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R&J HOME VINTERS

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Two months ago, I was fortunate to come into a very large load of fresh red grapes! (I work in the fruit market and they weren't class A). I bought myself a fruit press and extracted 40 litres of fresh juice. I split them into two lots one of 25 and 15. I enriched the 15 litre batch with red grape skins and added enough glucose to bring it to a starting point which should yield about 12/14% alcohol, added a robust yeast and nutrient. I left the skins in this batch for 8 days. I was looking for a dark red colour. Apart from the from the colour it all came out quite well. More of a rose than a red, a little sweet, quite light but a fruity and light spice flavour. Hope it will mature, not too bad an outcome.

As for the 25 litre batch, I thought I will go with the light colour, heading for a rose! But I wanted to get a mild refermentation in the bottle to give it a little sparkle.
Here is where it goes wrong. Fermented just as successfully as the 15 litre batch, lighter and sweeter as I added enough glucose to take it into the dessert wine range and the grape skins weren't added.
It was beautifully clear and a lovely pink. I added some champagne yeast, hoping for a little more fermentation. I intended to bottle the next day, but circumstances delayed this by a couple of days. When I got around to bottling, it was BLACK! as the Early of Hell's Waistcoat (old Scottish saying :))
I considered dumping it, it looked so awful. But I though hey hoe, I'll give something a go. I used a two part finings procedure. The outcome was a CLEAR WASH! No colour and no flavour just sweet, with a substantial body!
I have ran it though my wine filter and it is as very clear.
I'd love feedback and suggestions as where to from here
Rob ;)
 
Just a thought, but maybe a wine making site?
 
R&J HOME VINTERS said:
Two months ago, I was fortunate to come into a very large load of fresh red grapes! (I work in the fruit market and they weren't class A). I bought myself a fruit press and extracted 40 litres of fresh juice. I split them into two lots one of 25 and 15. I enriched the 15 litre batch with red grape skins and added enough glucose to bring it to a starting point which should yield about 12/14% alcohol, added a robust yeast and nutrient. I left the skins in this batch for 8 days. I was looking for a dark red colour. Apart from the from the colour it all came out quite well. More of a rose than a red, a little sweet, quite light but a fruity and light spice flavour. Hope it will mature, not too bad an outcome.

As for the 25 litre batch, I thought I will go with the light colour, heading for a rose! But I wanted to get a mild refermentation in the bottle to give it a little sparkle.
Here is where it goes wrong. Fermented just as successfully as the 15 litre batch, lighter and sweeter as I added enough glucose to take it into the dessert wine range and the grape skins weren't added.
It was beautifully clear and a lovely pink. I added some champagne yeast, hoping for a little more fermentation. I intended to bottle the next day, but circumstances delayed this by a couple of days. When I got around to bottling, it was BLACK! as the Early of Hell's Waistcoat (old Scottish saying :))
I considered dumping it, it looked so awful. But I though hey hoe, I'll give something a go. I used a two part finings procedure. The outcome was a CLEAR WASH! No colour and no flavour just sweet, with a substantial body!
I have ran it though my wine filter and it is as very clear.
I'd love feedback and suggestions as where to from here
Rob ;)
Click to expand...

Odd that it would turn black, and then clear with finings- I've been making wine for 30 years and never seen that happen. Did you use sulfites during the process? One thing to keep in mind that adding more yeast to an already high alcohol wine probably won't give you more fermentation- you'd have to acclimate it to the high alcohol level gradually. It's tricky to do in the best of circumstances, so next time I'd suggest starting with the wine yeast that will give you the desired ABV.

That's not why the color turned though- that could be oxidation without sulfites- but it also doesn't explain why the finings totally stripped all color unless you had a ton of sediment suspened and the finings had it drop out. How many times was this wine racked, and what was the SO2 level (if sulfited)?
 
R&J HOME VINTERS said:
Two months ago, I was fortunate to come into a very large load of fresh red grapes! (I work in the fruit market and they weren't class A). I bought myself a fruit press and extracted 40 litres of fresh juice. I split them into two lots one of 25 and 15. I enriched the 15 litre batch with red grape skins and added enough glucose to bring it to a starting point which should yield about 12/14% alcohol, added a robust yeast and nutrient. I left the skins in this batch for 8 days. I was looking for a dark red colour. Apart from the from the colour it all came out quite well. More of a rose than a red, a little sweet, quite light but a fruity and light spice flavour. Hope it will mature, not too bad an outcome.

