It begins... RJS Cellar Series Cabernet

[jgmann67]

Readings after this morning's stir:

SG: 1.015 (11.4% ABV)

Temp: 71*

Smells good.

 

[JohnT]

Seems like it is progressing nicely.

 

[jgmann67]

Seems like it is progressing nicely.

It is. I was a little surprised with the smell. All of the videos I watched made a big to-do about the aroma of the juice pouring in to the primary. I could smell it, sure. But, it didn't knock me out. Now, 11 days in, I really smell it. Hours after stirring, the smell is still with me. Like, it's taken up residence in my sinus cavity.

 

[jgmann67]

Day 14 - the last I looked, the must was progressing nicely.

SG: 1.010

Temp: 70* F.

The SG is probably around the 1.004 mark now. We're almost there.

This morning, I had the heating pad shut off and am going to let the temp drop to about 66*... Coasting in to the 0.992 by Sunday night.

 

[jgmann67]

Headed home from Chicago. Will check the project once I get in.

 

[Dhaynes]

Looks like you are doing great. One thing to keep in mind is that you are going to want to warm the wine to the mid 70's before you degas. It's a lot harder to get the CO2 out if the wine is cold. Also the yeast don't really like the temperature yo-yoing on them. It can cause the yeast to go dormant or die leading to stuck fermentation.


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[jgmann67]

Cleaned and Sanitized the carboy, siphon, bung and bubbler this morning and went down to check on the project.

Surprised to find the SG was 1.002. I would have thought it would be somewhere in the 0.99's. Temp was 65* as expected. Guess the abundance of caution didn't pay off as expected. (Sigh....)

Since the wine needs to be warmer to degas anyway, I put it back together and put the heating pad back on 'low'. Still getting some ferment action. The temp will rise to about 68-70* during the day and hopefully the SG will drop another 0.005 when I get back to it tonight. Will try to rack it into the secondary when I get home.

Found the lid on my primary split on the side. Fine for now, but, when the crack goes a bit higher, I won't get a good seal anymore. Is this common or should I talk to the vendor?

* talked to the vendor. They do not stand behind their product. Will check w the manufacturer, but I'm pretty sure I won't be dealing with the vendor anymore. Too bad...

 

[jgmann67]

Got home tonight to a 0.998 SG. SOooooooo... Into the secondary we go. I just couldn't wait any more.

Everything is cleaned up and put away.

Total time in the primary was about 16 days. Lots of lees at the bottom of the primary. Dumped the pectin stuff, stirred for 5 min. Topped off, capped and placed the bubbler. Now we wait till the weekend. Temp will be fairly constant 70-71*.

Yes, I tasted it... I now know what the phrase "young" really means. I did like it, though. Good fruit taste - I could tell I was drinking a cab. When I'm done clearing, I'm thinking medium toast French oak spirals or chips for 3 or 4 months. Then, bottle and wait another 4 months.

 

[jgmann67]

The wine sat overnight and there's a bit of foam in the airlock. It's working fine so I'm not concerned and really don't want to disturb it. Although I could swap it out if necessary.

 

[bkisel]

Did your instructions say to top off in "secondary"?

Personally I do not top off when going from "primary" to "secondary". Most often my head space in secondary is at ~ the shoulder height of my 6.5 gallon Italian glass carboy. The CO2 still being produced and filling the head space, albeit now more slowly, has been enough to displace the air and protect the wine till it ferments dry and is ready for the next phase.

 

[jgmann67]

Did your instructions say to top off in "secondary"?

Personally I do not top off when going from "primary" to "secondary". Most often my head space in secondary is at ~ the shoulder height of my 6.5 gallon Italian glass carboy. The CO2 still being produced and filling the head space, albeit now more slowly, has been enough to displace the air and protect the wine till it ferments dry and is ready for the next phase.

Yes, it did. It said fill within two inches of the top of the carboy. there's maybe a half inch of space between the liquid and the stopper.

