RJ Spagnols First RJS order questions

[bostonguy]

lost batch?

will the fact that I am into my 16th day before going to the next step hurt me?

 

[bostonguy]

Thanks!

and thanks for the link. These are the directions that I lost.

 

[cpfan]

will the fact that I am into my 16th day before going to the next step hurt me?

I don't know if it will hurt you or not, but the wine will be fine.

Steve

 

[Wade E]

I don't know if it will hurt you or not, but the wine will be fine.

Steve

I like it!

 

[jimk]

The wine is now in the secondary fermentation carboy. Reading ahead I noticed that RJS says to rack the wine again BEFORE clarifying. After adding the clarifying agents they say to top up with water to within 2 inches of the stopper. It seems to me that this will be an awful lot of water added especially since I lost some wine due to the lees during the racking into the secondary fermentation carboy. Also, I plan to bulk age this batch with an oak spiral and was planning to rack the wine after clarifying. I really don't want to add any more water. How much air space is bad for the wine? Should I use some of my already made (but not great) red zin to top up or is that dangerous?
Thanks again.
Jim

 

[St Allie]

I usually top up my bulk stored wines to about 3 inches below the bung.. I used a bottle of pinot noir to top up my carmenere with.. your red should be fine in a 5 gallon batch..

Allie

 

[Wade E]

You guys have to be less cautious when racking as I almost never have to top up unless its with a fruit wine only because I always make plenty extra and dont have to worry about being very careful. Dont fret about getting some carry over lees at these early times and worry more about getting as much wine as possible. the fining agents will work wonders later and will compress the lees down letting you extract more wine and less the need for topping up.

 

[St Allie]

I don't worry about sucking up a bit of lees.. it settles out..


Allie

 

[jimk]

I'm curious bout the oak spirals. Instructions say that the spiral is done after 6 weeks. If I bulk age longer than 6 weeks (which is the plan) with a spiral in the wine, will leaving it in have a bad effect on the wine or doesn't it matter?
Thanks again
Jim

 

[Wade E]

It will not harm your wine at all but may over oak your wine if left in to long or may not have anything left tp offer after that as far as oaking goes.

 

[jimk]

Have now started the clarification of the wine. The instructions say to keep the wine at a temp between 59 and 65 degrees F. Sometimes the cellar gets up to 72 or so. Should I put some cooling packs around the carboy to keep the temp down or doesn't it make much difference?
Thanks
Jim

 

[Wade E]

I would not worry about that as my cellar only gets that cool during the winter and unless I am fermenting a white or fruit wine I leave it in there. Ive never had a problem with temps in the mid 70's ever.

 

[jimk]

So, I racked my old vine zin into from the secondary fermenter into another carboy and put an oak spiral in it for a week. It's now sitting in my fridge at 55 degrees F to bulk age. I bottled some and tasted it. Pretty harsh. Real harsh actually. Lots of tannins etc from the grape skins I'm assuming. Hopefully this is a good thing. Yes?