when good wines gone bad

[joeswine]

Here is the beginning of the process. We are starting with an inexpensive wine kit from Wine Expert- World Vineyard. It's an Italian Sangiovese. My friend, Katie (Neviawen from the forum here) was here at my house to document the process for us all. I will include pictures throughout the making of this kit, as well as what we are going to do to take an inexpensive kit and make great wine from it.

Step 1: We have acquired our kit, sanitized everything, and laid out all of our tools before we started.

Step2: Added 1/2 gallon of hot water to my fermentation bucket and added bentonite. Stirred until no clumps.

Step 3: Opened up the bag of "grape juice" and dumped into the bucket and stirred.

Step 4; Added 1/2 gal of spring water to the empty bag (where the juice came from, to rinse it out) and swished it around. Added that to the bucket and stirred.

Step 5: Topped the bucket off w/ spring water to the 6 gallon mark and stirred more.

Step 6: Took our specific gravity reading. Posted that on our hanging tag.

Step 7: Added 2 bags of oak chips and pitched the yeast. (sprinkled it on top, do not stir).

Step 8: Cover the top of the bucket with a clean towel. This will prevent anything from falling into it.

Then we wait 5-7 days. We will then move onto the next phase.

 

[joeswine]

Few more pictures to wrap up the last post.) These ones are of me stirring in the toasted oak, pitching the yeast, and what it looks like in the bucket.
At the end, don't forget to write the Specific Gravity on your tag and hang the tag on the bucket so you don't forget.This is the end of the basics,once primary is completed,the fun begins...

stay tuned.

 

[joeswine]

Fermentation

And now a boring process starts fermentation, right after that were going to tweak this wine and turn it into something very special.. Go back and read all the steps..

 

[joeswine]

Ok, today is 7 days from when we started this kit. We took our specific gravity reading and it is at 1.028. Slowly it's fermenting dry.
I also put up a picture of what the bucket looks like right now. You can see there are some bubbles and oak chips floating on top. It smells great! Stay tuned- it will be going into the carboy for secondary fermentation soon..

 

[Neviawen]

For those watching the process of this new Sangiovese kit, I wanted to send you a neat little clip Joeswine and I put together. We put it on youtube, too! As we post more on this kit we will make more mini videos to demonstrate the process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjR4AmgcYRU

Cheers!
Neviawen (Kate)

 

[Rocky]

Katie and Joe, thank you very much for an informative view of the process. Very well done.

 

[joeswine]

thanks rocky,she knows how to put the pics together,it's really getting to be fun.

 

[joeswine]

Sorry this was so late getting posted. I had a few hectic weeks. I did manage to take the pictures to keep up with the process. Here we go- it’s getting interesting!

10 days after we started this kit, we checked the Specific Gravity and it is 1.000- it is almost dry. Now is when we add the raisons and powdered oak (wine tannin powder). We are using 1 pound of black raisons (you can use white raisons for white wines) and we are using 4 tbsp. of the powdered oak.

Here is a picture of the powdered oak and raisons at the bottom of our carboy.

For our demonstration we are using the auto-syphon instead of my wine pump. This is the most basic tool for this job and is what most beginner home winemakers have handy. Transferring the wine from the primary fermentation bucket to the carboy helps to degas the wine.

When you get to the bottom of the bucket when syphoning, you can use wedges to prop up one end of the bucket. This helps you get the most out of your wine.

We now have our wine in the 6 gallon carboy. Let’s stir it up good to get all the raisons and powdered oak mixed well. This also will help degas more.

We are using a 6 gallon carboy but only have a 5 gallon batch of wine. I am filling the remaining 1 gallon of headspace with Nitrogen.Once this is racked again it will go into a 5 gallon carboy.

As always, we write our latest specific gravity reading on our tag and hang it on the carboy.

Cover the carboy up with a towel to keep light out.

 

[joeswine]

And now we wait

THIS IS THE PART WHEN THE ELEMENTS WE PLACED INTO THE MIX HAVE TO WORK OUT WHAT ROLES THEY PLAY AND THEY CONTROL THE OUT COME...STAY TUNED, ALSO ON CLEANING UP THREAD- KATIE AND i started a new thread on ZESTING.................in pics.

 

[shoebiedoo]

Great topic Joe. question, what is the advantage of putting the raisins in secondary vs primary? How long will you leave them in? And last but not least, you mentioned you were adding oak powder but the picture showed tannin. Is there a real difference. OK one more, In a different conversation, you talked about adding powder during primary A LOT of it. Here you're using 4 tablespoons. Why the reduction in quantity?