 

[winojoe]

Here is my process, which works out very well for me:
1. Perform Primary fermentation in a bucket.
2. Rack to 6.5 gallon carboy for final fermentation when SG is between 1.010 and 1.020.
3. When fermentation is complete(wine is "still") wait one week for completed fermentation to stabilize.
4. When the one week is up, move to another 6.5 gallon carboy, add stabilizers and clearing agent(s), and wait one week.
5. When the week is up, do one of two things:
a. For aging, rack gently to 6 gallon carboy and top up to reduce air space as much as possible.
b. For sweet wines (I call them Foo Foo's) rack gently to a vessel for immediate bottling.

 

[jgmann67]

I'm going to let this one ferment out to 0.992 and clear. Once I'm done clearing and rack it to another carboy, pour in the stabilizers, etc., then drop some oak (French medium toast, I think), to enhance the favor a bit. Other suggestions are welcome, of course.

 

[bkisel]

Yes, it did. It said fill within two inches of the top of the carboy. there's maybe a half inch of space between the liquid and the stopper.

Aha! RJS CC WS instructions have changed! My Italy Amarone with box date of 20140415 (and all the RJS WS kits I've done before) have older instructions then what I now see online. Older instructions had you start "secondary" @ 1.020 and no topping up.

 

[jgmann67]

Aha! RJS CC WS instructions have changed! My Italy Amarone with box date of 20140415 (and all the RJS WS kits I've done before) have older instructions then what I now see online. Older instructions had you start "secondary" @ 1.020 and no topping up.

Tell me about your Amarone. I'm fighting the urge to make this wine as my #3 batch for the year because it takes so much aging till it's ready. I don't know if I can wait that long. Then again, the sooner I start, the doner I get.

 

[joeswine]

AMARONE King OF THE ITALIAN REDS

WHEN made correctly this is truly the king of ITALIAN reds.................................................

Wineexpert Amarone​

*UPDATED*​

​

Here is our kit that we received from Wineexpert. This kit is a Wineexpert Selection Series Amarone. This kit has the following included. (This list is a little different from the usual kit that you receive. This is a top of the line kit.)

The box includes the following:
· Large bag of juice
· Grape skin pack (You can actually see that there are grape skins in it!)
· 2 packs of Lavin RC-212
· 2 Chaptalisation Packs (bags of sugar)
· Package #2 (bentonite)
· Package #3 (Metabisulphite)
· Package #4 (Sorbate)
· Package #5 (Chitosan-(Fining Agent)
· Mesh Straining Bag
· 3 Packages of European Hungarian Oak
Just for reference, I’m sure everyone knows by now if they have been following the posts, that you will need certain equipment to make this kit. For the newbies, I’m going to put it below so you know what you need:
· Primary Fermenter (minimum 30 Litres/7.9 US gallons capacity)
· Long stirring spoon (Plastic or stainless steel)
· Measuring cup
· Hydrometer and test jar
· Thermometer
· Wine thief
· Siphon rod and hose
· Carboy (6 US gallon capacity)
· Bung and Air lock
· Solid Bung (if you are bulk aging)
· Unscented winemaking detergent for cleaning (we recommend Onestep or any other oxygenating cleaner, including Kmet....JUST NOT BLEACH!)
· Metabisulphite Powder for sanitizing
· 30 wine bottles, thirty corks , thirty seals
· Corking machine (there are various types, we use an italian floor corker.)
The Process:
· As always, sanitize anything that comes in contact with the wine. Including yourself. J
· Add half gallon of warm water to the primary fermenting bucket with the bentonite packet and stir until dissolved.
· Add the large juice package. (Be careful, it’s heavy!) Rinse this out with a little bit of spring water to make sure you get it all.
· Next, we added the smaller “grape skin packet”. It’s lumpy so you also want to rinse the bag out w/ water also, to get all the grape skins.
· Now, we take the SG reading. We’re at 1.10.
· Next, we added the smaller “grape skin packet”. It’s lumpy so you also want to rinse the bag out w/ water also, to get all the grape skins.
· Now, here comes all that Hungarian oak! We are adding 3 packets of Hungarian powdered oak (wow!).
· Here comes the fun part. YEAST! 2 packets of RC-212 yeast. Cover with a towel and wait 5-7 days, gently punching down the grape skins.
Secondary Fermentation:
Now that we fermented dry (SG reading is 1.010), now it’s time to rack it.
Notice the grape skins on top? This is the cap that formed from the grape skin packet that was provided in the Wineexpert Amarone Kit, along with the addition of California Raisins (that I added to add more body).
We racked this down to a carboy but it is pretty gassy. I’m going to let this settle out for a few days and degas some on its own. Over the weekend, I will force-gas it (If I have to) by giving it a good old-fashioned stir. Once I feel that it’s de-gassed enough, I will stabilize it with the potassium sorbate packet, K-Met Packet, and packet of Chitosan (clearing agent).

