Having a pleasant 1 year old Amarone. It’s very, very young and lives up to the name the “bitter.” Lots of tannin that needs to smooth out. Nice fruity nose though. Should be a big, smooth wonderful wine in another year or so.
So, I have my 7 gallon Fermonster and will receive my kit in the next day or two.
Planning to experiment with an extended maceration on this one. Will do a total of six weeks on the skins, then rack and dose with Kmeta. Modifications otherwise will be fairly limited:
* skipping the sorbate.
* will drop both packets of RC212 yeast into the primary.
* going to leave the skins loose, along with a healthy cup of raisins and some tannin FT Rouge.
This kit comes with a good amount of oak. Powder for the primary (Hungarian medium, I believe) and cubes for aging. Any thoughts on dropping all the oak all at once? I'm thinking not.
I made this kit a couple years ago and still have a decent cache of it left. It will be interesting to compare them.
As always, any suggestions are appreciated.
Here's what I posted on another thread:
My two-continent cabernet sauvignon batch this year ended up in a 3-week extended maceration due to my being busy/lazy, so I have been reading about extended maceration to figure out how long is too long.
It seems like 14-60 days is a good range of benefits, without introducing bitterness from skins and seeds. Some winemakers rack off seeds, leaving skins behind for some time, and then rack off the skins. The benefit seems to be that the extended maceration simulates aging and complexity in a young wine.
There's a chart and some quotes from winemakers here:
https://winefolly.com/review/winemakers-red-wine-secret-extended-maceration/
I made this kit early in 2018, but did not do the EM because i have just one carboy and no bigmouth. But I have some questions. My wine came out totally over-oaked with only the oak included. It really tastes too much oak, and it is really dry (I like it dry, my wife not so much).
Will the oak mellow out later? The wine was bottled in may. Will the oak change character when aged/when? There is no vanilla, chocolate, caramel taste of it, only oak wood. I must admit that I never have experienced the special tastes mentioned here, when oaked wine at home. So when I taste it in store-bought wine I wonder If they have used vanilla beans, not only oak..?
Will EM help to mellow out too much oak taste? What about sweetness and acidity. Will the wine be more or less sweet after EM and aging, or more or less acidic in taste? I have just made wine a few times (7-8 batches) so are not that experienced in what is happening with the taste over time (nothing has been aged more than 3-4 months). Well, the amarone is now 7 aged months from bottling. I have 10 bottles left and feel I have been really patient. When others here ages their wine for 2-3 years or more, it is really impressing for me. If EM helps so the aging is going faster, it is really interesting.
Survey: When doing EM in a Fermonster, are you leaving it under airlock the entire time, or do you switch to the solid lid at some point?
I start with just a cloth covering stirring twice daily until the S.G. is down to about 1010 and then switch to airlock and stir once daily until S.G. is 995 or less. At that point I stir every 2-3 days for a couple weeks (occasionally thereafter) and top up with CO2 from a cannister. I stay with the airlock all through ferment and EM.Survey: When doing EM in a Fermonster, are you leaving it under airlock the entire time, or do you switch to the solid lid at some point?
Started it on 10/1/18. Added the stuff that came with it (oak chips and grape skins, bagged for ease of removal) stayed with the RC212 t came with. Did a 33 day EM, then racked and So2, no sorbate or clarifiers. Racked again a few weeks later, added the oak cubes that came with it, plus a handful of Xoakers. This is it's current state, it will sit like that until I'm almost ready to bottle, at which point I'll rack and So2 again, let it settle out for at least a couple weeks, then bottle.Not sure if I'm posting in the right area, looking for feedback on anyone who has done the 2018 LE Winexpert Negroamaro. I have this kit, I plan to get around to doing it this month. Any pointers?
Started it on 10/1/18. Added the stuff that came with it (oak chips and grape skins, bagged for ease of removal) stayed with the RC212 t came with. Did a 33 day EM, then racked and So2, no sorbate or clarifiers. Racked again a few weeks later, added the oak cubes that came with it, plus a handful of Xoakers. This is it's current state, it will sit like that until I'm almost ready to bottle, at which point I'll rack and So2 again, let it settle out for at least a couple weeks, then bottle.
I believe the sticks are cheaper than Xoakers, and they definitely work better than cubes or Xoakers, but the Xoakers are definitely easier to deal with than the other two options, especially when attempting to retrieve the sticks from an empty carboy. Some have suggested tying a fishing line to the stick in order to retrieve it, but laziness prevails. I often times add tannins, usually FT Rouge up front if the kit doesn't include skins and oak chips or powder. I'll add Tannin Riche Extra if I feel it needs a boost after stabilizing.Brian - it looks like your winemaking protocols and mine are about the same (I add extra oak cubes at second rack, but am contemplating going to Xoakers or sticks). The only other thing I might suggest is adding some finishing tannins about 6 months before you bottle. I'm a fan of Tannin Riche Extra...
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