What's going on in your winery today..

[Cellar_Rat]

The Washington Meritage is a tannin heavy heavy ....

Surprised myself recently taking tannin out with egg white. Turned a rustic, v tannic* merlot into a smooth big chocolatey lovely.

*intentionally tannic to address a suspected lacasse problem.

[Delmonteman]

Surprised myself recently taking tannin out with egg white. Turned a rustic, v tannic* merlot into a smooth big chocolatey lovely.

*intentionally tannic to address a suspected lacasse problem.

.

Ooh! How did you do that then? Just whisk and add?

[Cellar_Rat]

Pretty much.

Egg White is prolly the best fining agent for red wines because it reduces the harsher tannins. It can also impart a silkiness to the wine. This is the only fining agent used on the great red wines of Burgundy.

It is also natural and suitable for vegetarians.

After researching various recommendations the dose is 1 egg white per carboy [54 litres/10 Gallons]

Since egg white contains both albumens (soluble in water) and globulin (insoluble), a bit of salt is necessary.

Process
A small pinch of table salt should be added to a cup or so of warm water. One part egg-white should be mixed with two parts salt water.

The mixture should be stirred thoroughly before being added to the wine, but no beaten to a meringue.

Add the egg-white mixture to the wine slowly and stir continuously. The wine should be racked in a week or 2.

The optimum temperature is 10 to 25˚C. It Works best in the lower part of the range.

Contra-indications: Tannins are attracted to the albumen because their surface electrical charge has been removed. The wine often becomes temporarily cloudy while the flocculates agglomerate (nice!) and then settle. There is also a very slight loss of colour.

[Delmonteman]

Mmm! Thanks Brian

Daniel

[RTPFUN]

As expected the Wilco kits didn't do as expected and in hindsight I should have guessed that the nutrient is in the yeast packet (which I didn't use) so they slowly ground to a halt and stopped at sg1000 a bit of tronozymol will get them going again. Put on a pacific quartet kit a wilco golden ale kit (for the BBQ season)and bottled the Viognier Chenin blanc kit. Rainy weekend are so productive!

[mark g]

I have 2 gallons of nettle wine fermenting in the FV for the last 10 days.

[8 barrels]

I have 2 gallons of nettle wine fermenting in the FV for the last 10 days.

I've got 2 gallons of it maturing . Have you made it before? Last time I made some it tasted absolutely vile when young - but after 18 months maturation it was quite nice.

[mark g]

Hi 8 Barrels
No it's the first time i have tried nettle wine
it's looking good when i try it next year i will let you know how it turns out.

[RTPFUN]

And you know those £7.50 Wilco Chardonney kits have come out OK. (25% 0ff and 50% off as near sell by date. Changed yeast to Lalvin K1V) 60 bottles up to the cellar. However they're only on a par with wine number one so not worth full price.

[mark g]

Just started two gallons of 5 Alive fruit juice wine.
this will give me 12 bottles at about 13% vol for only £2.60 per gallon.

[spritzer]

I'm just about to start a kit or two that's been in my cupboard for ever
Plus a batch of the home grown rhubarb wine, whilst I sample last years version

[goldseal]

It's very quiet ...

It's also quiet Chez Goldseal. Apart from regular airlock checks I haven't had time for any wine work. I'm hoping I can get some bottling done in a week or so, then I'll have room to get a couple of kits on.

Oh, hang on, Grapefest isn't too far away, so I'll need the carboys. The kits will have to wait.

[koomber]

Bottled my Merlot from Grapefest 2011. I really should have tried to pay more attention to it. Tastes allright though. Going to get the other one bottled (Can't remember what it was. Think it was Snagivase?).

Moving house soon so I think it'll be easier (although heavier) to move the wine rather than the carboys.

[ToulouseLePlot]

Alright, will the guilty culprit just put up his hands and say 'it's a fair cop'.

Bought 13 boxes of merlot yesterday from my friendly fruiterer of Bedford (in the 60s it used to arrive in open railway trucks to serve the demand of the large Italian population). "Is making red wine dying-out in the Bedford area?" I asked, friendly fruiterer nods and adds "Yes, it's only the old 'uns can be bothered now. For some reason there's much more going on in Peterborough."

He's actually tipped the balance of a small part of the economy.

...some thirst!

[Pords]

Just cleaned and rinsed 70 bottles that had been sat in the garage gathering dust. Now drying on the worktop to the missus dismay, glad I bought a bottle tree. Have to pop to local brew shop to pick up an additional 60 bottles for the other batch I'm starting this week.