WineXpert Limited Edition Petit Verdot

[RDavidP]

Anyone else making the Limited Edition Australian Petit Verdot this year? I have the LE Aus. Petit Verdot in the carboy right now. The starting gravity was 1.100, instructions said target is 1.09something to 1.100. The yeast is Lalvin EC-118. This was in the primary bucket for 7 days because I could not get to it on the 5th day and check it. At that time the gravity was 1.006. During this time, the temperature of the fermenting wine was around 75 degrees. I racked to carboy, and the temperature got down to 70 until a couple of days ago. A couple of days ago I put the brew belt back on to raise the temperature in preparation of de-gassing the wine and adding the sulphite. Temperature got back up to the upper 70s. I did not check the gravity again until yesterday. Yesterday was 10 days in the carboy so I checked the gravity and adjusted based on the temperature. The gravity after adjustment is 1.001. Instructions said that it should finish between .992 and .996. I left the brew belt on. Checked the gravity again today, and after temperature adjustment, the gravity is still the same. When I drew out the sample, I put it in a sanitized measuring cup and stirred it to degass to take CO2 out of the picture for measuring the gravity. The wine has already started clearing on its own, and there is a ton of sediment in the bottom. EC-118 should be able to take this down to atleast .996. I have used this yeast strain before. I stirred the sediment to maybe get the yeast back up into the wine and of course left the brew belt on. Anything else I can do to get this down to finishing gravity? I do realize that this is a 100 point drop from the starting gravity. As I said when I racked it from primary to carboy, the gravity was already down to 1.006, and now it is 11 days after that. For the little bit that is left to go for it to be done, I am not sure if I really want to add any yeast nutrient or yeast hulls. Anyone else with a Petit Verdot that did not quite get to the suggested gravity?

 

[jdeere5220]

I'll be interested to hear what the expert's advice is. It's too late now, but when you racked from primary to secondary, did you let the wine splash into the secondary to introduce lots of air, or did you insert the siphon tube down to the bottom of the carboy?

I don't know if it truly makes a difference, but my last two kits I've been "splash racking" for that first racking, and both kits have fermented down to .992 when my previous kit I couldn't get below .999.

Did you shine a flashlight on the carboy to see if there is any activity at all? Sometimes you can see tiny bubbles even when the airlock isn't doing anything and the SG is dropping so slow it's hard to measure.

I would like to add to your question: Once the yeasts go idle for a week, is there really any way to start them up again or is that it??

 

[tculross]

I am moving the Petit Verdot to bottles this weekend (started 2/12/10). I have recorded that I started with an SG of 1.10 (the top end of what the kit says you should have) and made it down to .996.

Sorry to hear it's not doing what it's supposed to.

TC

 

[thunderhill]

My retailer just called telling me my order of Petit Verdot arrived. I will be starting soon. Please keep us posted as you progress, and I will do the same.

Thunderhill