Thanks again Joe

 

[joeswine]

Break down

The additive I use it powdered Oak tannin, that is what was in the bag. I used 4 tablespoons of this in the secondary, that's a lot. It goes a long way . I also added more at the end of the secondary fermentation ,, . I am hoping that it will add to the compositional makeup of the sangiovese


Raisins in the secondary, it is like adding an additive in flavor to the sauce. It will also create a secondary fermentation small thow it may be it will create a secondary fermentation, as the alcohol from the primary rehydrates and saturate the raisins, the raisins will give their essence , extract up and blend with the wine. If you notice the picture you will see in the bottom of the carboy a mixture of tannin and raisins, some people think it is hard to get out ,a little work never bothered me, do not chop them up. That is a waste of time because the alcohol will do a extraction. Now what happens to the SANGIOVESE it's going to rest. This is a very new wine. I believe it is like an eight week kit which you barely on two to three weeks in the making, so it is that time to set and in the meantime the Oak will add texture to the body of the wine. At least that is the plan, raisins, in the secondary are the only way to go- in the secondary. In my opinion is only a conflict other wise and no benefit to the winemaker, but that is just my opinion is the way do my thing.


On the- thread cleaning- up Kate and I are going to start a whole new process of zesting in a pictorial format............ stay tuned

 

[dangerdave]

Good info, Joe. Thanks!

 

[dangerdave]

Ok, Joe. Great pics, by the way.

Someone asked, but I couldn't find the answer in the thread. How long do you leave your wine on the raisins in the carboy before racking?

 

[Runningwolf]

Ok Joe and Kate, I've been missing the last two pages of this thread. I've got two things to say right off the bat. Number one is "WOW" and number two is "Kate is doing the typing" LOL. You two are doing an outstanding job. I am going to be following this exact same process in about a week. I have ten pails of Chilean coming. After my primary fermentation everything will be done in five gallon batches (I will follow your lead of 5g in a 6g carboy). The extra gallon from each batch will be all blended together for future toppings and a final port. The raisins are ready, The oak styx are standing by for long aging, I just need to get the oak and tannin for the secondary. Once again, thanks for your contributions.

 

[joeswine]

The process

Thank you Dan and Dave, the process itself is very simple to follow both you guys are smarter than the process. The work is on in the secondary ,heavy pound the raisins in the secondary and powdered Oak of whatever type you choose also in the secondary do not go overboard with the powdered Oak, you can always add more later if you need to. Actually most of the writing is mine and the pics are hers, and some cases is my verbiage for writing ,it is a team effort. Right now SANGIOVESE is setting maturing this Thursday her and I will do a tasting in search of the characteristics of the wine itself, then we will let you know where were at, I have always stated that you can make any standard kit a decent wine, maybe not a great wine, but one that stands out above with the manufacture created to be and putting your stamp on it.. Stay tuned

 

[dangerdave]

Hey Joe! How long do you leave the raisins in your wine!

 

[joeswine]

rasins in the wine

depending on the style of wine your making.

fresh juice,in secondary at least 1 month or until you see signs that fermentation has comes to a halt.You can always leave them in longer its all a matter of taste,some reds will not benefit,remember that.

kit,depends on the type of wine,none the less you will see secondary fermentation start very fine bubbles and then none,your done .

My sangnovese is almost completed now we will taste test this Thursday evening and let you know how the tweak is coming.thanks for following.yours JP

 

[dangerdave]

Thanks, Joe. As usual, I'll make it to taste. I've got three wines I'm trying this way now (since you insisted so strongly). A coastal white with mangos soaking, a cab sauv with currants, and a petit syrah with rasins. They were all dry by the time I racked them onto the fruit. We'll indeed see how these tweak up! I love trying new techniques!

Thanks for the continued inspriration, Joe!

 

[hocke230]

Thanks, Joe. As usual, I'll make it to taste. I've got three wines I'm trying this way now (since you insisted so strongly). A coastal white with mangos soaking, a cab sauv with currants, and a petit syrah with rasins. They were all dry by the time I racked them onto the fruit. We'll indeed see how these tweak up! I love trying new techniques!

Thanks for the continued inspriration, Joe!

Dave - won’t the mangos rot and go bad? Or are you using dehydrated fruit?

 

[joeswine]

Think outside the box

WHEN EXPERIMENTING WITH BLENDS IT CAN WORK OUT GREAT OR SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN OR NOT AT ALL,IT'S HIT OR MISS,OR SPOT ON,SO WHICH EVER THE ENDING AT LEAST YOU HAVE TRIED TO PUT YOUR STAMP ON THE FINISH PRODUCT AND MADE IT YOURS.

THINK OUT SIDE THE BOX