RJ Spagnols En Primeur Old Mundullo Australian Shiraz

[halifaxwino]

hey everyone.

I have recently made En Primeur Old Mundullo Australian Shiraz kit, it came with the "authentic" dried grape skins. i was wondering if anyone has had ago at this wine and if its worth the money( i paid 150.00 Canadian).. i kind of like the thought of adding the grape skins, makes it feel a bit uthentic" ha ha. I must say though i have never had such an aggressive fermentation before.. not like it matters or does it? its almost as bad as my porter i mentioned in another thread(if you read it, no biggie).

 

[Wade E]

I have not made that 1 but i did the Amarone with both the skins and raisins and it is very well worth every cent! Word of caution though, cold stabilize this kit as mine dropped wine diamonds to a pretty good extent!

 

[halifaxwino]

what are these wine diamonds they warn you of in the instructions? what do they do to the wine? and where do they come from? if i may ask these questions haha. it came with this acid solution packet for it. which does not say you HAVE to add it, its an option, should i add it? ill get the name when I'm back home. away from home for the week got the girlfriend to stir the grape skins every two days hope she doesn't screw up lol.. gave her the run down about sanitize sanitize sanitize..

 

[Wade E]

That powder didnt do a darn thing as it dropped out this sediment after 6 months in my cellar and that metatartaric acid was supposed to hold it back for 1 year! The juice in these kits are of very high quality and have lots of solids resulting in the need to cold stabilize and drop out some extra tartaric acid which binds itself after a while until it gets to heavy and then falls out of suspension. It is unlike other sediment and is very gritty but if this happens just pour gently and leave the last sip in the bottle or youll be chewing the wine!

 

[cpfan]

Wine Diamonds are said to result from high quality juice that has not been over-processed. It is a good sign, but a nuisance. I first encountered them a long time ago in some commercial wines.

My first En Primeur is still in carboy. I did not add the metatartic acid, but did cold stabilize for a while. There was an interesting looking almost-tarry sediment after I racked.

Steve

 

[Manimal]

I could be wrong here, as I've never used it, but I was under the impression that meta-tartaric acid is supposed hasten the precipitation of tartrates similar to what happens during cold-stabilization.

 

[Wade E]

I could be wrong here and have listed the wrong ingredient but cant find the instructions at my house and it seems that the RJ Spag, site has been down for awhile now to properly list the ingredient that is supposed to keep these crystals from froming for at least some time in the bottle.

 

[cpfan]

Wade:

The rjs site is not down. You are probably linking to the old discussion forum or another page that no longer exists. Try again....http://www.rjspagnols.com/en/

Meanwhile attempt #2 at replying to this thread...

Here are the comments from the EP instructions....

OPTIONAL: Bitartrate crystals (also called wine diamonds) can often form as a result of the high quality of the juice content. While bitartrate crystals do not affect the taste of the wine, the addition of metatartaric acid helps in keeping it in suspension for approx 12 months, thereby preventing the formation of crystals. OPTIONAL CAUTION: Cold stabilizing a wine will result in the formation of potassium bitartrate crystals in spite of the addition of metatartaric acid.

I interpret this to mean that the metatartaric acid inhibits formation of wine diamonds for a while. That won't be good enough for me, especially as my bottled wine is stored on the cold side. So I didn't won't be using the powder, and have cold stabilized for 3-4 weeks.

Steve

 

[Wade E]

Thanks for that cpFan, I must have bookmarked a lnk of some sort but this page sure does look different from the site I have been opening.

 

[cpfan]

Thanks for that cpFan, I must have bookmarked a lnk of some sort but this page sure does look different from the site I have been opening.

Yeah, the site was changed as of about March 11th. Too bad they didn't update the content in addition to changing the appearance.

Steve

 

[Manimal]

Yeah, you guys are right!! I was mixing up the use of metatartaric acid with the use of cream of tartar during cold stabilization... you can seed the wine with cream of tartar in order to promote tartrate crystallization during cold stabilization. Whereas metatartaric acid does indeed discourage the formation of crystals. My mistake.

 

[robertb]

I have never encountered wine diamonds. Can a person pour the wine through a decanter screen prior to drinking to avoid them?

Robert

 

[Wade E]

Depending on the coarseness yes. If you dont have cooler temps where you store your wine that these diamonds will never manifest it self. Also if you are buying lesser kits you wont get this either.

 

[robertb]

I don’t mind trying the more expensive kits with the hope that I may end up with more premium wines. I may have to look into some way to cold stabilize.