my muscadine vine (questions)

[sangwitch]

Thanks to my neighbor, I just discovered this morning that I have wild muscadine vines on my property. I just went out and picked about 3/4 of a gallon freezer bag full.


Should I only be picking the deepest purple or the reddish ones as well? Will any green on the skin negatively affect my wine?I'm assuming I can keep freezing the grapes until I have enough for a batch...correct?


thanks for any inputwhatever.


r

 

[sangwitch]

Also... the grapes are either in small groups of three or four, or they're alone. There are none of the quintessential bunches. Is this because they're wild? Maybe because they're partially in the shade?

 

[rgecaprock]

Sang,


I think that is how they grow in the small clusters....but there are many muscadine experts here...they will know.


Ramona

 

[Waldo]

You want them fully ripened for your wine sang. You can go ahead and pick them if they are not fully ripe and let them ripen before you process them. The best test is their firmness. If they are still pretty firm, let them ripen longer. Not all ripened ones will be all black either. I like to feel that softness to them before I process them.

 

[sangwitch]

Thanks Waldo. I think pretty much all of the ones I picked were on the firm side. How do you ripen... bowl on the counter? They've already been in the freezer several hours now so I guess they're ruined?

 

[Waldo]

I put mine outside in the heat sang..just spread em out on anything that will keep them from rolling off of. Right now I am using the lid from one of those giant plastic rectangulartubs you get at Wally World and covering them with a sheet.
If they are already frozen then I would leave them alone. If they were pretty black they will be ok. I would let them freeze for at least a week though.

 

[sangwitch]

I found that there are more vines on the property. I picked some more a little while ago. Even the ones that fell right off into my hands are still feel a bit firm so I'm going to try your trick Waldo.


When you say "sheet" do you mean a plastic sheet so moisture gets trapped or like a bed sheet? thanks. Here's a pic...

 

[Waldo]

Bed sheet...something that can breathe..Need to get rid of all them stems too podner

 

[sangwitch]

Stems are gone. I cleaned them in cool water as well, but I got the impressionfromsome reading today that you shouldn't clean the skins too much. ??

 

[Waldo]

I think that would apply only if your are planning on using the wild yeast on the Muscadine to ferment with sang...Myself, I give them a good bath iin a collander, let them drip drain and then bag em up and freeze em.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Waldo - I'm currently in Charlseton, SC visiting a son for a few days. Today we visited a local muscadine vineyard and winery and had an excellent tour. the owner has been at it since 2001, with maybe 6-8 acres of vines. He says he handpicks the berries one at a time, never cutting off whole bunches, because the berries on each cluster ripen at different rates, so he only takes the ripe ones. This means that he never has to destem bunches. He determines when a berry is ripe by looking for the white haze that developes on a fully ripe berry - the haze is the local wild yeast setting up residence. He wipes them out with sulfite at the primary fermenter and innoculates with a Red Star yeast. It was a great tour (except for the moment when I discovered I was standing in an ant nest at the base of a pine tree - little black biting ants that swarmed over both sandaled feet and quickly started biting - we northerners are completely ignorant of these things). I'm glad to have had a chance to experience the taste of muscadine wines.
Bill

 

[Waldo]

And how did you like it bilbo? You don't perchance remember what varieties of Muscadines he was growing do you?

 

[sangwitch]

Waldo - are you asking Bilbo how he liked the ants or the wine?

I also have fire ants around my vines and I had to be very careful when I was picking. Not very friendly critters...

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Waldo - Back home in Maine now. Sorry, I haven't checked the forum since I last posted on 9/9. Sorry also that I didn't learn what varieties he has. To answer your question as to whether I liked the wine, I can say yes, with reservations. It is distinctively different from the vinifera varieties we all get used to. Like the native northern varieties, it has something of a "grapey" taste, not much tannin or acid. If it was all I had to drink from day to day, I would tire of it. Perhaps the several different varieties provide different tastes? Maybe you can answer that. The grower DID rave about the health benefits. He told us that the muscadine grape, unlike all other varieties, has 40 chromosomes rather than 38, and the extra ones provide for a much greater dose of resveratrol, the heart-healthy component in grapes. I brought a bottle home for some special time.
Bill

 

[Waldo]

Different varities do yield different characteristics and flavors albeit all have the distinct Muscadine flavor..or should have. I don't understand the lack of acidity and tannins in his wine though or perhaps my wine tasting is not so refined as to be able to detect the absence one desires as a connisuer of wine.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Waldo - I really doubt that your wine tasting is not refined! The lack of tannin in the wine I tasted may be due to the way the vintner makes his wines. For one thing, he never has the grapes mixed with stems, and I think he culls most of the seeds before he presses. I think his goal is to produce early drinking wines for commercial distribution to a lot of outlets in South Carolina. So, tell us how you are making your muscadine wines and what sort of characteristics you try to get.
Bill

 

[smurfe]

Does anyone know if you can make a decent dry wine from Muscadines? If so, what variety would one look into growing?The only Muscadine wine I have ever tried was ultra sweet. I didn't know if it was due to personal tastes or due to the acidity that required sweetening to make it drinkable.


Smurfe

 

[Waldo]

Absolutely can Smurfe....The best, in my area, for wine making is the Ison, Black Beauty and Dixieland and of course some of the wild varities