Mosti Mondiale Meglioli Malvasia Bianca

[Rocky]

I bought this wine on sale from George and I am into my experimental mode. I know this might be heresy with the purists amoung us, but I hear a "different drummer."

Anyway, I divided the 23 liters into a 4 gallon batch and a 2 gallon batch. The 4 gallons will be made into the garden variety Malvasia Bianca except that I added a box of white raisins and will add some lemon zest. The Isg was 1.100 and this morning was 1.096 (both corrected for temperature).

The 2 gallon batch was chaptalised with simple syrup to an SG of 1.118 and a box of white raisins was added. Slow fermentation has begun and the objective of all this is to produce "something like" a Vin Santo. Later, I plan to add almond extract and orange zest to produce this dessert wine. It should be about 15.5% when finished and only served in small quantities with an espresso!

 

[Wade E]

Sounds like a good experiment but IMO you are crazy messing with such and expensive kit. I probably would have left at least 1 gallon to see how it fares all by itself. I kn ow what you mean though as you want to make it YOURS and different from or as what Tom would say thinking "out of the box" Keep us informed on how they come out.

 

[Rocky]

Wade, I understand your point and you are not the only one who holds that view. I bought this on a "special" from George for $135 and I figure, it you are going to try something off the wall, why not start off with the best ingredients? The way I figure it, I could have purchased a 16 liter kit for, maybe, $110 (I don't like to work with less than 16 liters), so we are only talking about $25.
Or, as my British friends would say, "In for a Penny, in for a Pound."

 

[Wade E]

I also agree with that theory. You can make a om wine better but you cant make chicken salad out of chicken sh!t.