syncnite
New Wine Maker
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2011
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I’m using a portion of a 5 gallon frozen pail of Zin must to make 1 gallon of Zin Port. I only occasionally enjoy Port, so I didn’t want 3 gallons of it. I am posting the steps I used here because it may help someone else with a similar objective, and/or someone will point out some possible improvements in my process.
I started with a 5 gallon frozen pail of Zin I purchased from WGD (winegrapesdirect dot com). Normally this would result in 3 gallons of wine. I am splitting it before fermentation to make 2 gallons of Zin and 1 Gallon of Zin Port. Here are my Port steps:
That last step was a few days ago, so it’s still in the gallon jug with an air lock. At some point, I’ll rack it again and add some oak cubes. Age for 6-18 months before bottling.
I started with a 5 gallon frozen pail of Zin I purchased from WGD (winegrapesdirect dot com). Normally this would result in 3 gallons of wine. I am splitting it before fermentation to make 2 gallons of Zin and 1 Gallon of Zin Port. Here are my Port steps:
- Take out 1.5 gallons of must from Zin bucket. I’m targeting 3 liters of wine from this.
- It started at 31 Brix naturally. I would later add sugar to raise it 2 Brix.
- Start fermenting with a low-alcohol tolerant yeast. Add sugar two days in. (To raise 1 gallon of must by 1 Brix, add 1.5 oz of sugar dissolved in 80-90 degree water).
- Ferment down to 8-9 Brix. There’s my residual sugar.
- Since my target alcohol is 19-20%, I’ll blend with Cognac at a 4:1 ratio based on Pearson Square. Conveniently, this requires 1 bottle (750ml) Cognac to 3 liters base wine, which fills a 1 gallon jug.
- Pour 1 bottle of Cognac (750ml) into a sanitized 1 gallon jug.
- Press the grapes by hand (the must is at 8-9% Brix). Discard the solids. Filter Zin through sieve and top off the 1 gallon jug with the Cognac already in it.
- Later that day, there was lots of sludge and some bubbling. So racked off sludge and topped off with a bit of port and Zin. Whatever. Added a tiny bit of PMBS.
That last step was a few days ago, so it’s still in the gallon jug with an air lock. At some point, I’ll rack it again and add some oak cubes. Age for 6-18 months before bottling.