The best wine you have ever made!

[Bearpaw]

Hey guys,
I was away for a long time but i am back now!
I was questioning myself, what is the best wine you have ever made...
And maybe you can write the recipe for the others with it (especially for me )
Thanx,
Bearpaw

 

[jamesngalveston]

the very best wine i have made so far, excluding 20 different combinations of dragon blood is a fig wine, made from fresh figs...It is by far the best wine, i have ever had, commercial, home made are other..It is fantastic.
Great golden amber color, easy on the pallate and a nice little kick at the end...
You want home made wine that is a winner...goooooo figgggg.

 

[Tess]

Where did you get the Figs James?

 

[Jericurl]

Well, well, well......guess who raided her neighbor's fig tree (with his blessing) all summer and has some figs in the freezer?!
I had them slated for vanilla balsamic fig jam, but I may just have to make some wine out of them.

 

[Deezil]

My best?

Apple (fermented with D-47 & Fermaid-O) + Pear (fermented with 1116 & Fermaid-O) + MLF

Uh-mazing!

 

[jamesngalveston]

Tess..I ran an ad on craigslist offering to buy and pick the fresh figs.
I ended up with about 100 lbs, which made a 5 gallon batch of wine.
It took a while because it dropped lees for ever...
about 1/3 .I cant describe the taste...earthy, fresh,sweet,but not overbearing at all..was very nice..
next year i will run ads in the newspaper..hopefully can get at least 500 lbs..

 

[TomK-B]

I'm still a really new wine maker. But, so far the best wine I've mad has been the Spagnols' EP Italian Amarone. I went pretty much by the instructions on it. Bulk aged it for about 18 months. Bottled it about four months ago. I opened a bottle two nights ago, let it decant for three hours before drinking. Holy cow! It was REALLY good! I'm sooooo happy!

 

[GaDawg]

My best wine? I haven't made it yet

 

[toddrod]

My best was a white muscadine / chardonnay blend from 2 yrs ago followed by an orange honey mead that was aged in the bottle for 10 yrs.

 

[olusteebus]

This recipe from Longtrain is the best wine I have made in the year and a half I been making wine.

This is my recipe, I started it during the winter, it came out very good, however, I did get a stuck fermentation at about 1.010 or so, I blamed the Jam and the colder cellar temps ~55F, once it got warmer in the cellar the fermentation took off again and finished.

I have only bottled 2 gallons and transferred the remaining 4 gallons to jugs, this is really nice stuff, dry, with nice mouth feel and good blackberry notes. The oak really rounded the wine out well. Worth doing again.

Tony

Cabernet Sauvignon - Blackberry Wine

6 gallons

6 - 1 lb jars of Walmart Blackberry Seedless Jam
2 - 46oz cans Alexander's Cabernet Sauvignon Juice Concentrate (68 Brix)
1 tbl bentonite
1 ½ tbl yeast nutrient
2 ½ tsp pectic enzyme
1 ½ tsp tannin
10 ml K-Meta 10% solution
Powdered dextrose (SG to 1.090, approx 2 ½ lbs)
Spring water to bring volume to 6 gallons
1 packet Red Star Pasteur Champagne Yeast
1 packet of Oak chips, medium French Oak

For stabilizing after fermentation
25 ml K-Meta 10% solution (50 grams of K-Meta in 500 ml water)
2 ½ tsp potassium sorbate



