Sangee Rose from Cab - first time

I pulled a carboy of cab juice from the must to try a Sangee style Rose. Fermentation is proceeding well.

A couple newbie questions

1) I want it to be a little sweeter, than a normal dry Cab, like an alcohol around 11%, at what brix level would I stop fermentation?

2) How should I handle it between fermentation and bottling, and for how long?

Thank-you in advance for your tips and insights.

Dude, love the truck! I would dilute the must to get the abv that you want. What was the starting brix? Trying to stop a ferment can be problematic. Let it go dry, filter, SO2, add Sorbate, then back sweeten.

Thanks - great harvest truck! Starting brix was 24.
After filter, should I let it age and mature in a carboy 4-5 months as suggested in Option 1 below or bottle it. What's the difference if it ages in a carboy or a bottle?


http://www.winemakingtalk.com/3-ways-to-make-rose.html

This is what I would do.
19.5 starting brix will give you 11% abv, so you will need water down around 18% to achieve your target. I wouldn't add that much water and live with the higher abv. It has a lot of clearing to do after ferment is done. Add SO2, let it sit for a month or two and rack. Let it sit another month or two. Rack again, filter, SO2, Sorbate, back sweeten. Let it sit for another month in the carboy and assuming it is clear and is to your taste, check the SO2 and bottle.

That sounds like a plan!
Thanks

Hopefully others will give their opinions too. Since you are a "car guy", thought I would share my project.

Very nice fastback. The truck shot was done from a drone #droningForGood

Do you think this might need something like Bentonite to clear?

I filtered it and this is what it looks like. Pretty nice!
PH is 3.6, Brix 8 (started at 24), I checked and adjusted the sulfate to 50ppm.
It tastes pretty tight and young.
Should I bottle it or leave it sit?

I'm planning on letting my sangee rose sit until Feb before bottling. Be sure not to leave all that head space if you are going to leave it in the carboy. I have 3 carboys of sangee rose (Zin, Mourvèdre). Note the "head space eliminator" that I'm using in my partially filled carboy, where I vacuum the oxygen out of the head space.

Cabroper, it strikes me that your headspace is much too large even if you were to use the headspace eliminator that NorCal recommends. It takes out about 2/3 of the air, so that would effectively still leave about 1/3 of that volume's worth of air. I would worry about oxidation in this case.

Great point!
It tastes pretty tight now, will it soften on it own?

sour_grapes said:

Cabroper, it strikes me that your headspace is much too large even if you were to use the headspace eliminator that NorCal recommends. It takes out about 2/3 of the air, so that would effectively still leave about 1/3 of that volume's worth of air. I would worry about oxidation in this case.

Click to expand...

Good point, thanks for the reminder. I'm only planning on leaving it in this container for weeks vs. months.

cabroper1 said:

Great point!
It tastes pretty tight now, will it soften on it own?

Click to expand...

This is one thing that I was really surprised by; how much wine changes in the first 18 months after completing fermentation.

I think I can borrow some C02 and displace the Oxygen in there. Has anyone tried allowing dry ice to sublimate either in the container or pour it in as demonstrated in this video? Seems like an economical back-yard way to remove the Oxygen.

[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TFRlidbpmTk[/ame]

What are those other caps/bungs you are using?

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What are those other caps/bungs you are using?

NorCal said:

I'm planning on letting my sangee rose sit until Feb before bottling. Be sure not to leave all that head space if you are going to leave it in the carboy. I have 3 carboys of sangee rose (Zin, Mourvèdre). Note the "head space eliminator" that I'm using in my partially filled carboy, where I vacuum the oxygen out of the head space.

Click to expand...

I filled mine with CO2.