summersolstice
Drunken Friar Cellars
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2005
- Messages
- 220
- Reaction score
- 2
I posted this a little over a year ago and thought I post an update.
Originally posted by Rule G
Waldo, it must be the time of year to begin thinking about port. I have an RJS Orange Chocolate Port bulk aging and I just started my own experimental port on Friday. I designed a 3.5 gallon batch beginning with a can of Alexander's Burgundy I've had laying around for a few months. I added 15 pounds of frozen and canned Oregon blackberries, 3-4 oz of dried elderberries, nutrient, 20 oz of untoasted American oak and K1V-1116 yeast. SG was 1.110 and I'll feed the primary by stirring in 3 lbs of sugar (mixed with some must first) when it reaches 1.075 and again at 1.040. Looks like this one will require some serious aging!
This wine is now over a year old and isreally tasty!I entered it in the Nberaska State Fair and it took a second place and I figure that it will really shine in another six months to a year.
After I made the intial post I fed the fermentation a little more, added some Knudsen's Black Cherry juice, and fortified it with Brandy before aging it in a Hungarian oak barrel. It turned out very, very dark - almost black. The residual sweetness is kind of high but the oak and the alcohol cut the perception of sweetness quite a bit. All in all I'm very happy with this wine and I plan to make it again. One of my Hungarian oak barrels will be pretty much nuetral after I take out the Red Mountain Syrah currently bulk aging and I plan to dedicate the barrel toa blackberry/ Alexander's port style and remove half the contents each year while replacing that half with new wine.
Originally posted by Rule G
Waldo, it must be the time of year to begin thinking about port. I have an RJS Orange Chocolate Port bulk aging and I just started my own experimental port on Friday. I designed a 3.5 gallon batch beginning with a can of Alexander's Burgundy I've had laying around for a few months. I added 15 pounds of frozen and canned Oregon blackberries, 3-4 oz of dried elderberries, nutrient, 20 oz of untoasted American oak and K1V-1116 yeast. SG was 1.110 and I'll feed the primary by stirring in 3 lbs of sugar (mixed with some must first) when it reaches 1.075 and again at 1.040. Looks like this one will require some serious aging!
This wine is now over a year old and isreally tasty!I entered it in the Nberaska State Fair and it took a second place and I figure that it will really shine in another six months to a year.
After I made the intial post I fed the fermentation a little more, added some Knudsen's Black Cherry juice, and fortified it with Brandy before aging it in a Hungarian oak barrel. It turned out very, very dark - almost black. The residual sweetness is kind of high but the oak and the alcohol cut the perception of sweetness quite a bit. All in all I'm very happy with this wine and I plan to make it again. One of my Hungarian oak barrels will be pretty much nuetral after I take out the Red Mountain Syrah currently bulk aging and I plan to dedicate the barrel toa blackberry/ Alexander's port style and remove half the contents each year while replacing that half with new wine.