RJ Spagnols Spanish Tempranillo Cabernet Suggestions?

[beggarsu]

I will start on Thursday a Spainish Tempranillo Cabernet - Grand Cru International LIMITED RELEASE

One whiff and you’ll be transported by the scent of black cherries, plums, chocolate, and coffee. With a hint of vanilla and spice, this full-bodied wine has firm, ripe tannins from fermentation on GenuWine Winery Dried Grape Skins and gives an elegant finish..

It's a five week kit - only one week in the primary. This one is a notch above the first level kits and came with grape skins

Shall I play it straight - or any suggestion on modifications or enhancements?

 

[DoctorCAD]

Go with the 180 day extended kit instructions from Jack Kellers website. I'll bet that one turns out very good!

 

[Boatboy24]

I wouldn't do much - maybe some finishing tanning and/or barrel time if you have the barrel. Otherwise, my experience has been these LR kits are high quality, and have nice big grape packs. They are quite good at 6 months, but at 12-18, they really start to shine.

 

[beggarsu]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I don't know what "finishing tanning" is (maybe that is tanin?) and I haven't got a barrel , I suppose that would have to be a 6 gallon oak barrel like a carboy?
Sounds very high class.
...
I don't want to extend the time past 5 weeks in making this, I need to free the carboy up.

..
Funny it comes with a big package of chips and a pkg of powered grapes skins - it says put the chips in the primary and the grape skins in the muslin sock provided - seems strange because I don't see the sock holding the powder- it is so fine , though it certainly would hold the chips in.
But I will slavishly follow instructions.
..
Well I think it will be a good wine, I like the description - I got the box at a small discount. I got til about June 25 to make wines here - after that it gets too hot until the beginning of Sept and I have to store all my finished wines elsewhere.

 

[Boatboy24]

Tannin, yes.

Put the oak chips in the sock too. It'll make that first racking a lot easier.

 

[beggarsu]

Put the oak chips in the sock too. It'll make that first racking a lot easier.

I think you are right about that - I had oak chips bag break on me before - filtering them out in the first racking gets very difficult.

 

[bkisel]

I think you are right about that - I had oak chips bag break on me before - filtering them out in the first racking gets very difficult.

I second the motion of chips in a bag. Didn't do it with, I believe, my RJS WS Super Tuscan and had a tough time siphoning with the cane tip getting clogged a bunch of times during transfer - was a real pain in the butt.

 

[joeswine]

Carboys

it sounds like to me you need to advance your equipment and buy 1 more carboy.then watch them grow .....tampranillo is a excellent wine on it's own if done correctly,i have made this before from grapes and it takes about a year or two in the bottle to become a decent wine,from a kit you need at least 8 mos. For some maturity to happen ,go by another carboy and let the wine be all it can be........just my thoughts..........

 

[wildvines]

I'm third the bag. I put everything in hops bags.


Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making

 

[beggarsu]

it sounds like to me you need to advance your equipment and buy 1 more carboy.then watch them grow .....tampranillo is a excellent wine on it's own if done correctly,i have made this before from grapes and it takes about a year or two in the bottle to become a decent wine,from a kit you need at least 8 mos. For some maturity to happen ,go by another carboy and let the wine be all it can be........just my thoughts..........

Thanks Joe.

Good suggestion.

It's not the carboys , it's my place though I should be getting a new place eventually - next time it will be with a basement.

My trailer is too hot in summer and an air con for my wine room is what I'd do if I planned on staying. Last summer I had my two carboys in the bathtub every day filling it with cold water - don't want to do that again. So while I'm here or until I put in that air con , no carboys or new batches in the summer months.
...
(I do have a cool place to store my wine - underneath!)

 

[beggarsu]

The Box Kit Basic Ingredients.

I made a mistake previously - there was yet another ingredient in the box - in total there were - oak chips, fruit skins dried and dried fruit apparently thhough the packages weren't marked .

So the dried fruit bits was like a powder and I rehydrated that and dumped it in loose - so that stuff doesn't go in the sock like I thought..The dried grape skins were larger and they went in the sock.

I didn't put the chips in the sock .Why? Because I followed the recipe!
Perhaps it needs maximum exposure since the directions are for only 7 days I the primary. I accept the consequences of clean up - I've gotten used to this.

