Slow fermentation
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I think there are several things that have come out here. First, we were always told by our neighbours that they added 25% white grapes to the red because it was good for womens kidneys! Actually, we only have had wine with the red fermenting since we tried to make it with only red grapes. we know that the vines are very old, so maybe the wild yeast on these is not strong enough, and it has also been two consecutive cold October/Novembers for the last two years.
We think next year we are going to try with just the red grapes again, but in warmer conditions in a cantina inside the house, but we think we would also like to try adding some yeast. What yeast would you recommend for Sangiovese grapes? How much should we add? We tend to get about 150/200 litres of must. Where can we buy this yeast? I have never come across wine makers shops here in Italy, so would we have to buy it over the internet?
Thanks for the suggestions about what we could do to get it going again, but everyone`s wine has now finished fermenting so we would not be able to find any fermenting wine to add to ours. However, we will remember for next year!
The white wine looks dire this year! It too seems to be doing nothing much, is incredibly sweet and now seems to have a murky scum on the top. I have a feeling this may have to be thrown away as we already have 800 litres of white wine that is undrinkable from the last two years. The white wine from two years ago is not sweet, and has fermented out but is a peculiar deep yellow colour with an odd flavour. Last years is 400 litres of extremely sweet stuff that is more like grape juice, but with an alcoholic kick. Sounds nice but after two mouthfuls you can feel your teeth rotting! So I think we might give the white wine a miss this year!
Look forward to any answers to my questions. Thank you all for trying to help us.
