WineXpert Wine expert Eclipse Pinot Gris

[pioneergirl]

Started this kit last week in primary. Came with two pkg of yeast: KI-V1116 and the 1118. I hope you all don't think me crazy, but I pitched the v1116 and another yeast instead of the second one included in kit. (D47). There was no oak included. Only the typical fining agents. I am making this wine especially for my mother who will be visiting late this summer. I hope I won't be pushing the timing, but last year, we managed to drink a lot of the wine I had made; nothing really carried over to age well.

I will be checking in on it tomorrow.
Anyone else working on this kit?

 

[soccer0ww]

Look forward to your updates on the is kit. It is one I am thinking of doing.

 

[ibglowin]

I have this one in the clearing stage right now. I used only the V1116 yeast and it fermented to dry without any problems. I suspect this will be an early drinker without any problems. 3 months or so and it will be good to go. 6 mo, and it should be awesome.

 

[joshs]

I have this one in the clearing stage right now. I used only the V1116 yeast and it fermented to dry without any problems. I suspect this will be an early drinker without any problems. 3 months or so and it will be good to go. 6 mo, and it should be awesome.

Thank you for this information. I just ordered this kit and plan to get it going next weekend.

Couple questions....

Did you re-hydrate the V1116 or just sprinkle dry on top? Also, what temp did you ferment at? My basement is 64ish or I can keep it on the second floor around 71ish.

Josh

 

[ibglowin]

I always rehydrate @ 100F for 10-15min.

My winery is 55 right now so secondary heat was used the entire way. Kept the temps right around 70-72. Ferment was done in 7 days. Racked to carboy for another 7 days on the lees. Finished out for me at 0.994.

V1116 does not have a huge heat spike like EC1118. Very much slow and steady.

 

[joshs]

Thanks for the details Mike. Very helpful!

-Josh

 

[moesagoodboy]

Started this kit last week in primary. Came with two pkg of yeast: KI-V1116 and the 1118. I hope you all don't think me crazy, but I pitched the v1116 and another yeast instead of the second one included in kit. (D47). There was no oak included. Only the typical fining agents. I am making this wine especially for my mother who will be visiting late this summer. I hope I won't be pushing the timing, but last year, we managed to drink a lot of the wine I had made; nothing really carried over to age well.

I will be checking in on it tomorrow.
Anyone else working on this kit?

Your a good daughter to do this for your mother. Hopefully my sons will someday do the same for me (they will probably use grape bubble gum). I'm doing this exact kit and started it yesterday, the 25th. I used both yeast packets, I'm too new to this to bush wack. Please keep us informed as you move along.
Joe

 

[pioneergirl]

Aw, thanks Joe. It truly is a delay tactic to prevent the opening of some other reds I am trying to keep my hands off of too! But, I am also looking forward to trying this wine. Funny comment about your sons....I tell mine that they could study some related field and we will run a family winery here in Idaho and we would see each other every day then! One teen said they see too much of me now!! Too bad, he is good at chemistry too ( but they do follow along with all the process).

In reply to an earlier comment, I, too, just sprinkled dry yeast over top. Sometimes I make a starter, but not often. It is cold here so I put a brew belt around the bucket. It's been bubbling away. Today I think I will rack for secondary fermentation.

 

[joshs]

What did everyone get for an SG on this kit? Mine came in at 1.085.

-Josh

 

[moesagoodboy]

What did everyone get for an SG on this kit? Mine came in at 1.085.

-Josh

Mine was 1.090 at a temperature of 72 degrees.
Joe

 

[pioneergirl]

I guess I didn't see the reply above on SG. Sorry. I added water to bring it to 1.10. Today I racked since adding fining agents to let it clear one more time and afte some "careful" surveying of friends and family members (my mom who I am making this for and the friends who are likely to drink it all with us) we decided to lightly oak. I put a med. toast spiral in it this morning and plan to taste next week. So far it is very clear and smells really nice, tastes really good and has a nice feel in the mouth.

 

[pioneergirl]

Oak spiral spent two weeks in the carboy. Last week I bottled so that it will have some time to rest before we really bust into t thus summer....But, I have already succumbed to opening two bottles. This wine is already amazing. Even after going to a wine tasting event yesterday with about 20 local vitners and tasting a few Pinot grigios (same grape, debate over different styles) selling for $16+ per bottle, my husband and I both agreed that our homemade was better!

 

[DirtyDawg10]

Sounds good! I did a sauv blanc/pinot gris blend and also decided to lightly oak mine. Though I don't mind the oak I think I am going to try it without next time and see which one I prefer.

 

[pioneergirl]

Sounds good! I did a sauv blanc/pinot gris blend and also decided to lightly oak mine. Though I don't mind the oak I think I am going to try it without next time and see which one I prefer.

I would love to know how this works out. During my "open discussion" with the family and friends who will be drinking this it was suggested to divide and oak one half. But I have only one three gal carboy. And then I was thinking how the kits end up being five gal. After racking and such and that I didn't want to bother dealing with dividing between two carboys.....I will just have to bite the bullet and not oak a future batch and save one of these lightly Oakes bottle (willpower required).

 

[roger80465]

Several years ago I made a Mosti VN Pino Grigio and I was surprised to find 90g of toasted oak in the kit. I thought, 'oh well, they know what they are doing' so I made it. Well, it was out of bounds oaky and I didn't think aging was going to bring it back in line. So, I blended with some unoaked sauvignon blanc and made my own version of my favorite white wine, Due Uve. It is, to this day, the favorite white wine I have ever made. So to make a short story long, try blending with a box of pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc or make another kit to blend with it. You may be pleasantly surprised with the results.

 

[joshs]

Just wanted to chime in on this wine as I tasted this weekend and will bottle very soon. Only stole a small sample as I wanted to make sure it was ready to bottle.

Smell was the weakest part but still present and probably due to the size of the sample. Color was slightly darker than most commercial PG's that I have had. Taste was spot on and very promising. Dry and crisp with no off flavors at all. I had my wife do a blind tasting with this and an Italian PG (only PG we had) and she nailed both but really liked both as well.

Anyone else try this recently?

-Josh

 

[ibglowin]

Mine is about 8-9 mo old now. It turned out nice but hasn't really "knocked my socks off" or anything especially since this is an "ultra" premium kit. The CC Showcase Pinot Gris was just as good if not better in my opinion. I noticed also that NONE of the top 100 Wine Kits in the latest Winemaker Mag were any of the Eclipse white kits. These should have been entered by now I would have thought.

 

[Wpgtrapper]

Mine was 1.088 with heat belt. Finished out at 0.994.