As for the 25 litre batch, I thought I will go with the light colour, heading for a rose! But I wanted to get a mild refermentation in the bottle to give it a little sparkle.
Here is where it goes wrong. Fermented just as successfully as the 15 litre batch, lighter and sweeter as I added enough glucose to take it into the dessert wine range and the grape skins weren't added.
It was beautifully clear and a lovely pink. I added some champagne yeast, hoping for a little more fermentation. I intended to bottle the next day, but circumstances delayed this by a couple of days. When I got around to bottling, it was BLACK! as the Early of Hell's Waistcoat (old Scottish saying :))
I considered dumping it, it looked so awful. But I though hey hoe, I'll give something a go. I used a two part finings procedure. The outcome was a CLEAR WASH! No colour and no flavour just sweet, with a substantial body!
I have ran it though my wine filter and it is as very clear.
I'd love feedback and suggestions as where to from here
Rob ;)
Click to expand...

What finings did you use? pink to black to clear is a very unusual color change.
 
So the question is what to do from here.

For my bit, I say bottle it. I assume it still tastes ok? Not sure what to call it, but "wine" comes to mind. More specifically, "Grape Wine".

Let us know what happened next!
 
Yooper said:
Odd that it would turn black, and then clear with finings- I've been making wine for 30 years and never seen that happen. Did you use sulfites during the process? One thing to keep in mind that adding more yeast to an already high alcohol wine probably won't give you more fermentation- you'd have to acclimate it to the high alcohol level gradually. It's tricky to do in the best of circumstances, so next time I'd suggest starting with the wine yeast that will give you the desired ABV.

That's not why the color turned though- that could be oxidation without sulfites- but it also doesn't explain why the finings totally stripped all color unless you had a ton of sediment suspened and the finings had it drop out. How many times was this wine racked, and what was the SO2 level (if sulfited)?
Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply!
I racked it three time, 1st from fermentation, 2nd from finings and 3rd from 2nd fining to get the result I have now. Not sure what the sulphite level would be, I am not that experienced. BTW it has not only has it stripped the colour, it stripped all the flavour too!
 
Donoroto said:
So the question is what to do from here.

For my bit, I say bottle it. I assume it still tastes ok? Not sure what to call it, but "wine" comes to mind. More specifically, "Grape Wine".

Let us know what happened next!
Click to expand...
I have a couple of thoughts on what to do with it. It has no colour and no flavour it has got body and is sweet and about 14%.
I was thinking of flavouring it and carbonating it, might make interesting fruit perrys! My other thought was to dilute to about 6% flavour and carbonate and give me enough alcopops to see me into the next millennium. lol
 
It's been far too long since I made wine, so nothing from me there.
But you got alcohol now.
You could make a rumtop (rumtopf), layers of seasonal fruits submerged in alcohol.
Your alcohol percentage is a bit low for it though. You could distill it, or put it in the freezer. Water freezes before alcohol, so keep removing the frozen bits to get a higher alcohol percentage
 
R&J HOME VINTERS said:
LOL good idea, I had just done a general search for advice and landed here and saw a few relative posts.
Click to expand...

You're welcome here. I've only been brewing for about 18 years or so, but making wine for more than 30 years so I think I've good a good grasp on winemaking techniques...

I just started some of my fall wines. I have 17 gallons of blackberry wine about ready to go into secondary, 4 gallons of aronia berry wine newly in primary, and I'm start some black current wine in the next day or so. My grape wines will be started in about two weeks, once the berries are more ripe and sweet.

I've made wine from everything I could think of- tomatoes, large quantities of commercial cranberry sauce (the kind with whole berries), rhubarb, dandelions, and of course grapes. I've also done plum wine, crabapple, apple, etc, and ciders and hard lemonades. My motto has been "if it doesn't move, ferment it!". I've also got sauerkraut started, kombucha going, and of course....beer!
 
Zambezi Special said:
It's been far too long since I made wine, so nothing from me there.
But you got alcohol now.
You could make a rumtop (rumtopf), layers of seasonal fruits submerged in alcohol.
Your alcohol percentage is a bit low for it though. You could distill it, or put it in the freezer. Water freezes before alcohol, so keep removing the frozen bits to get a higher alcohol percentage
Click to expand...
ooooh, Sangria:)
 
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