What are you making and what have you made ???

Because thats dry (1.000).
So, add 1/2 point of alcohol when it goes lower than 1.000.

Harvested Tempranillo, Cabernet, Mourvedre, and Touriga National from 3 & 4 year old vines. The blend will be 1/2 Tempranillo, 1/4 Touriga National, 1/8 Mourvedre and 1/8 Cab. Grapes are resting in freezer now because we are planning a wedding here in Nov. No time to make wine! Got the wedding wine at the BevMo 5 cent sale. All Robert Parker or Wine Enthusiast rated over 90 points. Spent $440 on what would have been $880.

I found out why it wasn't working for me. It was from a brain fart. Because I wasn't thinking correctly, I was putting in .0998 for my target SG rather than the 1.085 to get the amount of sugar that I needed to START the fermenting process. I was inserting the amount of the FINISHED SG. Stupid mistake. I just couldn't understand why it was working perfectly one time I used it and then a week later, it wasn't. I won't make that mistake again.

Another "newbie" issue.

Primary
5gal Apple Wine
5gal Concord Grape Wine (med-heavy body)
3gal Apple Pie Spice Wine
3gal Green tomato Wine

Secondary
6gal Pear Melomel
6gal Pear Wine (100% juice)
3gal Perry

Aging
3gal Sumac Wine

Bottled
2010
Pear Wine (50% juice 50% water)
Concord Grape Wine (med body)

2009
Pear Wine (Winemakers Recipe Handbook)

Future
Highbush Cranberry
Mead
Weltch

Primary:
Prepping the season, fruit is growing....

Secondary:
n/a

Bulk aging:
Cranberry (cocktail concentrate, 1 gallon)
Skittle (from, well, skittles; 6.5 gallon)
Candy Cane
Plum/Syrah port (fruit/concentrate/brandy, 4 gallons)
Malbec (kit, 6 gallons)
Plum (fruit, 5 gallons)
Apple/cherry (concentrate, 1 gallon)
Marionberry (frozen fruit, 1 gallon)
Pomegranate Limeade (fresh juice, 1 gallon)

Bottled:
n/a

On deck:
Fermentation room now closed for the season.

Aging Cabernet Sauvignon from Lake County, Ca and Merlot from Yakima Valley, Wa from 2010.

Planning on some Cabernet Sauvignon again from Lake County, Ca and some Pinot Grigio from Central Valley, Ca this year.

We were planning on some Red Zinfandel from Lake County, Ca but were told that the harvest was sup-par and they are not shipping. At least, they are not shipping to us....

Because we'll have some empty carboys come spring due to the Red Zin, we may plan on some Chilean Malbec if we can swing it price wise.

BOTTLED;
WinExpert, Cab Merlot
WinExpert, Cab Franc x2
WinExpert, Astralian Chardonnay x2
2011
WinExpert, Vieux Château Du Roi
Gran Cru, Chardonnay
En Primeur, Australian Chardonnay x3
WinExpert, Valpolicella
RJS Cellar Select, Rossa Grande
WinExpert, Australian Chardonnay (‘batonnage’ )
Mosto Bello Soave Classico (Juice)
Ragina Reisling (juice)
2012
WE Sonoma Dry Creek Valley Chardonnay
WE Nero D'Avola (with grape pack)
En Primeur, Amerone
En Primeur, Australian Chardonnay

Fermenting:
Bella Chilean (juice) Chardonnay x3
Bella Chilean Malbec x3
Bella Chilean Syrah
Bella Chilean Reisling
Bella Chilean Viongier

In Batonnage
EP Austrailian Chard, w 1lb yellow Raisin pack
EP Austrailian Chard without

Finishing



Bulk Aging
MM Renascence Impressions Merlot
CC Gruner Veltliner
Mosto Bello Brunello (Juice, made to port due to stuck ferm)
MM Renascence Impressions Chateau de Pays
L'uva Bella Barolo (Juice)
WinExpert Port

On Deck

Primary:

Secondary/Bulk Aging:
Walker's Geisenheim
Winexpert LE Washington Meritage
Walker's Concord
Walker's Niagara
Chianti
Pinot Noir
Zinfandel

Cold Stabilizing:
Chardonnay
Riesling

Bottled 2012:
Country Apple
Red Raspberry
Steuben

Bottled 2011:
Winexpert Green Apple Riesling
Winexpert Shiraz/Zinfandel
Winexpert LE Pacifica White x2
Winexpert LE Primativo
Winexpert Gewurztraminer
Winexpert Wildberry Shiraz
Geisenheim

Here's what I've done since I re-stared doing kits again.

