WE Selection Brunello kit tweaked
Well folks, here goes another kit tweak. I have upped the ante this time and spent some real money on a kit. No it's not the most expensive you can buy, but it's the most expensive I have ever bought. I have a WE Selection Brunello kit that includes 16L of grape juice concentrate and a 1.5L bag of juicy grape skins. I bag of med toast American oak chips and 2 bags of Hungarian oak cubes.
Normally I would include pictures of the kit contents but I had SEVEN of my sister-in-laws and dear Mother-in-law here when I started the kit and it would have been a difficult production. They wanted to see how I make all this wonderful wine I give them (and I wonder why I run out of wine so fast?
)and it seemed like a good time to share the fun of making wine.
I'm sure this kit could stand just fine on it's own, but I wanted to do a little tweaking to try and add just a bit more dimension. Over the last year I have done about 12 kits. Most of them were tweaked using Joeswine methods. Some were not. I can tell you without a doubt, the ones I tweaked with raisins, tannins, Elderflowers or zests are by far more enjoyable. The few that I did not stray from the manufacturers instructions are a little too boring to me. Therefore, I am going to continue to tweak.
Since this is a higher end kit, I'm going with higher end ingredients. I will be using black Zante currants (from Corinth grapes) and Tannin Riche. The currants will add a little more fruitiness and body, while the Tannin riche will also enhance the body and give it hint of vanilla and coffee. The manufacturer says it adds coconut but I have never picked that up myself.
The kit was started Aug. 8, 2014. The starting SG out of the box was just under 1.095 so I added 1/2 pound of Demerara sugar to the juice and stirred throughly. That brought it up to 1.099. I considered adding more sugar to get it to 1.10 but since I didn't really know what the grape pack would add, I left it at 1.099. Following the instructions we added the grape pack using the mesh bag that was included along with the bag of oak chips. Then pitched the 2 packs of EC-1118 that were included.
The grape pack. Which was referred to as "donkey balls" by one of the ladies. We are still considering this as the name for the wine.
Sis-in-law Adrianna gets the honor of pitching the yeast.
By the next morning, we had a good ferment started.
The must was stirred daily and the grape bag squeezed.
8-11-14, SG 1.022 time to add the currants.
8-12-14 SG=.998 I'm going to let it go one more day.
8-13-14 SG=.995. Time to rack to secondary.
Here is what is leftover of the skins and currants. Since the currants were only in there 2 days and still have more to offer, I am going to add them back into the carboy.
I then added the currants back into the carboy and 2 Tsp. of Tannin Riche powder.
Racking process using the All-in-One pump. Notice how I am going from a primary on the floor up to a carboy on a moveable cart? My best investment EVER!
Now we wait about a week while it finishes fermentation.
To be continued...
I would love to place in a contest someday. Maybe I will enter the Grapevine Winefest next fall. It's the biggest wine festival in Texas. 
..A LITTLE FRUIT FOR THOUGHT!
