Fontana verses cellar craft

[Rezendes]

Howdy folks. Wow I've after real deal reviews on Amarone wine kits. Got some good information. But no real results. I tried a Fontana wine kit which has yet not even mentioned here.

I've Done two of them. The Merlot is excellent for a 28 day kit! I mean really really good. Earlier I did the Amarone 16 liter kit. Did a mallo lactic culture and could not keep out of it. It is gone. I don't no where those grapes came from but was better than the expensive wine we bought. I mean dang good! Best I've tasted in fact.

Has anyone else tried these Fontana kit''s?

Well under much investigation both the cellar c.c showcase and the Kenridge showcase won a bunch of awards. I chose the Cellar Craft Showcraftft wine kit.
I'm doing the mallo lactic second fermentation and will put a bunch of tape on the 6gal glass carboy for three months.
I would love information on yeast mall lactic culture and the end result from these wine kit

What is the best Amarone wine kits.
Ya know what else? I really dislike these so called smart devices! Half a dozen times to spell A marine and Mali lactic.

Don

 

[cpfan]

Malolactic fermentation (aka MLF) and kits is not a good thing.

The Cellar Craft Showcase should be much better than the Fontana 28-day kit, especially if aged a few months (or years).

Steve

 

[Rezendes]

Thanks for the info. In my homework on malo lactic fermentation and wine kits, found that as long as no stabilizing and clearing agents are introduced until after the malo lactic fermentation is complete all will be well.

Thoughts?
I'm using the wyeast malo lactic strain for wine. It is in it's 22nd day as I write this.

 

[cmason1957]

You might get it to start and possibly even finish, but you will probably end up with a flabby, poor tasting wine.

 

[sour_grapes]

Tim Vandergrift strongly advises against MLF for kits. Here is his take (emphasis added):

Our kits tend to have a softer, more complex flavour profile than you might expect. We achieve this partly by carefully choosing our oak styles and the protocols for using them. By including the oak in with the fermentation (instead of after) we get a much softer profile, which includes some butter and vanilla notes, as opposed to woody or smoky characters.
Now you can’t do malolactic on the kits. It will end in tears if you try. However, there is a technique called ‘battonage’ that will help fatten up the finish of the wine, and give it a rich, creamy mouth feel. Here’s the deal:
· Make you kit up as normal, and rack to the secondary carboy on day 5-7 as directed.
· After ten days, ignore the instructions about fining and stabilising. Instead, add one-quarter teaspoon of metabisulphite powder to the wine, and gently stir it up with a sanitised spoon.
· Get all of the yeast sediment in to suspension, make sure it’s nice and cloudy, but don’t splash or agitate.
· Top up with some decent Chardonnay wine (this is better than using water for this technique). At three or four day intervals, go back and stir the yeast up again.
· Repeat every three or four days for a month.
· Let the wine settle for two weeks, rack it into a clean, sanitised carboy, and follow all the remaining instructions on schedule, omitting no detail however slight.
By stirring the yeast into suspension repeatedly you get the benefits of the amino acids they carry, along with a host of compounds—principally mannoproteins, which give they creamy aroma and mouth feel.

Good luck, and I hope you enjoy your kit.

Cheers,
Tim Vandergrift
Technical Services Manager

 

[Rezendes]

Amarone

Thanks
Don
One question or two though. This is the cc showcase A marine kit. Why use chardonnay a white wine? Wouldn't a grappa Amarone or an aged Paul Masson Grande Amber shop (aged 5 years) do better. Cost is about the same as the wine. Or would this put it out of balance.

I did another Amarone kit thru Fontana it was excellent and drank it though. This is I think a higher end kit. Will let this one age.
In response these kits are surprisingly good.

So the question is Amarone grappa, the Paul Mason Brandy ( they both have the notes particular to Amarone) or topping off with Chardonnay?

I seem to lose a gal or less usually at my racking. There is a good sized amount of sediment
In my 6. I would like to get 6 gal. So in this great sounding process I'll need to add close to a gal.
This is only my fourth time at making wine. We bought some Amarone for $56 and was great. The first kit was I thought better at 3 months. Hey I,m 63.5 years old. I won't wait 3 years for good wine. I may though come up with a system to let some go that long.
What an. Excellent craft! Made booze in. Other formats over the years. This tops all.
Just an old vet with time on my hands.

Love your comments
Don

 

[sour_grapes]

Thanks
Don
One question or two though. This is the cc showcase A marine kit. Why use chardonnay a white wine? Wouldn't a grappa Amarone or an aged Paul Masson Grande Amber shop (aged 5 years) do better. Cost is about the same as the wine. Or would this put it out of balance.

I apologize -- the quote I cited included instructions to top up with Chardonnay, but that was in a different context. Tim Vandergrift was writing about how to do battonage on Chardonnay. I did not mean that you should use Chardonnay with your Amarone. I only cited the quote to convey that MLF is frowned upon in kits.

I am not sure why you are looking to top up with brandy? Are you looking to make a "port-style" wine?

 

[Tnuscan]

Tim Vandergrift strongly advises against MLF for kits. Here is his take (emphasis added):

I'm having trouble finding this article. Can you help?

 

[sour_grapes]

I'm having trouble finding this article. Can you help?

I cannot find the original. I had first seen it on winepress.us (the "other" wine forum), but they have now gone to a closed forum, it appears.

I can find the same words printed many, many places. Our own @cintipam claims here that it was originally printed in Winemaker Magazine, but I am not sure.

 

[Rezendes]

Thanks again. No I just want to top off with a similar wine to Amarone without losing the character. Surely not water. It is at close to 15 percent. I'll lose close to a gal on racking and want to keep it at 6 gal for bulk aging.

 

[cmason1957]

Here is where I found Tim V. talking about MLF and wine kits. https://winemakermag.com/1453-join-a-live-q-a-with-tim-vandergrift

Also, as a side note, if you are losing a gallon when racking, you are not racking in the way I would. I might lose a half bottle at any one racking, but seldom more than that. It is okay to put that racking cane all the way down and get every last drop for every racking, except for the one last one right before bottling. At least that is my way. If you lose a gallon every time, pretty soon, you have put about 10 bottles of commercial wine into your 30 bottle batch.