WineXpert Eclipse Forza

[jgmann67]

Finishing 3 months in the carboy and racking this weekend. Will dose with kmeta, give a taste and go from there.

 

[Steve_M]

Good for you! Congratulations Steve Keep us posted on your progress!

Take a look at my other post regarding a meltdown incident!

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52975


I hope it will still be salvageable.

Steve

 

[scram]

Oh shesh! Read your other thread... I think it'll be fine.

 

[Johnd]

To make room, I just finished bottling the Forza, for those that are interested, here are the final numbers:
Pitched 7/28/15
OG. 1.110
Ferm Complete 8/11/15
FG. .992
B/A til 1/20/16 - sediment free
First wine into barrel 1/20/16
Back to glass 2/20/16
Bottled 3/25/16, Ph 3.55, TA 7.2 or .72, SO2 36 PPM

Added 1/8 tsp SO2 at bottling, despite being pretty close to the right PPM. The rest of the numbers are good, no mods from me, kudos to our WE chemists.

Drinking a leftover glass as I type. The nose is a little light and the wine is still a bit tight, good fruit, shorter finish than I'd like, but pretty smooth, not overly tannic. The oak has fallen back nicely since coming out of the barrel. This is easily the best wine at this age that I've made, but also my first barrel aged wine. Nice warm feeling going down. You can't drink all day if you don't start early.

Oh well, my glass is empty, back to capsuling and labeling. Cheers!

 

[AZMDTed]

To make room, I just finished bottling the Forza, for those that are interested, here are the final numbers:
Pitched 7/28/15
OG. 1.110
Ferm Complete 8/11/15
FG. .992
B/A til 1/20/16 - sediment free
First wine into barrel 1/20/16
Back to glass 2/20/16
Bottled 3/25/16, Ph 3.55, TA 7.2 or .72, SO2 36 PPM

Added 1/8 tsp SO2 at bottling, despite being pretty close to the right PPM. The rest of the numbers are good, no mods from me, kudos to our WE chemists.

Drinking a leftover glass as I type. The nose is a little light and the wine is still a bit tight, good fruit, shorter finish than I'd like, but pretty smooth, not overly tannic. The oak has fallen back nicely since coming out of the barrel. This is easily the best wine at this age that I've made, but also my first barrel aged wine. Nice warm feeling going down. You can't drink all day if you don't start early.

Oh well, my glass is empty, back to capsuling and labeling. Cheers!

Thanks John,
Great summary. I would enjoy reading more like that. Enjoy and have a good weekend.

Ted

 

[ceeaton]

Pitched RC-212 7-24-15.
7g Go-Ferm to rehydrate, 5g Fermaid O added at onset of fermentation. SG 1.105.
7-27-15 added 4g Fermaid O, SG 1.046.
Racked 7-31-15.
Racked again 8-18-15, added Kmeta and clarifiers. SG 0.994.
Racked 9-5-15, added oak that came with kit.
Racked 11-15-15, removed oak and added Kmeta, degassed.
1-18-16 added Kmeta and bottled.

Opened a 375 tonight (@Johnd, you are to blame). Same basic flavor profile as last tasting. More nose of fresh raisins, spice and alcohol. Cooked fruit flavor is still discernible but more integrated into the overall flavor profile. Sour cherry and spice are much more noticeable from last tasting. Fruit flavors dominate, can't really taste any oak. This 375 bottle will make me sleep well tonight. Has a nice kick but alcohol doesn't dominate the overall flavor.

I still have 7 x 375's. Should get me to 2 yrs on the rest of the batch if I taste one every 2 months.

Edit: after tasting a second glass, the "cooked fruit" is actually more a candied fruit flavor. This is a very powerful glass of wine. Swirling around my mouth I find bracing tannis and some smokey leather flavors I didn't get by just sipping without swirling.

 

[Steve_M]

Pitched RC-212 on 3/15/2016. Racked to secondary 3/22/2016 at that point s.g. was 1.020. Checked s.g. last night down to 0.998, will check again tomorrow then possibly rack on Thursday for the clearing phase.

Steve

 

[Steve_M]

Racked and degased using the AIO, final s.g. 0.994.
Added kmeta and chitosan, in about 8-10 days will rack off the lees and put this away with supplied oak for its long nap. May add tannin and more oak?

Steve

 

[ceeaton]

May add tannin and more oak?

At this point I'm bottled and at eight months. If the kit ever comes around again and I make it, I think I'd like it better with a little more oak. Now I'm really guessing at what this wine will be at in 14 more months, but I assume (and we know what that can do sometimes) that the oak will slowly die down as it ages.

