Schnellert Family Apple Wine
This wine was started in July of 2012 - my very first straight up 'Country Wine', made from the most sour apples I have ever come across. It was a 1 Gallon Batch, fermented in the old family farm's cider jug.
I cracked this open, nicely chilled today and was immensely surprised and impressed. It has a nice cider nose - all apple. Taste is smooth, buttery, a hint of spiced rum and vanilla. It tastes very similar to a nice off-dry white, but far nicer than most I've tried. This stuff is SMOOTH! Light-medium body, and golden colour.
This is a fantastic success for me - my first country wine that I went in nearly blind with tastes like something I would spend a good $15-$20 (Canadian) for in the store.
This firms up my belief that it did go through a spontaneous MLF like I mentioned somewhere in my first post in this thread.
Recipe - 1 Gallon
Primary:
2 Lbs, 2 oz White sugar
4 Lbs very sour apples, chopped
1/2 a rum-soaked vanilla bean
1/4 tsp Tannin
1 Tsp Yeast Nutrient
1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
1 Campden Tab
EC-1118 Yeast
Water to 1 Gal
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Secondary additions:
8.6.12 1/2 Lb white sugar
2 cups apple juice from original apples
Top up with water
9.1.12 1/2 Vanilla bean, Madagascar Bourbon
10.23.12 1/4 tsp pectic enzyme
11.13.12 Campden tab
12.31.12 2 part fining agent
7.1.13 Filtered and Backsweetened with sugar to 1.012, bottled
Looking at this now, I realize I never sorbated the wine before sweetening. There is no indication of any bottle fermentation, so a year must have been enough time with finers and filtering to be 'safe'. Won't repeat that oversight again though! Also, you can tell it was during the beginning of my wine-making career as there is a lot of fussing near the beginning.
At this point, I would say that I wouldn't change a thing about it. And I hope I can hit up the folks who's apples I picked for another picking this year!