What's in your glass tonight?

[Boatboy24]

Won't win any awards, but seemed fitting for today.

 

[Shurt1073]

Time to kick back, drink some wine and catch up on winemakingtalk.com !

 

[RevA]

An 18 month old strawberry wine made with Jack Keller's recipe...

 

[Shurt1073]

Fish ... Pork ... and a bottle of Purple Toad!

 

[cmason1957]

View attachment 94766

Fish ... Pork ... and a bottle of Purple Toad!

Oddly enough, I have been to that Winery in Paducah, KY. Trip from St. Louis to Florida. It was a fun stop. Didn't find many that fit my wife's and my tastes (dry, make you thirsty red wines), but I think we found a few to take along the road with us.

 

[winemaker81]

I gave a co-work a bottle of FWK Strawberry wine, and she gave me this. Very nice!

 

[RevA]

I'm having a glass of mixed berry mead

 

[ibglowin]

Back in Burbank and had this last night for dinner with pasta bolognese. Probably one of the best Kirkland wines in some time. Bulk buy on this one!

https://costcowineblog.com/2020-kirkland-signature-napa-valley-red-blend/

 

[heatherd]

A lovely pale pink rose that contains 55% merlot, 20% syrah, 15% cabernet franc, and 15% tannat from SW France.

 

[Shurt1073]

Island Mist blackberry kit wine.

 

[ibglowin]

 

[geek]

 

[JB005]

Tonight, hubby and I had some of the leftovers from when I bottled the RJS Cru Specialty Toasted Caramel dessert wine kit on Monday night. It's the 2nd time I have made the kit and I am blown away by how good it is right away! I have put several bottles aside so I can try them in 1, 2, and 3 years.

We drank/gave away all but one bottle of the first kit, bottled earlier this year in 375 ml bottles to get close to 30 from the 3 gallon kit.

Hi, thank you for your review... I've seen nothing but great reviews of this RJS Specialty Toasted Caramel dessert wine and am thinking about making a kit.

Is this more like a port or a wine where:
- You'd want to let it sit and age for years (if you can wait that long)?
- You can open a bottle and drink it over a longer period of time or have to drink relatively quickly?
- Better to bottle in smaller bottles (375 or 500 ml)?

Also, did you do any tweaks to it or make the kit as is?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jovimaple]

Hi, thank you for your review... I've seen nothing but great reviews of this RJS Specialty Toasted Caramel dessert wine and am thinking about making a kit.

Is this more like a port or a wine where:
- You'd want to let it sit and age for years (if you can wait that long)?
- You can open a bottle and drink it over a longer period of time or have to drink relatively quickly?
- Better to bottle in smaller bottles (375 or 500 ml)?

Also, did you do any tweaks to it or make the kit as is?

Thanks in advance.

It's a high alcohol dessert wine, so more like a port, but tastes great right away, in my experience. I made the first kit less than a year ago but I am excited to see how aging affects it.

I have left a bottle open (with a stopper, of course, in place of the cork) for several weeks and the wine is still delicious. It's a red wine base and with the additional sugar in the flavor pack, it seems to keep just fine without oxidizing in an open (stoppered) bottle for at least a while.

With the high ABV and the sweetness, I typically serve just a small amount at a time, and since it's a 3 gallon kit, I prefer the 375 ml bottles. Plus, I give it as gifts which means I can give to more of my friends and relatives if I have closer to 30 375 ml bottles than 15 750 ml bottles.

I made the kit as-is, with the exception of not worrying about the kit schedule for bottling - I bottled when I had time after the minimum time on the kit schedule. I also always add kmeta at bottling.

We love this so much that I bought the kit again for a third go-round even though I have a case left from the 2nd batch! I need to get the new batch started soon!

 

[JB005]

It's a high alcohol dessert wine, so more like a port, but tastes great right away, in my experience. I made the first kit less than a year ago but I am excited to see how aging affects it.

I have left a bottle open (with a stopper, of course, in place of the cork) for several weeks and the wine is still delicious. It's a red wine base and with the additional sugar in the flavor pack, it seems to keep just fine without oxidizing in an open (stoppered) bottle for at least a while.

With the high ABV and the sweetness, I typically serve just a small amount at a time, and since it's a 3 gallon kit, I prefer the 375 ml bottles. Plus, I give it as gifts which means I can give to more of my friends and relatives if I have closer to 30 375 ml bottles than 15 750 ml bottles.

I made the kit as-is, with the exception of not worrying about the kit schedule for bottling - I bottled when I had time after the minimum time on the kit schedule. I also always add kmeta at bottling.

We love this so much that I bought the kit again for a third go-round even though I have a case left from the 2nd batch! I need to get the new batch started soon!

Thank you! Now is probably a great time to buy it. Just in time for the holidays.

 

[winemaker81]

I haven't made the RJS Specialty Toasted Caramel dessert wine, but I've made numerous other ports. Like Joni, I bottle in 375 ml bottles.

My last one was the Global Vintners Chocolate/Raspberry Apres. After clearing, I put it in a 3 gallon carboy and topped with 3/4 bottle of red wine. I bulk aged 6.5 months, and added glycerin at bottling.

These wines are drinkable very quickly, and also improve with age.

 

[JB005]

Also, thank you for the info. I ordered the toasted caramel today. Home Brew Ohio has it for $110 and I also ordered the FastFerment 3G conical fermenter for $36 (Amazon). I'm excited for my orders to come.

Did you add the glycerin to sweeten or thicken the wine?

Have you thought of adding brandy to make it more of a traditional port?

 

[Boatboy24]

Those port style kits are great. It's been a while since I've done one. But the last one I did, I chapitalized to bring up the ABV, and added brandy to finish. They are very sweet, and don't seem to have an issue handling the additional alcohol.

This reminds me - I have some older ones (2013-2014) that I should probably consume. And I'm still working on a 2013 blueberry port 'style' that turned out quite well.

 

[winemaker81]

Did you add the glycerin to sweeten or thicken the wine?

I use it to increase mouthfeel and to smooth the wine. I find that in reds it doesn't contribute sweetness as much as smoothing the oak tones. Reds are drinkable sooner, but IME it doesn't affect the lifespan.

I haven't added liquor -- yet. The Chocolate/Raspberry Apres had an extra sugar pack for step feeding, so the final result was 17.7% ABV by my calculation. Previous kits were between 15% and 16.5% ABV. Next time I do one of these kits, I plan to add Everclear to bump the ABV to 19%, and not use sorbate.

 

[JB005]

Those port style kits are great. It's been a while since I've done one. But the last one I did, I chapitalized to bring up the ABV, and added brandy to finish. They are very sweet, and don't seem to have an issue handling the additional alcohol.

This reminds me - I have some older ones (2013-2014) that I should probably consume. And I'm still working on a 2013 blueberry port 'style' that turned out quite well.

Sounds delicious.

What recipe did you use for the blueberry port style wine?