Port by accident??

[cdevrard]

Hey All,

I made a batch of Welch's wine about a year ago. It wasn't very good and I just left it in a 3 gallon bucket (only about 2 gal worth of wine) so there was lots of air contact. Well, out of sight, out of mind. I dug it up today and was going to pitch it. I popped the top on the bucket and got a whiff of what smells like a Maderia/Port. Hmmmm? So I put a bit in a glass and gave it a little more attention. It is a medium brown color and a really wonderful Port smell to it. It even tastes like a super watered down, dry, low alcohol Port.

So I get to thinking, what if I fortify this with some brandy/neutral spirits, sugar it up and oak it a bit? I don't really have much to lose and I think it may turn out ok.

Thoughts?

Also, there is a shiny film on top of the wine in spots. Dunno what it is but is there anyway to get rid of it?

And, I have heard the term "Pearson Square" (??) Is this what I would use to figure out the rate at which to fortify it?

As for sweetening, what would you all try? Sugar, grape concentrate, other?

And for aging, should I let it continue to oxidize in the bucket, or would it be better to move it over to glass jugs with minimal air contact?

Again, thanks for any thoughts. This might be fun!

Chris E.

 

[Deezil]

It tastes and smells like that because it's began to oxidize. That why it looks brownish as well. If you like it though, go for it.

I would rack out of the bucket, it's liable to have sediment in it, and leave that film behind. Add 1/4 tsp of K-meta to the carboy and then rack on top of it, and use the first inch or two of wine to slosh it around and dissolve the k-meta.

A Pearson's Square is what you need to figure out how much fortifier you'll need to raise the abv you where you want it

I would probably use sugar to sweeten, anything else you use will have an impact on the flavor.

Too much oxidation will continue to degrade the wine and eventually ruin it, so rack it to a carboy

 

[wineforfun]

Deezil meant 1/4 "tsp" of Kmeta.

 

[cdevrard]

Ah yes, rack it off the film, of course!

Ok, so I've got some Pearson's Square homework to do, etc.

Yes, I have read that oxidation and heat is where Madeira wine gets its characteristics. I guess I'll forgo the heat part

Ok, rack it on to k-meta and get it into some carboys. This is going to be interesting.

 

[Runningwolf]

Attached is the pearson Square calculator I made ad use.

View attachment Pearson's Square Calculator Protected.zip

 

[cdevrard]

Attached is the pearson Square calculator I made ad use.

Very kind of you. Thanks!

CE

 

[REDRUM]

I'm all for happy accidents. This is a raw quote from a winemaker I interviewed for my PhD who accidentally made a good sherry by neglecting a half-barrel of chardonnay:

If you make mistakes in the cellars there are no second chances. But some of the most interesting wines in here are basically mistakes… Crazy things, 2006 I’ve got this Chardonnay, and the reason it is what it is is because it was neglected … I read a quote about spoilage, along the lines of ‘the wine can be spoiled to a certain point, that it then preserves itself”. Which is what happened to this, it’s grown this flor. It had massive ullage, so a lot of space in the barrel, and now it’s holding itself in this state of … it’s very sherry-like, like a Fino. It’s grown a flor that is now the mother, that is controlling that space. From a very early stage I thought “stuff this”, cos I’d brought it in, as a very little trial, cos I wanted some white wine of my own. It was only a tonne. Crushed it, pressed it, did all the things. Stuck it in these barrels that had ullage on them, they were never going to be full, but I thought I’d let malo [malolactic fermentation] finish first, then top them into something else, and hold it. Then the reds came on, bang, man, and it was a big year for me, 2006 was just flat out. So these things just got left, it’s not a priority, I’m not sleeping anyway, they’re just going to stay there, bad luck. And it wasn’t until the end of vintage that I thought ‘let’s have a look at that stuff’. And it looked weird. It looked weird, but it didn’t look destroyed, like totally oxidised and stuffed – it was not like that. It had an interest to it, a nutty character and all the rest. I saw it had the flor on it, and I had a few friends come in that are fans of that sort of wine, and they tried it and said “Wow, that’s interesting man, that’s pretty cool!” “Is it? OK!” So, you know, just suck it and see. So I left it on ullage and now, from ’06 to 2014, it hasn’t changed much at all. It’s got more complexity, it’s a little bit .. more in the mouth, more flavour and character, but not oxidised. And that was a mistake – but I’m sure it wasn’t anything new, that would have been done for millennia .. a yeasty thing.