Black Spanish winemaking assistance New to Your Forum

[Mark Y]

I usually make muscadine wine and a couple of times Blanc du Bois. 1st time to work with Black Spanish( Lenoir). Was following A Jack Keller recipe and it indicated it would benefit from oak. I have some oakstix on order and should be in by the weekend.
I transfered to glass carboys to finish fermentation and has been settling out for about a month now.
Should I rack off the fine lees and sulfite before putting in the oak strips?
With Muscadine I would rack then pull a vacuum to de carbonate, apply sulfite, top off and allow to clear while racking one or 2 more times. Then I would back sweeten and bottle.

Different process, if someone could enlighten me on the process of oaking and order of racking I would appreciate it. Ordered 2 types of Oakstix light toast and medium toast, also do the strips of oak need to soak in potassium metabisulfite solution to sterilize before using?
13gals in process, two five gal carboys and one 3 gal
Mark

 

[cosmyccowboy]

I don’t know but I just ordered 13 2year old black Spanish so your question caught my eye!

 

[cmason1957]

Your process is about the same with grapes as with Muscadine. Yes, you will want to rack off the fine lees and sulfite once fermentation is done (which it sounds like it might be), the oak stix's can be added at any time. You will want to leave that in for about 4-8 weeks, maybe longer. The wide time frame is to allow for individual oaking preference. I usually let it mine go just a bit longer than I think I should, the oak does drop back some later on. I don't worry about getting the excess CO2 out until I am nearer to bottling, but either way is just fine. Then you will rack a few more times, to make sure everything gets nice and clear. MetaBiSulfite each racking 1/4 tsp for 5 or 6 gallons.

 

[Mark Y]

I don’t know but I just ordered 13 2year old black Spanish so your question caught my eye!

Mine grew like crazy once I figured out the fungicide. I live in North Louisiana and it is very humid and hot._ I rooted all of mine from cuttings. Next step is netting, birds are destroying
some grapes in every cluster, then I end up picking out t h e bad grapes, very time consuming.

 

[Adam Powell]

Mine grew like crazy once I figured out the fungicide. I live in North Louisiana and it is very humid and hot._ I rooted all of mine from cuttings. Next step is netting, birds are destroying
some grapes in every cluster, then I end up picking out t h e bad grapes, very time consuming.

What type of fungicide did you use?

 

[Mark Y]

Captain WP50, Pristine. And before fruit sets another. Can't remember er the name, but it can only be used at the beginning. I talked to the owner of a local vinyard and he used 8 different fungicides this year. We have very high humidity and can have a lot of rain also, at least early in the growing season. I had problems with leaves turning brown and losing foliage this year, not sure why. Hate having to pick bad grapes out of clusters.