WM81 Fall 2023 Experiments

[winemaker81]

I really appreciate the plug for good grapes. It is a challenge to keep everything clean and in good condition.

We're VERY happy with the 2023 Vidal. It took some figuring to determine what to do with it, but a tiny bit of backsweetening fixed things. The end result is great!

The 2024 Vidal and Chardonnel received Lalvin 31 MLB, and both are already lower in the acid bite than the 2023. It helped that I used 71B, which eats malic acid.

It doesn't matter what fruit is used -- it helps to understand the situation to make better wine.

The French/American hybrids can be tricky to ferment. All in all, the whites may be a little easier. The reds will need MLF and oak to soften the acids. And a Bryan noted, blending the F/A with small amounts of vinifera can change meh to fantastic.

We really liked the reds you served on crush day. My son has very little experience with F-A hybrids, so your blends were a new experience, and he really liked them.

Off the top of my head I don't recall exactly what the blends are.

My son & I are discussing tactics for the 2024's ...

 

[winemaker81]

Note on blending the Chambourcin and Merlot: this was not done blind. I keep a 10 ml syringe handy, and we put 90 ml Chambourcin and 10 ml Merlot in a glass for taste testing. We really liked it -- it wasn't just an "improved" Chambourcin -- it is a good wine overall. One we'll be happy to have 4 cases of.

I need to get larger syringes, to reduce effort when measuring the larger quantities.

As I've mentioned, using metric when working in wine makes things easier. Trying to do these quantities in English measurement would not work any where near as well.

 

[wood1954]

My local farm store has syringes that go up to 35 ml. Makes things easier.

 

[winemaker81]

We were down to two of the 2023 wines yet to bottle: the Merlot and the Sangiovese. Tomorrow morning we bottle the Sangiovese and move the 2024 Pinot Noir into that barrel.

This morning I racked 3 containers:

• 19 liters Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot
• 12 liters Merlot
• 4 liters Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc, residue from the barrels.

The last one has been clearing in the fridge for 2 weeks. When we poured the remaining wine from the barrels, it was pure mud. People without experience in this would consider it trash. After 24 hours, the sediment had settled to a 1" layer:



I think this jug is mostly CF, from the color. Maybe 3 liters CF and 1 liter CS.

The CS/Merlot was good on its own, the Merlot was good on its own. but the blend was "off". It's hard to define, but it didn't taste as good as either component.

Adding in 4 liters of barrel aged wine changed it completely, jacking up the complexity. We got 3.5 cases from it, and I wish we had more. I can't say it's better than the CS blend or the CF varietal, but it's good.

There isn't enough wine to justify any effort in blending, so I just Frankenwined it (blended blindly). The result is a nice surprise. I had a humorous label designed, but this one deserves a serious label. That is forthcoming.

 

[winemaker81]

Sunday my son, his girlfriend, and I bottled most of the Sangiovese. We actually ran out of bottles, so I have a 12 liter carboy that needs to be bottled.

I'm going to buy some EverClear and make a port out of about 6 bottles worth, and bottle the remainder. That will happen later this week.

His barrel now contains this year's Pinot Noir, which is 2 juice buckets fermented with the pomace from 300 lbs each Chambourcin and Chelois. That one is interesting, even as a green wine.

 

[Ohio Bob]

I'm going to buy some EverClear and make a port out of about 6 bottles worth, and bottle the remainder. That will happen later this week.

What changes to the wine/port do you anticipate? Or are you just fortifying?

 

[winemaker81]

What changes to the wine/port do you anticipate? Or are you just fortifying?

We added 23 oz glycerin to 19 gallons of wine, so there's already some glycerin in it. I expect to:

• Add another 2 oz glycerin to bump up the mouth feel.
• Fortify the wine to 20% to 21% ABV.
• Add sugar to taste.

I won't make it super sweet. Last time the RS was about 3%.

My notes from 2 years ago are here:

https://wine.bkfazekas.com/2021-port/

 

[winemaker81]

I stopped at the ABC store today to purchase a bottle of Scotch for my son's birthday and a bottle of EverClear for the Port. I purchased 2 bottles of Scotch, a bottle of rye, and a bottle of Irish cream for my wife.

And forgot the EverClear. Guess I'm not making Port tomorrow! [ABC is closed on Sunday in NC]

Monday morning ... since I have the week off.

 

[VinesnBines]

Come on over to TN and get real Everclear 191 or roll up the road in the hollows and get rocket fuel.

 

[winemaker81]

Come on over to TN and get real Everclear 191 or roll up the road in the hollows and get rocket fuel.

Yeah, NC's max is 151 proof. I should pick up a couple of bottles of 190 when I'm out of state.

 

[winemaker81]

Above in post #124 I described the last of the 2023 wines we bottled, a Frankenwine of 19 liters Merlot and 12 liters Cabernet Sauvignon (both glass aged), with 4 liters of barrel leavings that was mostly Cabernet Franc with a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon. We netted 3 cases + 7 bottles.

When deciding what to open for dinner, I saw the extra bottle -- labels are sheets of 6, so I'd have one bottle unlabeled or I have 5 leftover labels.

The alternate plan is to open a bottle after 5 weeks to see what it's like.

I'm really happy with this one. It's rather fruity, which makes sense given it's mostly glass aged with no oak. The small amount of barrel aged wine gives it a bit more structure and tones down the fruitiness and offers a bit of woodiness in the aftertaste. It's young and needs more time in the bottle.

My son and niece each get a case, so I'll only have 1.5 cases of this one. I'll not touch it much for another year, to make it last.

 

[winemaker81]

Bottling of the 2023 wines is complete. Yesterday my son & his girlfriend came over, and we bottled the remaining 12 liter carboy of Sangiovese.

We previously discussed it and decided to make Port from some of it, using the method we did for the 2021 Port (bottled December 2022). But we didn't want 3 gallons of it, as we don't drink that much of fortified wines. So we bottled 7 bottles as a regular wine, and fortified the remainder, producing 18 split bottles.

I wrote a detailed post in the Special Interest Wines forum, in case anyone is interested in the method used.

https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/2023-port.79636/

More detailed notes are recorded on my winemaking site:

https://wine.bkfazekas.com/2023-port/