First and foremost dcrnbrd is the quality of the Muscadines you are using. You want them fully ripened and preferbly a variety best suited for wine making such as the Ison. Leave the quarter sizedand larger ones for the jelly makers.Freeze them....for a minimum of two weeks to break down that cell structure and make them turn loose of that juice. I use around 6-7 lbs fruit per gallon for my wine and prefer Montacharet yeast. Add a lot of patience to that as the wine needs about 2 years of aging to reach its peak
On a slight tangent, Waldo if you were going to plant 4 muscadine vines, which would you choose? I am considering the Ison, Black Beauty, & Supreme. Should I go with one specific variety?
Thats what I was leaning towards. I will be going to Mississippi this week to get some more muscadines. I got in touch with the owner of the Vineyard near Meridian yesterday. I will hope to be making a batch in the near future.
Not sure if he does. But I'll get some if I can. I do plan on a 4 vine vineyard.... Some of those muscadines are purported to yield 60-80 pounds of fruit per season.
I got all of that handled so far. I just want one of those famous recipes you have been using.
I just planted 18 of those isons last winter and pinched off all of the fruit this year to get the vines stronger. I will be ordering their balackberry canes pretty soon.
Wow so the honey makes that big of a difference? I cant get any wildflower honey at the moment. I will look around and see what I can find. Thanks waldo you the man
Are you fermenting just the juice or are you adding water? I recently got a nice supply of carlos muscadines, and I am in the process of freezing them. I will be starting a new batch in a couple weeks and would like to discuss how you might handle this as to maximize juice extraction.