January 2014 Wine of the Month Club

[Stressbaby]

Bottled the hibiscus-citrus today. This might be my best wine so far. It required a grapefruit tweak. One entire grapefruit rind was in for only a couple of days. Right after I removed it, the grapefruit was too strong. Now it has mellowed and become more complex. Very nice batch.

 

[Stressbaby]

Here is a pic of the leftovers that didn't make it into a bottle. The wines are clear, what appears to be cloudiness is just condensation.
Left to right, Calamondin-Passionfruit (February), Carambola/starfruit (March), and Hibiscitrus (January).

 

[the_rayway]

Looking good Stressbaby!
(Great view too!)

 

[LoneStarLori]

Hi Folks, I have been neglecting my WOTM wines some what. All of them are Jack Keller's recipes with for the most part all take a year. Ferment, clear, rack, rack again every three months.

This is the blood Orange I did for January. Now that it is none months old, I thought it was time to bottle. I am very pleased with the color. The orange flavor is not really there but I still have hope. The taste is off dry and pretty smooth. I was fun to make and I am considering making it again when they are in season next January, I will use twice the amount of oranges next time. I think this was saved by adding almost a bottles of Pinot Blanc to top up last June. Otherwise it would have very little flavor.

here is the recipe I used:
Here's the Jack Keller recipe for my January WOTMC except I am going to use blood oranges.



Orange Wine (2)

8 medium-sized oranges
1 lb chopped or minced golden raisins or sultanas
1 lb 7 oz ripe bananas
3 lbs finely granulated sugar
water to make up one gallon
1/4 tsp grape tannin
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient
wine yeast
Put two quarts of water on to boil. Meanwhile, peel the oranges and remove all the white pith (it is bitter and will ruin the wine). Break the oranges into sections and remove all seeds. Drop them in a juicer or a blender and liquefy (you may have to add a cup of water to the blender). Peel and slice bananas and simmer in one pint of water for 20 minutes. In a primary, add chopped or minced raisins (or sultanas), 2-1/2 lbs of the sugar, the orange juice or liquefied orange pulp, and two quarts of boiling water. Stir well to dissolve sugar. Over primary, pour simmering banana slices into nylon straining bag and allow to drip until cool enough to squeeze. Squeeze lightly and then discard banana flesh. Stir in tannin and yeast nutrient and enough water to make up one gallon total. Cover with cloth and set aside to cool. When cooled to room temperature, add pectic enzyme, recover and wait 12 hours. Add wine yeast. Ferment 7 days, add remaining sugar, stir to dissolve, and ferment another 3 days. Rack off sediments into secondary and fit airlock. Rack every 30 days for 3 months. Stabilize and sweeten to taste. After additional 10 days, rack into bottles and set aside one year to age.

I only racked every three months in the last six. I don't think it had any effect on the taste. It's been clear since May. Forgive the labels, for 3 bottles, I just wasn't into designing. I have moved the bottles into our spare refrigerator. Hopefully the cooler climate will help bring out the orange.

It's a little more orange and less yellow that this. It was the lighting making it a funky color.

 

[Stressbaby]

We had a bottle of hibiscitrus (hibiscus-citrus) wine yesterday and at least one of the family declared the best wine so far. Acidity is perfect, good body (hibiscus flowers seem to produce a "weighty" wine for whatever reason. The grapefruit has dropped back to just the right position. I need three more gallons of this wine ASAP.

 

[Jericurl]

I love reading this!

 

[the_rayway]

Sweet! I'd call that a success!!

 

[the_rayway]

Apologies for the late update!
Mine is bottled and put away for a little while. It didn't get below 1.004, and there was 1/4 c sugar in the hazelnut extract that I made. In fact, now that I think of it, I don't know what the final sweetness is at. I super don't remember what it tasted like at bottling, but it was waaayy better than the vomiting-pumpkin-beer-esque thing it had going on before. it had smoothed out quite a bit, but still needed time.

I think the label accurately describes how I felt at the time...

 

[Jericurl]

Well, I never got pictures of this wine bottled but it's all gone.

I can definitely call sweet onion wine a success.

The ferment smells horrible.
The wine smells/tastes questionable for the first couple of months.

Then it turns into an amazing cooking wine.
Not bad for sipping either while you are cooking.

I mean, you won't be serving it with Easter dinner, but overall, it's a decent wine.

 

[the_rayway]

That sounds great @jericurl! I've been trying to justify fermenting something that has had such 'interesting' comments about the fermenting smell

 

[wineforfun]

Apologies for the late update!
Mine is bottled and put away for a little while. It didn't get below 1.004, and there was 1/4 c sugar in the hazelnut extract that I made. In fact, now that I think of it, I don't know what the final sweetness is at. I super don't remember what it tasted like at bottling, but it was waaayy better than the vomiting-pumpkin-beer-esque thing it had going on before. it had smoothed out quite a bit, but still needed time.

I think the label accurately describes how I felt at the time...

Awesome label.

 

[the_rayway]

Humbug. I popped the cork on this a couple of days ago to see if it was ready to drink. No such luck! In fact, it appears to be slowly re-fermenting in the bottle! It has thrown the balance completely off.

Seriously considering dumping it back into the bucket to de-gas, then re-bottling.

Ahhhh! I need to re-look at my notes on this batch to see if I forgot to sorbate.

 

[Jericurl]

Oh man, what a bummer!

 

[drainsurgeon]

This one sounds wonderful. A blackberry port has been on my bucket list. Two questions; did you shoot for a specific SG when starting? And you did not mention fortifying, did you? I thought most ports were fortified with brandy or something similar. Thanks for sharing your recipe.

This is to kryptonitewine from his 2014 recipe.