Wine From Pressed Grapes

[PCharles]

This years budget has been challenging. I had to buy a new car, new computer, new washer and dryer, and a new stove. Spare cash for grapes wasn't in the budget this year. As grape harvest season approached, I began to lament over missing out on the season. For the past years I've experimented with wines made from fruit with grape skins added. So, I decided I'd make all of this years wine from left over wine press, knowing I could obtain some.

Several weeks ago I lined up about 60 gallons of pressed Merlot and Chambourcin skins. I added them to my two 55 gallon ferments. I added water up to about 49 gallons per container. I added sugar bringing the SG to 1.090. The pH looked fine without adjustment at 3.7. I added in oak cubes during fermentation. There was no need to add yeast as the yeast in the skins were still full of life. It was difficult at first to punch the skins. The cap was about 18 inches thick and was hard to penetrate. I punched down three times a day for the full fermentation. After five days the mix became more like soup and was easier to mix. When the SG was down to 1.0 I bucketed out the mix into the wine press.

As there was such a great deal of skins, pulp, and seeds, I knew there would be lots of sediment. After pressing, I moved the juice into several fermenters. The following day I moved the liquid off the heavy sediment into my carboys.

This is where I'm at now. I expect I'll rack off several times in the next few months. I will use my vacuum pump to reduce CO2. Right now I have about 40 gallons of wine. I figure I'll loose some to waste sediment. I figure I'll clear 36 gallons.

Next season I hope to make my primary wine from grapes, but expect I will continue to use skins to expand my wine output. I call this my Saturday afternoon wine or my peasant wine.

Thanks for taking time to read my winemaking experience here.

 

[ibglowin]

Pretty good color for a peasant wine! Did you add any acid to the mix as well?

 

[sour_grapes]

Nice! Waste not, want not!

 

[PCharles]

I expected to have to add acid to this and likely will add some. The pH was 3.7 during fermentation.

FYI, I added about 80 lbs of sugar to the mix to get the SG to 1.090.

 

[cmason1957]

I did almost the same thing with about 80 pounds of Norton skins and such. I added about 15 teaspoons of dutched chocolate and added 20 lbs of cherries. Norton the SG up to 1.100 and let it drop to about 1.020. Then bumped it back up to 1.060.The SG dropped to about 1.050 and is still dropping. My best estimate is I will have about 18% abv. Oh yeah, this is a chocolate cherry Norton Port.

 

[PCharles]

That sounds good cmason1957. I prefer a dryer wine though. I had to add about 80 pounds of sugar to my batch. I've found that it's best to age the wine two years, though I've been enjoying my second press wine from 2013 pretty regularly. It helps me keep my hands off the first press stuff. I still have 15 bottles from 2011 and 20 bottles from 2012. My 2013 first press was just recently bottled. Aging knocks down any chemical smells and softens the taste.

I've not experimented much with high sugar wines.

 

[PCharles]

Knowing that the skins had been fermented, I figured they were likely short of nutrient. I added yeast nutrient on days one, two, and three.

I was able to obtain the used press cake from an area vineyard. I'd help them pick their grapes, which they very much appreciated. They also loaned me their small press.

I prefer to be there at the time of press so I can get the skins home and rehydrated promptly. This year, due to work schedule, I picked the press waste up the morning after, about 12 hours after pressing.

 

[seth8530]

Cool thread! And I thought I had my big boy pants on making 15-20 gallon batches.