UPDATE:​

We finished bottling our super-awesome, Winexpert Selection International Amarone Kit. We are quite happy with the results. Our end result is a dark, inky-color, rich, full bodied, wine. It has a spicy-earthy, sour cherry aroma, dried fruit, bitter almond, from the huge volume of tannins.

For a kit wine that started just 2 1/2 months ago, the results are quite impressive. (We started this kit on August 22, 2013. We bottled tonight, 10/24/2013. After doing this kit, we would def. recommend this one for any true Italian red-wine drinker.

We would like to thank Winexpert for giving us the opportunity to present one of their finest wine kits they have available. We would definitely recommend this kit to the novice and experienced winemakers alike as it truly is exceptional.

We are looking forward to our next tutorial now that this one is complete. Please give us feedback and recommendations of what type of wine you would like to learn how to make.

 

[bkisel]

Tell me about your Amarone. I'm fighting the urge to make this wine as my #3 batch for the year because it takes so much aging till it's ready. I don't know if I can wait that long. Then again, the sooner I start, the doner I get.

Mine is bulk aging. It is my first Amarone and can only say that I've read and heard others speaking favorably of this particular kit.

At the point where it says to bottle in the instructions I bulk age my 6-week kits for 3 months and bottle age for three months before starting to consume. As recommended by several folks on this site I've started to hold a bottle or two back to age even further. At about seven and a half months, if it is like the other RJS WS kits I've made, it will be ready enough for my taste. I'm too old (I'll be 71 in August) to wait years for any of my wines to fully mature - save the bottle or two from the batch that I've been encouraged here to set aside. Also, I believe the kits are designed to taste reasonably well on the time frame indicated on the instructions.

 

[joeswine]

AMARONE King OF THE ITALIAN REDS

I agree with you BKISEL,that's why I switch from grspes to fresh juice and now kits, TIME IS IMPORTANT.......................

 

[jgmann67]

Day 3 in the secondary.

The wine is clearing very nicely. I can see the sediment at the bottom, it's about 1.5" deep. Fascinating to look at - the wine is a brighter hue. Temp has been a constant 71* (and there's a nice barrier of lees now between heating pad and the wine). I'm going to check the SG tomorrow night. If I reach the 0.992, I'll be moving it over for stabilizing, etc. I can't wait to get another taste.

I picked up a package of medium toast French oak chips. The guy at the LHBS suggested I take about an ounce of chips, soak them in hot water, then place them in the carboy for the 3 months in a bag. I'll decide once I see what I have at 0.992.

Amarone... kit #3. Then, if the #2 kit (Aussie chard) works out, I might do another white as kit #4.

(hmmm... that would be like 10 cases of wine, wouldn't it?)

 

[bkisel]

I agree with you BKISEL,that's why I switch from grspes to fresh juice and now kits, TIME IS IMPORTANT.......................

That is so very interesting. It appears that progression is just the opposite of most.

Your posting of your tweaking kits has inspired me to try a bit of tweaking on a number of my own kits. All have come out great and I thank you for that.