Chocolate Wine Question

[jvr06]

Hello, I'm making a chocolate wine. I got this recipe below from the JK's website. I didn't use strawberries though. My question is, after ferment has stopped he doesn't mention the use of a clarifier or using sorbate to finish it off. I was wondering if that has anything to do with the chocolate or is this just his technique? Does anyone think by using a clarifier it will affect the chocolate wine any?

Thanks for any insight.


4 pounds sliced ripe strawberries (frozen sliced have best ripeness)
4 oz Dutched cocoa powder
11.5-oz can Welch's 100% Red Grape frozen concentrate
1 1/2 lb finely granulated sugar
2 tsp acid blend
1 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1/8 oz powdered grape tannin
1 finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet
5 pts water
1 pkt Gervin Wine Yeast Varietal B, or Lalvin 71B-1122
If using frozen strawberries, thaw. In a primary, pour into a fine-meshed nylon straining bag and tie closed. Do not mash.

Measure the Dutched cocoa powder (see Dutched Cocoa Powder, my February 5th, 2012 WineBlog entry for background on Dutched cocoa powder) in dry ounces and add to one pint of warm water in a blender, pulsing until thoroughly mixed. Add tannin, acid blend and yeast nutrient and pulse again to ensure all are well mixed and then set aside.

Pour the sugar over the strawberries and pour the boiling water over the sugar. Stir very well to dissolve sugar. Add the thawed grape concentrate and stir again to integrate. Finally, add the cocoa water while stirring and continue stirring for a full minute. Cover the primary and set aside to cool to room temperature.

When cooled, add activated yeast in a starter solution and cover primary. Punch down the bag of strawberries several times a day, checking their condition after several days. When they start looking thoroughly ravaged by the yeast (about 4-5 days), remove the bag and hang to drip (do NOT squeeze) to extract readily available liquid (I hang the bag from a kitchen cabinet door handle with a bowl underneath for about 20-30 minutes). Add dripped liquid back to primary and cover primary. Discard the strawberry pulp.

When the vigorous fermentation slows, transfer to secondary and attach an airlock. Do not top up. Allow fermentation to finish and rack, adding the finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet and then top up. Set aside in dark place for 60 days and rack again; top up with distilled water (this will not noticeably affect the flavor or alcohol level). Return to darkness another 60 days and rack again, topping up as before. Set aside in darkness 4-6 months to bulk age. Rack if required, bottle and age an additional 6 months before tasting. Yes, it is a protracted process, but well worth it. [Jack Keller's own recipe]

The resulting wine is full-bodied and delicious, the marriage of strawberry and chocolate perfect. To retain color, this wine is best bottled in dark glass and cellared in darkness or very low light. It should be consumed within a year -- two years at most.

 

[salcoco]

You can let sit for a while and see if it clears. I made a orange chocolate port that I used Super Klear for fining but I did lose some of the chocolate flavor. rereading his recipe he does rack every 60 days twice and then ages it another 6 months, that is a total of 10 months. I imagine the 60 day racking periods are for the settling of the chocolate although not stated.

 

[Medic8106]

I made this exact recipe last year in September and I just now stabilized with sorbate and back sweetened with a simple syrup. It took a long time for the wine to clear and for me not to find sediment in the bottom. I did not use a clarifier. By reading some of Kellers recipes and some of his website, he does omit some instructions in his recipes assuming you know the basics of winemaking knowing that you need to do certain steps for every recipe.

 

[jvr06]

I made a orange chocolate port that I used Super Klear for fining but I did lose some of the chocolate flavor.

That's what I'm wondering, will a clarifier drop out some of the chocolate flavor? So for you, it did but was it still good in the end and would you use it again or if next time would you not use a clarifier?

 

[salcoco]

I would still use the clarifier for my next batch. for this wine a two year aging in bottle did make a nice wine with some chocolate overtones. Point,it depends how much chocolate you want in the wine, a little use clarifier a lot wait until it clears by itself.

 

[jvr06]

Thanks salcoco for the advice.

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

I just started my batch of this wine today but multiplied the recipe to do a 5 gallon batch (figured if it was going to take a year to be ready, I wasn't going to mess around with only a gallon). However, adding 5 times the acid blend and tannin seemed a bit much, so I only did 4 tsp of acid blend and 1/4 tsp. tannin. Has anyone else made a larger batch and if so, what amounts did you use for these two additives? If anyone has any other advice or tips to add regarding this recipe, your input would be greatly appreciated!