Archive for the ‘Wine Kits’ Category

I’m expecting a special event to happen in the future. I don’t know when exactly, but it will be more than a year. Perhaps two. Perhaps three. When it happens, I want to have my own home made wine for those who attend.

One of my favorite wines is the La Fiole du Pape Chateauneuf-de-Pape. It’s not just the interesting bottle, but the wine itself is a wine I enjoy very much. It has been part of a few special occasions in the past year. While I will not duplicate this wine, I want something close to it.

La Fiole du Pape is a blend of four different grape varieties from the Chateauneuf-de-Pape AOC:

80% Grenache
7% Syrah
7% Mourvédre.
6% Cinsault

I discussed this with the owner of Winemakers, Bob Collins. After some thought and consideration, we decided that it would be best to make wine using two different wine kits. Unfortunately, we don’t know the exact ratio of the grape varieties in the KenRidge Ultra Premium “Founder’s Series,” but there is a kit that contains a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre. According to Bob though, this wine on it’s own can have some bold leather tastes that some might not enjoy, probably from the Mourvre.

In order to soften that boldness, I’m going to make another batch of Grenache, a Cru Select Australian Bush Vine Grenache. After both batches have fully fermented, I will blend them together and allow them to bulk age together. It would be nice to source some Cinsault, but I haven’t found any yet.

The GSM kit comes with Lalvin EC-1118 yeast, which I will use, but I’m also going to add a packet of Lalvin Bourgovin RC 212.

This evening, I checked the specific gravity of the Winery Series Old Vine Zinfandel that I started last week. Yesterday, the SG was 1.031.

This evening, the reading was 1.018 – good enough for me to rack into the secondary carboy. Before doing so, the bag of grape skins was squeezed and squeezed to get every drop of juice that I could out of it. This will maximize the colour and tannin extraction.

I don’t top up at this stage. I’m not worried one bit about air in the headspace as the fermentation is continuing and whatever air was in there has now been replaced by Carbon Dioxide coming out of the wine and escaping through the airlock. When I do rack again, it will be into a Mexican 5 Gallon carboy which are stouter and shorter than the other ones I have. They seem to require less water or wine to top up and must have a bit less total capacity.

Other than sometimes being hypnotized by watching the airlock bounce up and down, I’ll not give this Zinfandel attention for about another week. At that time, I may take a specific gravity reading out of curiosity, but that’s about it for about two to three weeks.

More than four years ago, when my “wee man” was less than two years old, he began to play a guessing game that he still plays from time to time today.  It doesn’t hold quite as much fascination for him as it did when he was 18 months old, but he still has fun with it.

He’d fill a glass or some other container with water, and then find different things like marbles, acorns, pieces of wood, crayons – whatever he could get his hands on, and say out loud, “Sink or Float?” Then he’d try to guess what would happen when he dropped whatever item he had into the water – then clap his hands with a big smile on his face when he predicted correctly. Most of the time, he predicted correctly.  He was quite confused though when I showed him how he could make a pin “float” on water – when he dropped the pin, of course it would sink.

Yesterday, I started a RJ Spagnols Winery Series Red Zinfandel.  It came with 5.5 pounds of crushed grape skins which was put into a straining bag included with the kit, and then add to the juice before you pitch the yeast.  When I first added the bag of skins, it dropped to the bottom of the primary fermenter and stayed there for over 12 hours.  I stirred the must earlier today and the bag was still at the bottom.

This evening, I stirred the must again, and this time the bag of skins was floating on the top.  I wished the “wee man” had seen both the fact it had first sunk, and then later floated.  I wonder what he would have thought.

I’m still thinking about it myself, and I’m sure there is an obvious explanation, but I’m too tired to think much about it tonight.

This evening, I was about to put some of the bottles of mead I had just bottled into my cellar. Now, I don’t have the perfect wine cellar by any means. I live in a very old house where the basement is tiny and I can’t stand up straight. One one side, is a crawl space that is quite dusty and filled with cob webs. I’ve never actually crawled into the crawl space because I have no idea what else might be in there. But through the small opening in the wall, I can put a few boxes of wine, or add bottles to the plastic wine storage racks I have.