 

[beggarsu]

Double double boil and brew

Second day - frothing well - frothed even more next few days.

Initial SG was: 1.093

 

[joeswine]

tampranello

THE KIT LOOKS GREAT ,STAY TRUE TO THE PROCESS,WITH THIS KIT THEY THOUGHT OUTSIDE THE BOX .I MAY HAVE TO DO THIS ONE,AND THE WAY YOU HAVE IT IN THE FERMENTER ALL BUBBLY THAT'S WHAT MY BLACKBERRY PINO LOOKS LIKE, RICH INKY COLOR AND GREAT AROMA DO YOU CONCUR?...........................................

 

[beggarsu]

THE KIT LOOKS GREAT ,STAY TRUE TO THE PROCESS,WITH THIS KIT THEY THOUGHT OUTSIDE THE BOX .I MAY HAVE TO DO THIS ONE,AND THE WAY YOU HAVE IT IN THE FERMENTER ALL BUBBLY THAT'S WHAT MY BLACKBERRY PINO LOOKS LIKE, RICH INKY COLOR AND GREAT AROMA DO YOU CONCUR?...........................................

Yeah it's coming along beautifully - leaning over to whiff it , I got a big blast of cO2 up the nose

This is a step up from the standard kits , I've been doing - there are two more levels of price after this that my brew shop sells I think $120 and $140-160) (the brew shop the only one in this small prairie city) - they only sell RJ Spagnols

This is a five week kit. The other levels as I've had seem explained to me - depends on if first or second pressing etc and what skins and fruit are included, and more quantity of juice.

I think the next two levels may be 6 and 8 weeks kits respectively, as well.

 

[joeswine]

high end kits

you are correct balance between varietal and concentrate makes the difference,I'm going to look into this kit it's a metal winner for sure........

 

[DoctorCAD]

Only 5 weeks in the carboy is insulting to a wine like this. It needs a long time to mature, 3 months would be barely enough time. 6 would be better.

 

[joeswine]

Meaning and meaning????

I'M SURE YOU KNOW THAT WHAT THE MFG. MEANT WAS FINISHED IN FIVE WEEKS ,WITH A FOOT NOTE ON BETTER AFTER SO MANY MONTHS THAT COMES IN THE INSTRUCTION,I AGREE THAT 1 YEAR WOULD DO NICELY THEN DIVE IN AND SAVE TWO BOTTLES FOR THE 3 YEAR MARK.................................

 

[beggarsu]

Thanks guys,,


Is this one classified as a heavy red?
I read somewhere that heavy reds are better if thery are not filtered, What do you think?

 

[wildvines]

That's a good plan. Hopefully you stick to aging them on the bottle with out tasting them to much lol. Filtering is up to you. I don't filter my reds but that's because I bulk age mine and heard that filtering can strip away on the reds. I'm a newbie so others here can prob answer you better. I'm pretty good about aging in bottles but that's because currently most of my cellar is expensive colt wine from napa / California.


Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making

 

[SouthernChemist]

Thanks guys,,

For various reasons it will be bottled sometime between week 6-8 - just can't do the long term here. I think I'll be in a better place next year.
..
It'll age a lot in the bottle. I expect a significant number of bottles will make it past one and 2 years and some to three. Maybe I'll taste test them one every 3 months starting month six -see how effective this aging thing is.
--
I'm about to get a machine filtering system, it's time to move up a notch,

Is this one classified as a heavy red?
I read somewhere that heavy reds are better if thery are not filtered, What do you think?

One good idea is to bottle some of your wine in split-sized bottles. You can then sample the splits over time while the rest of the wine ages in the full-sized bottles. You also don't lose as much wine if the taste wasn't quite what you wanted it to be. The surest way to help age your wine is to make more wine! Once you have a certain amount, you'll find it much easier to just forget about some of your wine and let it age.

I personally do not filter my wines, and in general you shouldn't have to unless there's a good chance the wine is throwing off sediment still or you really want it to shine in a glass. Based on the description of the wine (having not made it myself), I'd probably say it is not a 'heavy red'. I believe with reds that improper filtration can strip things from the wine.