WineXpert Sparkling Riesling

[scubaman2151]

Scuba, how did your Mezza Luna Red turn out? I opened a bottle of mine last night at the 5 month mark. No kit taste. Little on the weak, watery side, but pleasant taste. 5% abv. I am wondering if the taste will become bolder with more age.

Came out the same as yours basically. I would have to go back htough and see how old it is, same age as yours I think.

 

[grapeman]

Scuba, how did your Mezza Luna Red turn out? I opened a bottle of mine last night at the 5 month mark. No kit taste. Little on the weak, watery side, but pleasant taste. 5% abv. I am wondering if the taste will become bolder with more age.

uavwmn, I doubt your Mezza Luna Red was 5% ABV. My guess is you used a vinometer to check it. Most folks that get one and use a time or two never use it again. They just don't work very accurately. No two things test the same. You could use a commercial wine with an accurate ABV and test with the vinometer and get a widely different result. Much more accurate using the beginning SG and ending SG and calculate from there. That isn't 100% but close enough. My guess is the Mezza Luna was more like 12% ABV.


The Mosti Vinifera Noble tend to taste fuller bodies- they use more juice and less water and have better solids in them.

 

[uavwmn]

Appleman, the Mezza Luna Red did not taste like it had any where near a 12% abv.
Since I am math challenged, I use the vinometer.
I am pretty sure, based on taste alone, my Mezza is much lower than stated.

 

[grapeman]

Did you record your Starting SG? Did you record your ending SG? If you did, let us know what they were and we can tell you the approximate ABV using your numbers.

 

[Wade E]

I too also dought highly that it is 5%. That would be around a starting SG of 1.033.

 

[scubaman2151]

Quick question about my Riesling, It has been in the primary now with yeast for almos 48hrs. I checked on it today and there was about 1in of foam on top covering the whole surface and the must smelled like it was fermenting. However when I checked the SG it was the same as when I started. I started it at 1.084 and it is still there. The temp is 64* F. Any idea whats going on?

 

[PeterZ]

Scuba, your yeast are in the "growth phase." Right now they are busier making baby yeast than making alcohol. As long as you have activity, all is well. They'll kick off the fermentation when they are ready.

 

[scubaman2151]

Thanks.

 

[scubaman2151]

Ok so I checked this again today. The SG is at 1.070 and the temp is 68* F.

 

[Wade E]

Its going to go slow at that temp but thats Ok or even good as long as it stays fermenting.

 

[scubaman2151]

Ok so I racked a few days ago and this is a picture from then:

Right now a lot of the lees have dropped and its starting to clear out, though fermentation is still going. Almost 2 weeks now it is still going, maybe its just slow becuase the temp is only around 65*.

 

[Joanie]

I remember the Riesling I sparkled took forever to finish mostly because my house was cold.

 

[Wade E]

With those temps fermentation will take longer but thats a good thing especially for a white wine. Just make sure she ferments all the way.

 

[scubaman2151]

Yeah I figured a cool ferment would be ok.

 

[scubaman2151]

Well the Riesling just finished fermenting about 1-2 days ago. This kit seemed to throw a lot of lees as there was a lot of lees when I racked and there is about 2 inches of lees on the bottom of the current carboy.


It is clearing though nicely and it is a nice light green color. I don't plan on putting this wine into champagne bottles until the first week of August. Is that going to be a problem?


Scuba

 

[Wade E]

That shouldnt be a problem as long as you add some fresh yeast to the batch right before bottling and dont use any k-meta or sorbate at all. You can use Ascorbic acid to keep the wine from oxidizing though as that wont hinder a fermentation.

 

[scubaman2151]

Thanks for the advice Wade.

 

[scubaman2151]

Ok so the wine is clearing nicely and ready to be racked again.




Heres what I plan on doing with this wine:


Rack the wine within the next 2 weeks (2nd racking), while racking splash the wine to get c02 out then whip the wine to get any remaining c02 out.


Add the two clearing agents that came with the kit (Siligel and Liquigel, add the Siligel first).


Let clear and then help keep it from oxidizing by using Ascorbic acid.


Once clear filter the wine and put back into the carboy. Early - Mid August I will transfer this into Champagne bottles and begin that stage of fermentation. I'm not sure how long I can leave the lees inside the bottle of champagne before degorgeing? Any advice on that?


Degorge the wine then top up and cork and leave to age.


Now I didn't want to buy a champagne corker so I was looking at using the plastic champagne stoppers instead of corks because I read that the plastic one can be pushed in by hand. http://www.northernbrewer.com/wine-bottling.html


Now if I use plastic stoppers will that effect the way I age the wine or for how long I can age the wine?


Thanks,


Scuba

 

[Wade E]

1) Dont splash rack the wine as it will introduce more 02 then wanted. You really dont have to worry as much as you do with a regular wine cause all it is doing now is helping to clear the wine. Dont forget your going to be making C02 when you carbonate it so getting it all out is not needed. Just do a sufficient job for it to clear.
2) I wouldnt bother filtering it either, just let it clear on its own.
3) The plastic stoppers are all thats needed just make sure where ever you put them upside down when riddling them to put some newspaper under them to absorb fluid from any leakers as some do leak and second to cushion the blow of occasionally bumping them to get all the sediment down into the cap.
4) The sediment from fermentation in the bottles is nothing to worry about but I would give it a few months to carbonate well before degorging.

 

[scubaman2151]

Thanks wade for all the help, your posts are always so informative. I am going to build a ridding (sp?) rack so I dont keep dropping the bottles on thier stoppers. Im glad to hear I can give it a few months becuase if I start the second fermentation around August I dont want to degorge untill Dec when it is nice and cold out, you think waiting untill mid Nov - early Dec would be ok?


Scuba