I had thought the cellar was empty. I knew there were a couple of cardboard boxes laying on their sides, but for some reason, had the belief that they were empty. Tonight, I thought I’d get them out of the way – but there was a certain heft to them that told me, “Hey! There’s wine in one of those boxes!”

Turns out there are about 8 bottles of the “Old Vines” Zinfandel that I started making back in some part of October, 2005. I recall now that it was a batch of wine that I wanted to try the synthetic wine corks and age some wine a few years with those in the bottles.

With more than a bit of excitement, I grabbed two of the bottles and brought them upstairs. Would the wine have gone off? Did it keep well? Had it turned to vinegar? With a little trepidation, partly because I had lost all my notes on this wine and had no idea whether I sulfited before bottling, I uncorked one. Took a whiff… not sure what to expect… vinegar?

NO! Nothing but the rich scent of red Zinfandel wine! My wee man, who is now 6 years old would have been 3 years old when I started this wine, and helped with the bottling of it, wanted to have a sniff. He pronounced it “Mmmm!” Then he asked, “What were you afraid it might smell like, Daddy?” So I took out a bottle of vinegar, undid the cap, and let him have a sniff of that. “The wine smells much better, Dad!”

I’m going to let the red Zinfandel warm up to room temperature and decant it. I’ll offer some tasting notes later.

UPDATE: Tasting Notes

Mmmm.. so the wine has warmed up and somewhat decanted. Oh, this is a good classic Zinfandel.

On the nose: black cherry with hints of smoked wood
On the tongue: black cherry, pepper and licorice.
Mouthfeel: Velvet

I know it has been awhile since I’ve posted anything here. Life can get busy – of course, whether bored, busy, or making plans to be busy, wine is always good!

On September 18, 2008, I started a Malbec wine and kind of screwed up a bit, forgetting I’d be away when the wine would be ready to be racked from the primary fermenter to the carboy. Ah well.. as I then wrote in October, wine making can be very forgiving on these points.

Since then, life has continued to be very busy! Some wonderful adventures, a few stresses here and there, things that needed to be attended to. Meanwhile, lots of wine getting no attention at all, and bulk aging as it will. Admittedly, there was some fear and apprehension on my part: “Am I going to risk major disappointment with batches of wine and mead I started long ago, have given little attention to, and therefore be disappointed at how bad it is now?”

This evening, I decided to face my fears. I’m glad I did!

I decided to rack the Malbec I had started in September. Since September, the only thing I did was to rack it from the primary to the carboy, and since then, have done nothing. No sulphite. No clearing agents. I was worried that without any sulphite, perhaps the wine might have gone off and began to turn to vinegar. Tonight I decided that if that was the case, I might as well find out now and realize I had plenty of red wine vinegar to use on the steaks and roasts from the side of beef I will be putting in the freezer shortly.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised when I removed the airlock from the carboy. Very nice on the nose! I was even more impressed when I began the syphon to rack the wine – a velvety texture upon my tongue. Only 5 months old, but comparable to some Malbecs sold at the LCBO that are a couple of years old.

I added a quarter teaspoon of sulphite after racking and did some degassing – I’ll do more degassing over the next few days before adding the clearing agents – but I’m not sure they are even needed. I did pour a quarter inch into a glass and was impressed with the clarity of it as the wine has sat for five months, clearing on its own. It does need some degassing though.

Motivated by such good results, I decided to approach the very first batch of Mead I started, back on February 5, 2005. I have done nothing with it since January 8, 2007. Since then, it’s simply been aging – five gallons in a carboy. Gingerly, I removed the airlock with trepidation, worried that I might have produced five gallons of honey based vinegar.

Ah, what a delightful sense on the nose it was! But how did it taste? I took a sample and was impressed with the complexity on the tongue and have decided that this is ready for bottling. But first, another 1/4 teaspoon of sulphite for preservation, a good stir (which churned up some very light fluffy sediment on the bottom) and in a few days, I will filter and bottle this mead. I am thinking that I might experiment a little bit with bottling up the very dry mead as it is, but also bottling some with additions of ginger and/or cinnamon.

