Mosti Mondiale Mosti Renaissance Amarone with grape pack kit

[milbrosa]

I have made the Mosti Mondial Renaissance Amarone kit in the past, and I was very pleased with it (one of my top two personal best wines to date), so I bought another kit yesterday and started it last night. The kit I made a couple years ago came with a bag of raisins. This new kit came with a 4 kg grape pack and the bag of raisins.

The instructions say not to use both, so I used the grape pack for the Amarone, and I put the raisins in the Mosti AllJuice Carmenere that I started two days ago.

I'm looking forward to another great Amarone in about a year from now.

And I now have four wine kits fermenting in my living room, all started in the past two days. I think I'll stop for now until all of these are bulk aging.

 

[Rocky]

I have the Amarone and Barolo coming (probably today) and I plan to put both the raisins and the grape pack in the wine. I remember one of our members did this and was pleased so far with the results.

 

[milbrosa]

I'd like to hear how that turns out for you Rocky. I was tempted to do the same, but I had another good use for the raisins, so I didn't.

 

[robie]

One of the characteristics of an Amarone is its raisiny flavor. This taste is more common in Italian wines than most other wines.

A Camenere is much more like a Merlot, in which the raisiny taste is not so characteristic. These particular raisins WILL give it a raisiny taste.

Had it been me, I would have put the raisins in the Amarone and the grape pack in the Carmenere. Or possibly put both in the Amarone. To each his own. Let us know how it turns out; you might just come up with a great combo.

 

[Wade E]

I made a RJS EP Amarone and that kit comes with both a grape and raisin pack and they have you use both. It was an awesome wine. I just made the Barolo from Mosti Impressions and used both. I dont know thw reason they say NOT to use both unless they are worried about the sugar level being too hoigh but it didnt move the sg much at all.

 

[milbrosa]

Robie, it figures I'd get it backwards, but I really wanted to see what the grapes would do for the Amarone since I have the earlier kit I made with raisins to compare it to. Plus, Mosti decided to package it that way, so they must think that it improves the wine, or that it gives it a different and desirable character, or perhaps just that customers want it that way (marketing).

Next time I have both grapes and raisins for a kit, I might just try them both.

Wade, it may be the sugar level, but might it not also be the effect on the body of the wine? Adding raisins made from wine grapes is said to improve the body of the wine, by which I believe it is meant that the body is increased.

A question to Mosti might help clarify. I'll give them a call tomorrow and ask.

 

[Wade E]

So do you think using both would give it too much body??? I highly dought that is possible as making wine from grapes is nothing but grapes.

 

[rawlus]

I don't think an amarone can have too much body. One of the contributing factors to body is ABV level. Amarone is typically at the top of the scale here... Port-like in some cases.

 

[robie]

The raisins should give it that Italian raisiny taste and the grapes should increase the body.... best of both worlds, I would say.

Never seen a kit wine that had too much body. I don't even think having too much that is possible for a kit.

Last night I opened a brunello from a WE kit. It is now 18 months old. It tastes pretty good, but it is way, way too thin. The taste should get even better with time, but the thinness is here to stay. Wish I had put it through my barrel, but I bottled it long before I got my first one. Probably use this one as I would a box wine. Your using both the raisins and the grape pack... shouldn't have a thinness problem.

 

[milbrosa]

SG is below 1.040. I need to rack this kit to a carboy to complete fermentation. The instructions say to stir to resuspend the yeast and sediment, and transfer it all to the carboy. With the grape pack in it, it's really thick, and I'm concerned that my racking cane (1/2 inch autosiphon) will get clogged. But anyway, I'm going to give it a shot.

 

[milbrosa]

I was able to transfer about half the wine from my fermenter to a carboy before my autosiphon plugged up with grape skins and stems. I tried clearing it by stirring it vigorously in the wine and I tried pumping it to get some flow, but neither was working well.

So I sanitized a funnel and set it on the carboy, lined it with a couple of thicknesses of cheese cloth, and poured the wine through it. It took about four or five pours and a change of cheesecloth halfway through, but it worked. Each time the cheesecloth clogged up, I pulled it into a bundle and squeezed the juice out with my (sanitized) hands.

So what other ways are there to handle this? I'm thinking that pouring the grape pack, which consists of medium-fine chopped wine skins, stems, and seeds into a mesh bag when adding them to primary might do the trick. If they aren't loose in the wine, they won't clog up the siphon. Are there any downsides to doing it this way?

 

[JordanPond]

I was doing the same thing to the Barolo last night. I had the grape pack plus the raisins free roaming in the fermentation bucket. Started out using a course straining bag as a filter for my autosiphon. That let me rack 3/4 of the wine before the grapes and raisins got in the way. Then I used ot straining bag to line another sanizized bucket and gently poured the remaining wine/grape/raisin mixture into to bag. Then I was able to recombine the ingredients into a single bucket and continue fermenting.

Nextime I'll start everthing in a straining bag.

 

[Bacci]

SG is below 1.040. I need to rack this kit to a carboy to complete fermentation. The instructions say to stir to resuspend the yeast and sediment, and transfer it all to the carboy. With the grape pack in it, it's really thick, and I'm concerned that my racking cane (1/2 inch autosiphon) will get clogged. But anyway, I'm going to give it a shot.

Milbrosa, I'm making the same wine with same experience racking to secondary over the weekend, did you also add oak and raisins in primary, after sampling, wine didn't taste as fruity as other kits at this step - 1.00 SG? Did you add oak to secondary? I split up my oak bags, one in primary and one in secondary.

 

[milbrosa]

It's good to hear that my experience isn't out of the norm. I do think the mesh straining bag makes sense, and I'll do it that way next time too.

Bacci, I didn't use the raisins, just the grape pack, and I didn't have any oak in primary. I put all the oak in my carboy and racked out of primary onto it. Basically, I just followed the Mosti instructions to a T, except that I missed my 1.040 first racking point and racked it quite a bit lower. It was at 1.018 when I racked it last night. It's chugging away slowly now in the air-locked carboy. I'm going to let it sit there two weeks before I test the gravity again and rack it off the oak.

 

[JordanPond]

I did a strawberry port and used a 5 gallon straining bag from home depot paint department. The straining bag I used last night was from Fine Vine Wines. They were pretty much the same thing and home depot / lowes is pretty accessible. Probably cheaper.

 

[milbrosa]

I use the paint straining bags for pellet hops when I'm brewing beer. I agree, it should work very well for the grape packs, Greg.

 

[robie]

I use the paint straining bags for pellet hops when I'm brewing beer. I agree, it should work very well for the grape packs, Greg.

Those paint strainer bags work great for grape packs and oak. Just make sure you sanitize them really well. I only left my grape pack free floating one time... one time to many.

 

[milbrosa]

Yes, I feel I've learned my lesson on free range grape skins, for sure. Whole raisins don't seem to cause a problem.

How do you sanitize your bags? Soak in k-meta and then hang up and let air dry? What about boiling them? That might be easier since you wouldn't have to wait for them to dry.

 

[robie]

Soak them in Kmeta (fumes santizer) or StarSan (contact sanitizer) sanitizing solution; rinse and use. No need to let it dry, first.

I put grape packs, oak, and raisins in the bag. I buy the bigger bag (5 gallon bag) so the contents stay a little looser, rather than everything being packed in there.

 

[Wade E]

These Mosti kits are the worst for trying to rack with the clogging! I always use a fermenting bag for grape skin kits but didnt for this one and boy was I sorry!!!!!