Bottled:
WinExpert
Premium Valpolicella (promising); 2x Australian Shiraz (excellent);
Diablo Rojo - a Merlot blend (sucks).
Estate Series Barolo - had a taste - WOW.
International Series Amarone, Montepulciano, Sicilian Nero d'Avola
RJ Spagnol
en Premeur, Chilean Carmenère (another WOW factor), Chilean Talagante Merlot

In carboys:
Winexpert
Estate Series Zinfandel

RJ Spagnol
Cellar Classic, Italian Super Tuscan

Between 2001 and 2005 I did a Merlot, Pinot Noir, Shiraz

shen said:

Priimary:
Bottled 2011:
Winexpert Green Apple Riesling
Winexpert Shiraz/Zinfandel
Winexpert LE Pacifica White x2
Winexpert LE Primativo
Winexpert Gewurztraminer
Winexpert Wildberry Shiraz
Geisenheim

Click to expand...

Any comments on the Winexpert LE Primativo?

tonyt said:

Any comments on the Winexpert LE Primativo?

Click to expand...

Its only about 6 months old, but for a young wine, it's very nice.

Super Tuscan

Well, started this kit earlier this year. This past weekend I split the batch in 2 and bottled 3 gallons and kept remaining 3 gallons bulk aging. Very impressed with this kit. The aroma is great, the taste is good with a little bite and potentially great in another year but actually drinkable right now. Would definitely make this kit again.

Javila said:

Well, started this kit earlier this year. This past weekend I split the batch in 2 and bottled 3 gallons and kept remaining 3 gallons bulk aging. Very impressed with this kit. The aroma is great, the taste is good with a little bite and potentially great in another year but actually drinkable right now. Would definitely make this kit again.

Click to expand...

Which Super Tuscan kit is this that you made?

It was the RJ Spagnols cellar classic, I believe it came with merlot grape skins.

OK, I finally have a list after almost a year:

Finished:
1. Wild Berry White Zinfadel. - Summer Breezin kit - 6 gallons

Aging:
2. Niagara - Walkers hotpack juice - 5 gallons
3. Wine Expert Riesling Ice Style Wine(kit) - 3 gallons

In the works:
Candy Cane - 6 gallons

Dreaming about:
Blackberry Merlot

White Cranberry Pinot Gris (Vitis Vinifera)

This was a problematic kit that Johnna got off the dusty shelf of local wine supply store. I think it had been sitting there for a while. I never checked the date on the box. This was an Island Mist White Cranberry Pinot Gris. From the moment I added the yeast, this batch just plain stank! I mean the old rotten egg sulphur stank. I was worried that it had gone bad on the shelf. But I didn't thow it out. When I racked it to the carboy, it stank even more. When I added the f-pack, there was a bunch of whitish lumps in the pack which were very hard to dissolve in the wine. After I had stirred it all in, I then thought better of what I had just done. Something wasn't right.

Never wanting to throw away wine, I left it sit. This was supposed to be a "quick drinker"; done in 30 days. After three month sitting quietly in the carboy, it had not cleared, having a strange layered patterned to the suspended sediments. I did some reading and became suspicious.

The first test I did on this batch was for pectin. Bingo! The wine tested positive for pectin, so I added a dose of pectic enzyme. Two weeks later, it was crystal clear! Thank Dionysus! I'd saved the wine! It still seemed to lack complexity in the end (I know---I shouldn't expect much from a cheap kit), so I hadded a one ounce bottle of natural mango extract at bottling time. This gave it more depth of flavor, adding a bit of "earthy" fruitiness that the cranberry lacked. The wife called it "superb!" Hugs and kisses for the Winemaster Wannabe!

I bottled it last night...

dangerdave said:

This was a problematic kit that Johnna got off the dusty shelf of local wine supply store. I think it had been sitting there for a while. I never checked the date on the

Click to expand...

Congrats Dave - hope ALL will end well.

Last Projects for 2011

These are my last wines for 2011. The red ones on the left are about 8 gallons of Cabernet Sauvignon that was made from grapes harvested from a local vineyard. The second from the left is 5 gallons of apple wine that was made from apple cider that I obtained from a local orchard. The honey colored one (2nd from the right) is a blend of Scuppernong Wine and Apple Wine. The three red ones on the right are cranberry wine. The cranberry wine was my last wine project. I had a difficult time getting this to start fermenting due to the naturally low pH (starting at 2.6). I was able to adjust the pH to 3.2 and fermentation finally started. I anticipate I will bulk age all 4 wines until spring, when I plan to bottle.

dangerdave

have you read the thread when good wines gone bad and the cloudy wine thread?it will give you a good bassis of how and why it happens(cloudy wine that is )

Looks great, Paul. Are you planning anything this winter?