Bottling Day

[Runningwolf]

Today I bottled about 70 bottles of Vidal Ice Wine and 8 bottles of a special blend of it with chocolate infused in it.


Vidal Ice Wine

Vidal Ice Wine with Chocolate (because of the odd shape of the bottle I had trouble putting the labels on without wrinkles).

 

[dzachareas]

Awesome brother, still waiting on a bunch of mine but looking forward to getting them into bottles. Looking good though man.

 

[Waldo]

 

[Tom]

Where did you get the 175ml bottles.

 

[Wade E]

I think those are 375 ml bottles.

 

[Tom]

lol.. damn metric...ya right

 

[ibglowin]

Yep,

Awesome labels, awesome bottles!


Great job all the way around!

 

[xanxer82]

looks good dan!

 

[AlFulchino]

tell us about the infusion method

 

[Runningwolf]

Where did you get the 175ml bottles.

Tom those are 375's and I have tried to get lucky when ever I could asking the wineries for used ones. Once I got a case then another time I was out in the hills of PA and asked a winery I knew they wouldn't have them and BAMMM they had five cases. $2.00 a caseI paid.

 

[Runningwolf]

Al this was a one gallon batch unfortunately. During the secondary fermentation I added 1/2 pound of a very dark burgandy chocolate. I stirred it twice a week for 28 days then racked off of it. The chocolate contained 55% cocoa. I have only given out sips so far and its driving people crazy. Personally I think it may be a bit heavy on the chocolate. Buying the late harvest Vidal it really did not take long start to finish (about five months). I wanted to bottle it now so it could rest before entering in competition in September. It cleared very nice and I did a absolute filtration as I bottled.


I will be doing at least two three gallon batches this fall. I purchased the same chocolate already for one batch and mail ordered another bitter sweet chocolate wafers for the other (72% cocoa and lower butter fat).


I am also going to try and add some of the 72% to some cherry wine this fall.

 

[Waldo]

Where are you getting the chocolate Dan

 

[tonyt]

I usually make a gallon of what I call "cherry juice" each fall. It is just whiskey, sugar and cherries, macerated for a few months then strained. Do you think I could add a bit of chocolate? If so what format chocolate, powder, bar, morsels, syrup, sauce? Adding a very dark chocolate might be quite yum.

BTW, your finished bottles look outstanding, double yum. What size bottles are they?

 

[Runningwolf]

Thanks, those are 375 mm bottles and very difficult to get used. I ended up with two styles and several colors. All of the colors are outstanding but I think I like clear the best.


I used a dark bitter sweet chocolate call burgandy from a local high end chocolate store in block form. It was 55% cocoa. I just dropped it in for 28 days and let the wine draw the flavor out of it. This fall I am also going to try it with cherry juice and will be using this chocolate and and a different one with less butter fat and higher cocoa %.


I used a half pound per gallon and everyone loves it but I honestly thing it was a little heavy on the chocolate.

 

[Tom]

Did you drop the "block" in or did U shred it

 

[ibglowin]

Thanks, those are 375 mm bottles and very difficult to get used.

At least George sells them in both clear and green. Those bottles are so cool they make me want to do a batch of Ice Wine!

 

[Runningwolf]

Did you drop the "block" in or did U shred it</font>

I chipped it up so it would fit in the carboy