Cellar Craft CC Showcase Amarone

[joeswine]

Adding to the mix

adding to the primary raisins ,oak and capitalizing is the way to drive this kit in a different dimension,adding tannins in secondary smooth's out the blend.

 

[Brian55]

Brian, I was planning on ordering a C C Armoroe but Doug was out of C C kits, so I thought I'd try the W E kit. Was thinking about getting the C C Kit elsewhere & doing them side by side with the same tweeks. Just bought 2 lbs of organic raisins at Trader Joes today for the 2 batches. Roy

We have them both. They were both done without tweaks, other than the extended schedule and bulk aging for 8 to 10 months. Our CC is at 13 months, the WE is at 20 months. The CC is so much better at this point, even with the disadvantage of 7 months of aging. The WE is significantly cheaper, so that needs to be taken into consideration as well. But if price is not that important, the CC absolutely wins.

 

[FTC Wines]

Thanks Brian, sounds like U did the test I was planning to do. Now I may tweek the W E kit & leave the C C alone. Roy

 

[sour_grapes]

Thanks Brian, sounds like U did the test I was planning to do. Now I may tweek the W E kit & leave the C C alone. Roy

That is close to what I am doing. I made them back-to-back. I did the WE first, and tweaked the hell out of it following Joeswine's protocol. (I am calling it Amarone di Beppe tweakfest.) I did the CC with few tweaks. (I did change the yeast, and I added a small amount of fermentation tannins.) Let's see how these stack up!

 

[geek]

All good feedback on the varietal.

 

[joeswine]

Tweaks

what I see is the very same tweaks I 'v made over the years a lot of wine kit manufactures have seen the difference inn the quality of the raw material they have and even with the concentrates have had to move beyond the norm, I looked at spagnol's kits and a lot of them have raisins or grape packs and raisins even a few whites. I can understand the apprehensions but fruit and juice go together, but you need to know when ,how much and most importantly when to halt the process. It adds a complexity to the mix that with the correct style of wine works. That's my take on it!.........................

 

[ColemanM]

So I was compelled to open a bottle of 2-2013 WE Amarone the other night after reading this post. Well, I did this kit by the book, back then I was still using the clarifying liquids and sorbate. This is the fist kit that I can honestly say has lost its kit taste. My 2-2013 Lodi cab still has it. It has decent legs, nice berry notes and a little anise in the nose. A little bitter still but very nice in general. I'm not sure if this will get better or not, but I wish I oaked it a tad bit more. There is just no oak to speak of. I just opened a 10-2013 CC SHOWCASE AMARONE that I tweaked a little by barrel aging and skipping the chemicals. Sorry to say it is chateau Home Depot. Can't taste any discernible flavors for a wine until after 30 minutes in the glass. I wish I could compare it to the WE but at this point I can't. It was better than the WE before going into the barrel, but now it's a little lost. I'll taste again in another few months. Still holding out hope

 

[ehammonds]

Discouraging. I just racked my cc amarone into secondary yesterday. Was hoping for a knock out here.

 

[joeswine]

Tweaks

I'm a true believer that what you put into a wine kit is what you get out and that not every kit can lend itself to corrections the WE- -AMARONE and SANGIOVESE kits are outstanding bases to work off of. Just like any winery you need to adjust the wines for balance, weather yeast,oak,tannins or any other additives or enhancers and I know the purest out there are gasping for breath but that is the fun part of this obsession. If the wine is bland it's the wine makers fault or any of the other faults we encounter.Like any good sauce it takes a good chef to take from BASE, to MUCH BETTER to SPOT ON.
SPAGNOLS kit combinations EX;SHARAZ /VIOGNIER are exceptional and need very little work. Try doing a blended kit and the(THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX)

 

[codeman]

Where are you guys buying this kit? I don't see it on Doug's site or label peelers.

 

[Brian55]

Where are you guys buying this kit? I don't see it on Doug's site or label peelers.

http://morewinemaking.com/products/wine-kit-cellar-craft-showcase-collection-amarone-style.html

 

[geek]

Note, I think this note from Morewine is a bit misleading:

"Cellar Craft's Showcase Series red wine kits include a huge 18L of varietal juice and concentrate! Additionally, Cellar Craft is the only kit manufacturer who includes a crushed skin pack made from over 12lb of entirely new, fresh, never-processed skins that come from the same harvest lot as the juice in your kit".

I never made this kit but almost sure it is 16L of juice plus the skins pack. Also, is the skins pack really 12lbs.?

.

 

[sour_grapes]

Note, I think this note from Morewine is a bit misleading:

"Cellar Craft's Showcase Series red wine kits include a huge 18L of varietal juice and concentrate! Additionally, Cellar Craft is the only kit manufacturer who includes a crushed skin pack made from over 12lb of entirely new, fresh, never-processed skins that come from the same harvest lot as the juice in your kit".

I never made this kit but almost sure it is 16L of juice plus the skins pack. Also, is the skins pack really 12lbs.?

.

I agree that is misleading regarding the volume of "juice and concentrate." But read the blurb about the grape pack carefully. It does not say that it is 12 lbs. It says it was made from 12 lbs of skins. It was 2.5 L, which probably weighs about 7.5 lbs.

 

[Brian55]

Regardless of the mumbo jumbo from the nimrods in the marketing dept. This is the best kit we've made as of yet. It's definitely #1 so far, out of the 65 kits that we've made up to this point...

 

[ColemanM]

Joe, you are very correct. I feel the nose of the WE Amarone with its anise and berry is great, I think it needs more tannins and oak. However, I had one glass of the CC Amarone last night that was over oaked, but this evening, it has had a 24 hour decant, and I'd have to say the CC is a far superior wine. If the WE kit spent 4 months in the barrel I think it would give it higher praise. Who doesn't like licorice on the nose? (What?) but the WE kit seems thinner but more amarone like. CC seems more like a full bodied Italian wine. Bing cherries, oak and tobacco. My CC turned out better, though both are the best wines I have consumed so far.

 

[codeman]

Amarone is typically known for having higher abv, how much does this kit make? It looks like 12-14% but all of the Amarone I've had has been 16%.
Can this kit handle 16% or will it overwhelm the flavors?

 

[ColemanM]

It could handle 16%

 

[jsiddall]

My only Amarone to date was the MM Renaissance, and it turned out at 15%. Too early to taste yet but it has every indication of being ready for it.

 

[geek]

My only Amarone to date was the MM Renaissance, and it turned out at 15%. Too early to taste yet but it has every indication of being ready for it.

what was your initial and ending SG?
Mine was 1.100 and 0.996

 

[jsiddall]

what was your initial and ending SG?
Mine was 1.100 and 0.996

Mine started at 1.104 and ended at 0.993. I use Duncan & Acton method for ABV. Standard method is slightly less at 14.6%.

Yours works out to 14.1% using Duncan & Acton.