party is very important to keep your pickers coming back year after year. Have a good one. WeimarWine Mike

http://austincountyfair.com Bad link, try this one for Austin County Fair WeimarWine Mike

All of you Texas wine makers take note that the Austin County Fair in Bellville TX is holding an Amateur Wine Making Competition on October 11, 2014 at the Austin County Fairgrounds. Your wines may be entered between 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm on October 11, 2014. Judging begins at 3:30 pm and awards...

Try stabilizing with potassium sorbate and sweeten to taste Coboll, We make a red wine from Champanell grapes which also usually is a bit acidic and very grapey. We just accept the acidity as is and after fermenting to dry we stabilize the wine with potassium sorbate and sweeten to taste...

ToddRodd, Those choices sound like they would work together. Another option would be to ferment just the juice from the Black Spanish like you would for a white wine. This could be blended later with a white (I combine with Blanc Du Bois) to make a blush wine. I have also tasted a nice...