Making a frizzante

[jlemaux]

Hi, this is my first post here and I'm new to wine making (I've been brewing beer for about 5 years, though).

I'd
like to make a frizzante wine this summer. I've been searching for a
vinho verde kit, but I can't seem to locate one. Apparently Mosti
Mondiale has discontinued there version. Anyway, I've never done this
before so I need help. Here are my two ideas:

1. Stabilize the wine but skip the degassing step. This would leave some residual C02, but it wouldn't be very precise.

2. Skip the stabilization step and prime the wine with yeast and a very small amount of sugar.

Step
2 seems the riskiest. In beer making, the amount of sugar added at
bottling can be used to calculate the CO2 levels of the finished beer.
However, I don't know how to calculate this using wine yeast. I'm
afraid I would end up a bunch of bottles blowing their corks.

I'm
looking for low levels of CO2 so that a regular cork would be
sufficient to hold the pressure. Also, if possible, I'd be using just a
regular concentrate kit--Wine Expert or the like.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
John

 

[masta]

If you can't force carbonate the wine then using the same calculation for priming beer should work for your wine. Skip the addition of sorbate and when wine clears prime with sugar and bottle (there should be enough active yeast left)


Whatever method is used I would strong recommend not using regular corks in wine bottles since they are notdesigned to hold back any pressure.Not sure if using champagne corks without wires would hold either. Large capped beer bottles would be a much better option.

 

[jlemaux]

Thanks for the reply.

Would you happen to know how much CO2 is typically dissolved in a slightly fizzy wine such as vinho verde? It is much lower than beer, which is typically 2.5 volumes of CO2.

Also, I was hoping to use non-chapagne corks because the level of carbonation is very, very low. Commercial examples of vinho verde are sold without chapagne corks/cages and they are only slightly fizzy. Almost like flat beer.

Thanks again for your help.

John

 

[masta]

After educating myself someon whata frizzante wine is I would say most newbies are really good at making it!

On a serious note I would guess the amount of CO2 is less than one volume. So you are correct in that once you have your wine with some dissolved CO2 in it the corks should hold unless you allow the bottles to warm up at all.


The trouble with not degassing and trying to get your wine clear is that CO2 impedes the process and prevents some fining agents from working.

 

[Coaster]

If you find a Vinho Verde kitplease post here, I just missed out on the MM version. I wonder what their instructions were (ie did they tell you to sugar at bottling)?

 

[jlemaux]

Coaster--
I can't find a vinho verde kit, either. MM used to have one, but it has been discontinued. I haven't seen the instructions, either.

John

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

I am waiting a reply from a site that told me they have it, will update when I get info on as to where store located , brand , etc.

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

http://www.lilolewinemaker.com/located in Mosinee WI., they can special order the Vinho Verde kit from Vinotheque, based in Canada, Have you asked George if he is able to order it for you?