Grapefest 2010 Ferments

[Her Lushness]

Mine was made with the Youngs kit without flavour sachet, so with any luck this years will turn out as good as mine

(All tongue in cheek.. I've no doubt they'll both be completely different again!)

In place of the sachet, I added 1litre of Black Cherry juice I found in Morrissons to one of my gallons just to see if there's a taste difference at all.

And no, as far as I am aware, Young's Black Cherry wine kits never had a flavour sachet with them - at least the ones I've bought for the last 3 years haven't!

[kampervan]

temporillo racked sulphited and put away.

[goldseal]

The main red fermenters have been innoculated with ML bacteria. A slight miscalculation means that I didn't have quite enough, so I may have to wait until it really kicks off, then intermix with the fermenters I couldn't innoculate.

Black Cherry Port pressed and now under airlock.

[DaveH]

Merlot and Montepulciano pressed (1.5 Gall Merlot from 1 box, 5.5 Gall Monte from 5 boxes) and moved out to storage area in the garage (TC-10 temp controlled chest freezer). Trebbiano to rack off the lees tonight (down to .990).

2nd runs not implemented, as severe lack of secondary fermenters! (PPP on my part) Therefore all the grape skins popped into tupperwares and frozen (untill i can bottle my 5 Gall of HL's strawb 1/2 and 1/2). Doesn't help that i still feel like pants either! Wish i could shake this damn man flu!

[kampervan]

ok what am i doing wrong. using the richie's acid test kit 2 different lots of wines give a reading of 7.5. this seems nuts compared to everyone else. one is a mix of trebbiano and an unknown grape in a 50/50 mix. the other is pressed apple and elderflower syrup.

[lockwood1956]

How does it taste Ian?

if it was 7.5 measured as sulphuric, it would taste like sherbert dip

just thinking maybe something is up with your test kit.....perhaps try it on a wine you know is in good acidty range

rgards
Bob

[goldseal]

Trebbiano seems to have fermented out at 0.994, so I racked and stabilised it. I found some tartrate crystals at the bottom, which I wouldn't really expect until the wine cools in the garage over the winter.

[goldseal]

2nd runs appear to be coming to the end of fermentation (although it is cool in the garage and therefore difficult to tell).

Black Cherry Port appears to be running out of steam at 18+%, which I am pleased with (using K1V).

Lots of racking to do later in the week, I expect.

[koomber]

Innoculated the Merlot with Malolactic. HAd to take some wine out to make up the room. Must say it tasted pretty good already! Though I did need a pry bar to remove my lips from my teeth with the tannin.

[goldseal]

Merlot racked, degassed and stabilised. Added a couple of fantastic American white oak med toast spirals.

I don't know why, but this Merlot already tastes more mature than the 2009 version. Apart from using a different yeast, fermenting on the skins to dry and using some oak during fermentation, I did everything exactly the same .

Monte racked, degassed and stabilised. Added 150g of Hobbywine Supplies Med Toast French oak. I would have added a little more, but decided to add it to the kitchen floor instead.

In case you were wondering, 150g of oak chips takes up a LOT of room in the carboy!

EDIT: Other GF stuff ...

Black Cherry Port is now ageing for a while on a little oak. I won't leave the oak in too long, I don't want it overpowering the fruitiness.

2nd runs (rosés) are more or less ready to bottle, but I have no room for bottles.

Fruit Merlot (2nd run merlot + strawb/rasp) is ready for sweetening.

Trebbiano is clear - just waiting for time to rack and back-sweeten with some frozen Trebb juice I kept aside.

[Cellar_Rat]

I don't know why, but this Merlot already tastes more mature ...

Mine is ready tooo.

[mrdexter]

That's me double sold (I was already sold) but if I can make Merlot this year from grapefest and have it nice by the following April, I will get so many brownie points I'll be able to upgrade some more kit :-)

[Rich]

Mine tastes bland. It was cold though when I racked it and tried it.

[koomber]

Mine tastes bland. It was cold though when I racked it and tried it.

Did it need more oak?

[goldseal]

Mine tastes bland. It was cold though when I racked it and tried it.

I found the difference between cool and room temperature was dramatic.

We actually drank 90% of a bottle of the stuff this evening (couldn't quite make a full topup bottle, so it was either drink it or bin it).

I would have happily served this to a guest - really very drinkable. I'm just hoping some good oak and a year or two's ageing changes it from good to great.