WineXpert Washington Riesling ??

I just pitched the yeast on some Washington Riesling this evening. The SG was 1.080. I know some of you have made this. What is your opinion of this wine?

I have made Washington Riesling from grapes. Hope you saved some juice for a Swiss reserve. This will be dry when done so if you like your Riesling at all sweet ,you will need to backsweetin. I like to do reserve on Riesling. You can cheap with Thompson White grape juice

Yes there is an F pac

Sorry I just noticed this was in the Kit section

I made this kit and the WE VR reisling. They've developed differently over time. At first I didn't really like either. Then the VR tasted better after being a year old. Now the complex flavors are gone from the VR and the SE Columbia Valley tastes great. You won't be dissapointed if you like a semi sweet reisling.

Okay thanks.
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okwine39 said:

I just pitched the yeast on some Washington Riesling this evening. The SG was 1.080. I know some of you have made this. What is your opinion of this wine?

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I bottled the Value Vintners Reserve Washington Riesling last weekend as my first wine kit. Just before I pitched the yeast I got a starting SG of 1.090 it took 12 days in the Primary to get the SG down to 1.010 before I transferred it to the secondary. It took me another 13 days in the secondary to get the SG down to .996. When I added the F-pack which raised the SG to 1.002. I spend quit a bit of time degassing this wine over the period of a hour or more it kept releasing CO2. Before I bottled I racked and added 1/4 tsp of sulphite, and let it sit for a few more days as the racking made it a bit cloudy.

I did taste the wine when I bottled and it had a bit more tang to it than I would have expected more like a Gewurztraminer. I will see how it is after a few months in the bottle.

I wonder why our two kits had different starting SG's.

CB750 said:

I did taste the wine when I bottled and it had a bit more tang to it than I would have expected more like a Gewurztraminer. I will see how it is after a few months in the bottle.

I wonder why our two kits had different starting SG's.

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My guess is one added more water then the other or did one of you add part of the fpack up front. The other thing that could make the difference in starting sg is the amount of stirring each of you did.

The tang taste could either be CO2 or sulfite your tasting. Time should cure this.

I used a 6 1/2+ gallon carboy for my primary and topped it it to the 6 gallon mark with water. I did mix and shake the carboy quite vigorously before I pitched the yeast as getting a lot of oxygen into the wine/wort is something I do when I brew beer. I assumed the same thing was important in wine making as the fermentation process is the same. Was this wrong?

I did not add the F-pack until after the Secondary was completed and after I added the sulfite and sorbate.

My guess is then okwine39 may have added a bit more water to compensate for the extra space in the carboy.

You are correct. Actually I fault Wine Expert in how they put their kits together. They start you with 6 gallons in the primary. When you rack to the secondary you loose at least one to two quarts or more of sludge made up of bentonite, yeast, and oak chips if you make a red. If you transfer again to add more sulphite and clarification before bottling you will loose more wine due to the sludge on the bottom of the carboy and have to make it up by adding more water or wine.

They should put their kits together so that you start out with around 6 1/2 gallons in the primary to make up for this loss especially if you are making a wine without an f-pack. For my next kit I am going to add more water to my primary mix to make up for this loss. I figure it is better to start out with a lower SG in the primary than to add up to two quarts of water to the secondary for stabilizing and clearing.

No I didnt top off with water. I topped off with Yellow Tail Riesling. It wound up taking about 5 bottles with both rackings to keep it topped off in my carboy. Oh well I would rather do that then rack in some lees. I have bottled this wine about a week ago and it turned out very well.

The f-pack is a substitute for topping off with water it's better than watering the wine.

I don't worry to much about taking lees on first 2 racking because I know I will be racking again. Why loose the volume? Also remember not all carboys are the same volume even though they say they are 6 gallons. Make up shortages in fermentors(while still fermenting) with grape juice helps avoid a watered down taste.

This has been in the bottle for two years and it is excellent. Off-dry and good aroma of apple and pear. Considering that I can usually detect nothing much for aroma in any wine, I guess you can say this has a strong fruity aroma. It's not syrupy sweet like some Rieslings. Just sweet enough to be called off-dry.

I'm picking Riesling from Bacchus Vineyard today, going to ferment it dry. I'll let ya know how it goes.

When I was in the service stationed in Germany, my wife and I had a lot of Riesling. It always had a background taste of green apples to me so when I make it at home I either juice some Granny Smith apples or use a green apple extract for that flavor. I turns out pretty darn good.

CB750 said:

I wonder why our two kits had different starting SG's.

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It could be as simple as the temp