Recent content by troutgod

I am only guessing, but I don’t believe the judges are “certified” judges. However, they did use a form similar to what you posted. I do believe they are mistaking fruit for sweet.

Yeah I agree. I leave for Italy in a few days so I had to bottle it. I figured why not enter it, it’s bottled. But I know age will help. It’s the residual sugar comment that gets me tho.

I’m not sure if the alcohol or the fruitiness of the wine affected the judges decision to question residual sugar. I did add malolactic culture and once that was finished I added oak spirals for six weeks. I did have some difficulty with the Cabernet. The primary stuck at 1.008 but I got it...

This is my second year Entering a wine competition. Last year the judges note on my 2016 Barolo was “Residual Sugar?” This year my 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon got the same comment and an additional comment of being too sweet for the varietal. Both wines started around 1.094 and finished at 0.995. I...

I filter my wines so hopefully that will help with any issues. As for the flavor, I have some white grape-peach concentrate I was going to try. I have used wine flavoring once before for a cherry wine but it ended up tasting like cherry cough syrup. So I am a bit hesitant to go that route. Do...

I have been thinking of ways to sweeten wine other than just sugar. Has anyone used frozen grape juice concentrate? Also, do you think it would be possible to further concentrate the juice concentrate to avoid the increase in volume or diluting factor? Basically, can I boil the juice...

Just checked and SG is down to 1.002 so it is apparently fermenting...slowly. Tastes like fermenting wine, too. Still seems like a long time, but I’ll let it do it’s thing. Thanks for your help.

Initial yeast was Lalvin 212 and I just added Redstar Premier Cuvée to restart. I can see a ring of tiny bubbles in the carboy and “islands” of bubbles floating on the surface. I get a bubble in the airlock once every 30 seconds or so.

Making a Cab Sauv from juice. Starting grav 1.090, I think. I say that as after I picked up the juice it appeared to have possibly started fermentation by the time I got it home. When I checked the specific gravity it was only in the range of 1.08?. So I bumped up with some corn sugar...

Since it is generally a light wine I would say you are correct with no more than medium toast. Chips can be harsh IMO. I have been using cubes and more recently French oak spirals. The instructions for the spirals are they give up all their flavor in 6 weeks. So that may give you an idea of how...

Hello, New to the forum. Getting ready for the 2017 harvest and am curious about malolactic fermentation (MF). Been wanting make an oaked Chardonnay using this method. But the more I read the more I see opinions that all reds should be done this way. I have made reds from juice the last 3...