Add 1/2 gallon of hot water to bottom of primary, stir in 1 tbl bentonite till completely mixed.
Add the contents of the jam to the PF, stir until dissolved.
Add 1 gallon of spring water, mix throughly.
Add Peptic Enzyme, mix.
Add Tannin powder, mix
Add Yeast Nutrient, mix
Add the contents of both cans of Alexander's Cabernet Sauvignon concentrate, mix throughly. Rinse cans with spring water and add to PF.
Add spring water to bring must to 6 gallon volume, mix very throughly.
Measure SG, add dextrose to bring SG to 1.090 ~ ABV 12%, mix well.
Cover PF and let it sit for ~ 24 hours
Pitch yeast
When SG drops to 1.010 rack to clean sanitized carboy, leaving settled solids.
When fermentation is FULLY complete < 1.000 and SG is stable, rack to a clean carboy
Add 25 ml 10% K-Meta solution.
Add 2.5 tsp potassium sorbate.
Stir vigorously to dissipate CO2.
Add SuperKleer
Top up carboy and reattach airlock.
Rack after 14 days to clean carboy
Add oak chips
Rack again in two months, further racking and bulk aging as deemed necessary.
Bottle

 

[JohnT]

I agree with GADawg, I haven't made it yet...

But of my favorites so far..

1992 Cab sav,
1996 Petit Sarah
1999 san gio
2007 Nappa Merlot
2009 Brunello (san gio blend)
2011 petit sarah

All of them were 100% fresh grapes, so there really was not much of a recipe. all were fermented using rc212, oaked using either XOV staves or med toast cubes, and aged 3 years before bottling.

 

[dangerdave]

Every year I seem to make a "better" wine. Since i like all wines for what they are, it's hard to pin one down.

My "current" (pun intended) favorate is the Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon juice bucket I got this past spring from Luva Bella. After the wine was clear, I added several pounds of dried black currants along with some toasted French oak and let it sit undesturbed for about a month. The currants inparted a nice hint of sweet fruit flavor, while the oak smoothed out the wine as if it had been aged for years. It came out minutely off-dry, full-bodied, with a quiet fruit symphony in the background. Nice!

I made it for my fiftieth birthday. Happy B-Day to me (last week)!

 

[Sammyk]

Fresh Peach in 2012 is by far our best and favorite. Too early to tell on the 2013 because it is only a couple of months old.

 

[GreginND]

I think my best wine was a grapefruit wine. It turned out absolutely silky and smooth on the texture and perfectly balanced. I have never been able to repeat it.

 

[cmason1957]

I just bottled up a WineExpert Eclipse Old Vine Zinfandel that might be the best thing I have made, so far. I added some extra tannin and oak to it, for some extra character. At bottling time it knocked my socks off. Time will tell.

 

[joeswine]

Best wine?

]

I agree with Johnt ,I haven't made it yet!

 

[geek]

I think mine will be the Brunello kit I'm making right now...

 

[geek]

Every year I seem to make a "better" wine. Since i like all wines for what they are, it's hard to pin one down.

My "current" (pun intended) favorate is the Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon juice bucket I got this past spring from Luva Bella. After the wine was clear, I added several pounds of dried black currants along with some toasted French oak and let it sit undesturbed for about a month. The currants inparted a nice hint of sweet fruit flavor, while the oak smoothed out the wine as if it had been aged for years. It came out minutely off-dry, full-bodied, with a quiet fruit symphony in the background. Nice!

I made it for my fiftieth birthday. Happy B-Day to me (last week)!

Happy blated my friend, many years to come in good health..!!

I thought you added 1lb but you just said "several" pounds? Wow, was that in secondary and did you measure SG with the new sugar added?

..

 

[Rodnboro]

So far it's my Sweet White Muscadine. 3 gallons of juice with 1 gallon of water to cut the acid then the common recipe procedures and bulk aging for a year. I like reds, but this one is dang good.

 

[dangerdave]

Happy blated my friend, many years to come in good health..!!

I thought you added 1lb but you just said "several" pounds? Wow, was that in secondary and did you measure SG with the new sugar added?

You are probably right Varis, I think it was a pound, maybe a little more. That was after it had cleared for about a month. The currants just sat there, soaking in the carboy, imparting their specific flavor. I did not measure the SG, but I bet the currants did not add a lot of extra sugar. Just a hint. I didn't want to overrun the nice dry red very much.

Thank you for the questions...and the belated.