WineXpert Selection Luna Bianca

[ceeaton]

I've read you're supposed to go a little oakier, as it'll fall back, but that may be more relevant for a red that will age rather than an early drinking white.

I've noticed the same thing with Chardonnays I've made. It seems to die back equally whether it is a white or red. But most whites seem to disappear earlier than the reds around these parts. I just think most red wines can tolerate more oak than a white wine, in general, without being too offensive.

 

[GaDawg]

thanks...
If 2.5 oz of M American oak cubes work... 3 oz of french oak should work. In my experience 6 weeks gets all the goodie out of our oak.
Thank you very much for sharing your experience!
Frank

 

[GaDawg]

I racked to clear today and added 30g of French med toasted oak cubes. They look very lonely in that carboy! Should I add more? I thank so but will value this group's opinion! Thanks.

 

[jgmann67]

Since I was home and getting under foot, and since I needed to free up a carboy, I figured 6 months was enough for the LB. I dosed it with Kmeta and racked it twice to be sure all the co2 was gone. Tasted fine.

Bottled 28 750's and 6 375's. I'll capsule and label them this weekend.

 

[rustbucket]

That's equivalent to 31 bottles. You must have topped up with another wine at some point.

A few weeks ago, I got a little over 30 bottles from a wine I bottled. It was the result of topping up the carboy with another wine. I had racked the wine into a new carboy for its final racking. It was a Fermentor that I wasn't familiar with so I didn't know where the 6-gallon mark should be. That was the first time that I ever used up all the wine labels from a wine kit in a bottling operation.

 

[jgmann67]

That's equivalent to 31 bottles. You must have topped up with another wine at some point.

.

I was surprised too. But, I'm pretty sure I only topped with a single 750 ml bottle of commercial wine. That's it.

 

[jgmann67]

In the bottle.

 

[rustbucket]

That bottle has a nice label. You should enter that in one of the wine label contests. Did you draw the picture?

As an aside, I noticed that you dated the bottle with a 2016 vintage date. Do you date your bottles based on the Luna Bianca kit starting date? I dated mine with the bottling date and am wondering if I was wrong in doing that.

 

[jgmann67]

That bottle has a nice label. You should enter that in one of the wine label contests. Did you draw the picture?

As an aside, I noticed that you dated the bottle with a 2016 vintage date. Do you date your bottles based on the Luna Bianca kit starting date? I dated mine with the bottling date and am wondering if I was wrong in doing that.

Thank you!

There’s no right or wrong way. I date mine as of the day I dropped yeast into the juice. Others do as you do.

I didn’t draw the scream face - wish I did. It’s from Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Since the wine is named Goodbye Blue Sky, and I used blue bottles, I thought I’d substitute out the family crest this time.

 

[jgmann67]

I’m pretty sure this wine is a year and a half old. I haven’t tasted it yet. Maybe this weekend.

 

[jgmann67]

We tried the LB over NYE and was surprised to find that it's a little sweeter than I remember. Hopefully that fades over time.

 

[Cellar_Dweller]

We tried the LB over NYE and was surprised to find that it's a little sweeter than I remember. Hopefully that fades over time.

I've noticed Chardonnays (and other whites for that matter) getting a touch sweeter over time too. The sweetness hasn't faded with more aging, unfortunately. No explanation.

 

[jgmann67]

I’m pretty sure this wine is a year and a half old. I haven’t tasted it yet. Maybe this weekend.

Don’t know how I messed this up. But, this wine is only about 8 months old.

 

[ceeaton]

Don’t know how I messed this up. But, this wine is only about 8 months old.

I don't think you messed up.
The general rule I've noticed is that in back sweetened wines my perception of sweetness seems to increase with aging (not sure how long it continues to get sweeter) and a dry fruity wine (for me it was the Eclipse Dry Creek Chardonnay) has less sweetness as it aged (and in the case of the chardonnay I mentioned, less fruitiness). All of my back sweetened fruit wines increase in sweetness with age, so I do trials until my wife says "just a little more and you'll be there" and I stop. If she holds off drinking the bottles for six to twelve months, she's happy in most cases.

 

[jgmann67]

So Mrs Mann asked about the white wine to red wine ratio in the cellar... she feels like she’s getting cheated (just because I have 15 reds and 3 whites...).

So, I ordered her favorite white and will make her another Luna Bianca I guess.

 

[ceeaton]

I've got 7 dry reds, 2 dry whites, 2 reds to be back sweetened (White ZIn and Chianti (w/cranberries), and one white to be back sweetened (all in carboys)). I have not idea what is in bottles, guess I should do an inventory at some point...we just seem to drink them until they are gone.

 

[jgmann67]

Kicked the 3rd round of this kit off this afternoon. Boosted a little so I will have a final ABV at about 13.8%. I don’t remember - was this kit supposed to have 120g of oak dust? I was expecting 90g. But surprise!! I got more.

 

[jgmann67]

About a week later and we are fermented to dry. Decided to go to clearing. Next stop in eight days for a rack and addition of the fpac.

 

[jgmann67]

About a week later and we are fermented to dry. Decided to go to clearing. Next stop in eight days for a rack and addition of the fpac.

Clearing beautifully. This weekend is rack and flavor pack weekend.

I keep thinking that I hate sorbate and want to skip it. But hesitate to do it if the wine is above 1.000.

 

[cmason1957]

Clearing beautifully. This weekend is rack and flavor pack weekend.
I keep thinking that I hate sorbate and want to skip it. But hesitate to do it if the wine is above 1.000.

I don't think I'll ever fully understand the vehement hatred that some folks have to potassium sorbate. I don't add it to my wines that ferment dry and I don't backsweeten, but only because I figure, if it doesn't start back up again in the 6-12 months of bulk aging, odds are really quite low it will ever start up again. But If I backsweeten, I certainly add it (along with k-mta), at the proper dosage for the alcohol content of the wine and the ph and don't think a second longer about it.