Looking forward to tasting the @jgmann version of it as I think he added a bit more oak for aging.

 

[jgmann67]

At this point I'm bottled and at eight months. If the kit ever comes around again and I make it, I think I'd like it better with a little more oak. Now I'm really guessing at what this wine will be at in 14 more months, but I assume (and we know what that can do sometimes) that the oak will slowly die down as it ages.



Looking forward to tasting the @jgmann version of it as I think he added a bit more oak for aging.

Added what was provided in the kit, plus 50 gr of French medium toast for 3 months.

 

[Boatboy24]

Just racked this into the barrel. It is an absolute powerhouse. Light on tannin, as are all kits, but this one blows away any kit I've done to date. And its only 4 months old!

 

[scram]

That's great to hear! Mine is in 1st bulk right now. Looking forward to this one

 

[jgmann67]

My wife and I were thieving tastes of the 5 wines we have in the works right now (she hasn't been down there since before Christmas - first thing out of her mouth was "wow, you got a lot of f***ing wine down here." Loves me a foul mouthed Irish red-head).

This isn't as fruity as the Selection Amarone. But, it's got huge promise. Two years wait... Good thing I'm already 4 months into it.

 

[Steve_M]

This morning racked off of my clearing stage from about 10 days ago. Added dose of k-meta, 1g of tannin riche extra, the 30 gm of supplied French oak along with an additional 50 gm American Med+.
Sampled a bit and like everyone else am going to truly enjoy this one in a couple of years. So now it is resting peacefully will see it again in July.
On separate note, used the AIO to rack, what a breeze! I just need to figure out how to stop wine from back flowing?

Steve

 

[Boatboy24]

This morning racked off of my clearing stage from about 10 days ago. Added dose of k-meta, 1g of tannin riche extra, the 30 gm of supplied French oak along with an additional 50 gm American Med+.
Sampled a bit and like everyone else am going to truly enjoy this one in a couple of years. So now it is resting peacefully will see it again in July.
On separate note, used the AIO to rack, what a breeze! I just need to figure out how to stop wine from back flowing?

Steve

I'm going to go incrementally, but will probably end up w/ 8-10g of tannin addition. My standard is usually 6, but even there, I still feel the wines are missing something. Completely enjoyable, but just feel like something was left out.

 

[Steve_M]

I'm going to go incrementally, but will probably end up w/ 8-10g of tannin addition. My standard is usually 6, but even there, I still feel the wines are missing something. Completely enjoyable, but just feel like something was left out.

Jim,
I better check my math! What was I thinking? Just 1 gm?

Steve

 

[ceeaton]

Jim,
I better check my math! What was I thinking? Just 1 gm?

Steve

Steve, the Extra Riche is for fine tuning. I added 1g to my Merlot blend and it added quite a bit of vanilla flavor and smoothed out the finish (5 gallons of wine). More than that may become overwhelming. Try some Tannin Complex if you want to add more tannins w/o all the vanilla character. Usually I do the Tannin Complex, wait a couple of months, sample, then add the Extra Riche if it is still missing something.

 

[jgmann67]

It's been over a month since there's been a post to this thread...

How is everyone doing with their monster Italian red?

My Forza is fast approaching the 6 month mark in bulk. I may rack this one more time in June, dosing with kmeta and tannin (depending on taste). I have an extra set of hands coming out to help move wine around in August, though, so I might bottle after 8 months of bulk. All joking aside, I'm still very interested in what to call this wine. It's not an Amarone. What is it?

 

[sour_grapes]

Well, they finally said what is in the juice....lol

"Varietals: The Eclipse Forza Wine Kit is a blend of three of Italy's biggest and boldest grape varietals: The Corvina, Sangiovese and Barbera."

I think all we can say is "Italian red blend." (The grapes are typical of three different regions: Piedmont, the Veneto, and Tuscany, although Sangiovese is widely grown.)

 

[dcbrown73]

On separate note, used the AIO to rack, what a breeze! I just need to figure out how to stop wine from back flowing?

Steve

Two ways.

1. Pull the racking cane from the wine you are racking from while the pump is still running. It will continue to pump what's in the cane/tube to the new carboy. (my preferred method)
2. Use the release button that in on the tubing. When you press it, it will release the vacuum and prevent reverse or forward siphoning from continuing except what's left in the tube which should flow both ways. (back into the original carboy while the other half flows into the new carboy.