Sweet Muscadine wine

[toddrod]

Here is my recipe for a true South Louisiana Muscadine wine. I use Ison, Darlene and Sweet Jenny for mine.

I would say this is a country wine as there a only a few things to measure and the ingredients do not have to be exact to get a good wine.

Start with 20-30 lbs of crushed muscadine. Just Ison for the red and Darlene and Sweet Jenny for the white.

Place in fermenter with your sulfite for 24hrs. No need to check SG at this point.
After 24hr add yeast. I use Lalvin EC-1118.
Ferment on the skins for 4 days.
After 4 days press fruit to recover juice.
Add 2 gallons of fermenting juice to a carboy, add 12 lbs sugar and water to get get 5 gallons. This will get a SG around 1.120 -1.125.
Adjust for a TA of .43% with acid blend if needed.
Now just ferment as normal.

This will give you a sweet wine with a final SG of around 1.015-1.02. The flavor will be great but it will not have that nasty musty smell most commercial muscadine wine have.

Before anyone chimes in with the SG being to high, I realize this. It turns out a just right for me without the need to back sweeten. I have never had trouble with my fermentations. The people in my area love it this way for drinking at "the camp" and by the bonfires.

 

[mindymartel]

how much sulfite do I add?

 

[dralarms]

Can you use that with nobles?

 

[Julie]

Since you are fermenting on the skins 4 days prior to taking a reading your sg is higher than what you think. The problem with this is you have no control on your alcohol content of your wine. Those grapes will produce a different level of sugar each year so adding an x amount of sugar will not give you a consistent sg each year. And you are using way too much water, which is the reason your TA is in the .40% range. That acid level is too low, it should be at least .65%. Sorry don't mean to bust on you but your wine would have a syrupy sweet and very watered down taste. And I have had a lot of commercial muscadine wine and never have I had one that was "nasty musty smell."

 

[toddrod]

Julie, you are correct about the variability of the SG. I have learned a lot since this post was made and now I adjust the juice, before fermentation, to what I want and then add the sugar water, at the same SG, to get my total volumes now.

The sweet muscadine commercial wines in my area seems to have this nasty musty smell to them, unlike the clean floral muscadine smell that I try to get. Duplin winery's Hatteras Red is a good example of a sweet muscadine wine.

Down here in South Louisiana most people do not like a heavy body, or heavy flavored, muscadine wine. They like it thin bodied and semi sweet to sweet with a low acid content. That is the reson for the TA's in the .40-.50 range.

 

[toddrod]

Mindy - normally it is 1/4 tsp per 5 gallons of must.

dralarms - yes, you can use this with Nobles.

 

[toddrod]

Here ar ethe changes I have made to this recipe since posting this although this recipe still makes a pretty good wine.

Here is my recipe for a true South Louisiana Muscadine wine. I use Ison, Darlene and Sweet Jenny for mine.

I would say this is a country wine as there a only a few things to measure and the ingredients do not have to be exact to get a good wine.

Start with 20-30 lbs of crushed muscadine. If able to freeze the grapes do so as you get more juice recovery. Just Ison for the red and Darlene and Sweet Jenny for the white.

Place in fermenter with your sulfite for 24hrs. No need to check SG at this point.
After 24 hrs check SG and adjust to 1.10. That is the potential ETOH content me and all my friends like.
After 24hr add bread yeast. I use Lalvin EC 118, KV 1116, 71B or D47 mainly these days..
Ferment on the skins for 4 days.
After 4 days press fruit to recover juice.
Add 2 gallons (I have tried 1,2,3,4,and 5 gallons of juice for a 5 gallon batch) of fermenting juice to a carboy, Add sugar water solution of SG 1.10 to this to get your 5 gallons. For the red you can also add Concord, Blackberry or Elderberry concentrate to this to give more body and it makes a nice blend. For the white I have added Niagra and Chardonnay and gotten a nice blend.
Adjust for a TA of .43% with acid blend if needed. I have actually increased this to .55%
Now just ferment as normal.

This will give you a sweet wine with a final SG of around 1.015-1.02. The flavor will be great but it will not have that nasty musty smell most commercial muscadine wine have. Using the above yeast will get you a dry wine, using the adjustments in red, then I just back sweeten to SG 1.01 when it is time to bottle.

Before anyone chimes in with the SG being to high, I realize this. It turns out a just right for me without the need to back sweeten (if using bread yeast). I have never had trouble with my fermentations. The people in my area love it this way for drinking at "the camp" and by the bonfires.

 

[dralarms]

Julie, you are correct about the variability of the SG. I have learned a lot since this post was made and now I adjust the juice, before fermentation, to what I want and then add the sugar water, at the same SG, to get my total volumes now.

The sweet muscadine commercial wines in my area seems to have this nasty musty smell to them, unlike the clean floral muscadine smell that I try to get. Duplin winery's Hatteras Red is a good example of a sweet muscadine wine.

Down here in South Louisiana most people do not like a heavy body, or heavy flavored, muscadine wine. They like it thin bodied and semi sweet to sweet with a low acid content. That is the reson for the TA's in the .40-.50 range.

I like theirs, but my brother did a blind taste test between their and mine. Liked mine better. I did the same test, and mine came out on top with me and my son. The wife don't like muscadines