WineXpert IM Blackberry Cab

[Mike777]

Here is a shot of the IM Blackberry Cab all done and waiting for labels. We have two bottle styles as a reminder to help make sure some lasts long enough to see what a few months will bring. This one had the 5# of extra sugar, and ended at 11.5 ABV, and dry. We had our first samples last night and the night before. We layered a third glass of middle of the road sort of heavily oaked Cab on the bottom, topped up with the cold chilled Blackberry Cab and tossed in a couple large frozen blackberries for ice cubes and a bottom of the glass treat. in addition to these two cases we have one mangnum and whats left of another one. and one part bottle to be decanted with just a tiny bit of sediment flakes from the very end. Didn't try to take the last part off the top of lees. Just dumped that.

You may wonder how we got all the bottles filled exactly right. My wife has a great eye and 90% were perfect. I cut a peice of 3/8 ID clear tubing and used it as a mini wine theif and balanced any that were high or low.

Edited by: Mike777

 

[masta]

Looking good Mike....the shrinks look sweet with the dark bottles!

 

[Wade E]

You dont have a bottle filler. The cheap one really works good. I have
the cheap spring filler for $2.99 and you just fill it all the way to
the top and when you pull out the filler you are at the perfect level.

 

[Waldo]

Excellent job Mike

That is one kit I want to try someday.

 

[Wade E]

Waldo, it was my second kit and it is a good 1. Id recommend this IM
kit to anyone who likes a sweeter red wine. I think I will up the ABV
next time but keep it sweet.


Edited by: wade

 

[Mike777]

Waldo, it was my second kit and it is a good 1. Id recommend this IM
kit to anyone who likes a sweeter red wine. I think I will up the ABV
next time but keep it sweet.

Waldo, ours is very dry. The wife likes dry over sweet so we pointed it more to her tastes. (she did mention a port kit last week, but Blueberry Pinot will be working before then)George sent the kit booklet so we will try to stick to the gold winners for the most part.

Regular Cab is still gushing tons of tiny bubbles and foam at 22inches of vacuum. It will stay at 20 for a couple hours then drop to 16 and hold overnight. No big bubbles so I'm going to have to fight it out for a while. I am going to spring for some ceramic saddles soon. This one would not even pump a couple of bubbles before the oak cubes but once that structure was in it, you could see it was only halfway degassed. I think the saddles and pump together will get the kind of degassing and extra clearing I was wanting without filling the wine full of oxygen since we are keeping sulfites to the very minimum.

Wade, we have the black tip and the spring loaded white tip fillers and both are pretty lame. The black tip has a hard time resetting and the white spring one doesnt just drip it runs steady when it should be off. We had to use the hose clamp to control everything. George recommended a bottle filler we probably will try out though.

How long till your IM settled down and got the more rounded flavors? I'm hoping you say 3 months.
Edited by: Mike777

 

[Wade E]

Yes, it was right around 3 months give or take 2 weeks. I have been
using the spring filler for almost a year now and never had a problem
yet. Maybe theres something stuck in the end or maybe you just got a
lemon filler. The only problem Ive had with it is that some of the
bottles I use (recycled, whatever I get) have a really large hump in
the middle of the bottle and those are a little hard to use the spring
loaded one but with a little work on those it works great.

 

[Mike777]

I think we have a couple of lemons then. They are just cheap plastic and under $5 I suppose you cant expect much. Might try a couple more till we get one that shuts off.

3 months....I'm not sure we have enough of this wine to taste until then.

What do you think of this new avitar? Its my answer to why we keep having to top up. (don't think the wifes buying it though)

Edited by: Mike777

 

[Mike777]

Quick follow up. Less than two weeks in the bottle, and this one has changed completely to a very nice and a bit sweeter wine that can stand up on its own very well. The extra gas and pumping were well worth doing the 5# extra sugar.

A very smooth fruity taste that is well rounded from begining to end, with all the cab notes coming through just fine now. I wouldn't hesitate to gift bottles of this one and am well pleased with the results. The sharp, tart and lightly bitter flavors at bottling are gone, replaced with fruit flavors that I just couldn't see coming from that f pack and a little time.

There will be more of these in our future, you can count on that!

If your thinking about doing this one, or adding the 5# sugar charge, don't give it another thought. Just do it.

Edited by: Mike777