Tomorrow, I plan on sampling the blueberry wine that has been bulk aging for about three years, as well as some melomels that have been bulk aging for almost 4 years.

I’ve also got some frozen black currants, goose berries, and Elderberries in the freezer that I acquired for the purposes of making wine from.

There has also been some serious talk of a wedding. I won’t get into the personal details too much, right now, but indeed it includes thoughts of providing our own home made wines.. which I’ll have to think about and am excited to think about! More on that later and what we choose to offer our guests.

About 14 months ago, a good friend of mine uncorked a bottle of wine he had made from a kit. It was wonderful! A Malbec – rich, dark and plummy. I asked him who supplied this juice and he promised me he’d pick me up a kit from his supplier. A few weeks later, I had a 16 liter juice kit from Mosti Mondiale in their “Rennaissance” line.

As things would have it, much has happened in the past year since I received my kit. Due to some “team politics,” I’ve lost the friendship of the man who first introduced me to the Rennaissance Malbec, although I remain good friends with the rest of the team.

As well in the past year, I’ve also found a love that compares to no other – and she has kept me busy! We’ve consumed wine but I’ve done very little wine making. Lots of travel, too much work, and time spent learning more about each other has taken up most of my energy and resources; my wine making has taken a back burner. Perhaps someday soon my “Pretty Colleen” and I will make wine together and we can always have a few tax free bottles on hand as we enjoy our adventures.

Ah some of those adventures! The passion, the fieriness… that needs a full bodied, dark red wine – and this evening I decided that too much time had passed since I made wine. I have several kits (as well as many plans in my head that involved fresh ingredients like dandelions, blueberries and apples) but haven’t done much at all. This evening, while thinking of the passion and all that goes with it, I eyed my Malbec kit and just knew it should be made into wine.

So my wee man (who is now 6 and who also quite likes my “Pretty Colleen”) opened the kit together. He helped me pour the juice into the primary, add the water – and then he stirred! He did a fantastic job of stirring as he commented several times on the color of the juice. And so much fun for him to learn a little bit about physics and “specific gravity.” I wonder how many six year olds get to use and read a hydrometer!

The instructions that come with the Renaissance Malbec are ok – I’ve seen better. They advise to clean your primary fermenter with a chlorine detergent – not something I’d want to do. Hot water, a good dry, and then sprayed down with a water sulphite solution, then rinsed is good enough for me.

Also, they instruct to take the specific gravity AFTER you’ve stirred in the Bentonite solution. That makes no sense as it could affect the SG reading when what you really want is the SG of the juice itself and nothing else. My SG reading was an excellent 1.092 after adding enough water to the 16 litres of juice to bring it to 5 gallons.

The yeast that comes with the kit is a standard Alvin EC-1118. I did like the Bentonite in that it came in a sort of pellet form that dissolved in cool water in about 30 minutes and didn’t require much stirring to get into a solution form. Other clearing agents to be added later include something called “Liquidgel” and “Siligel.”

The kit also came with two 30 gram packages of oak chips – the instructions recommend this be added to the carboy at the secondary stage, but I did what I always do – added them to the primary.

Surprisingly for a 16 liter kit, the instructions call for bottling the wine after only 28 days. I think I’ll bottle mine at least 40 days, and probably more like 54 days minimum.

Of course, I’ll likely open a few bottles too quickly. But I’ll put some aside to enjoy with my “Pretty Colleen,” and the deep red colour of the wine will go very well with her hair.

Some readers will know I have a son that is now four years old. David has accompanied me in the past to vineyards in Niagara to pick up fresh juice for winemaking, and has “toured” vineyards, looking at all the “wine juice berries.”

Some will also know that I have a Maltese puppy who’s name is Rudy. David and Rudy get along awesomely, most of the time.

Today was a day where I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Cooking up some stuff – but also doing some racking – and starting a new wine. I recently picked up a R.J. Spagnols “Restricted Quantities” Malbec kit – which I’ve started a review of, here.

First, David and I racked the Petit Chenin and Barolo I started last week. The we started a couple of loaves of bread like this. Then, David and I decided to start the R.J. Spagnols Malbec kit this evening.

David was quite helpful, stirring up the reconstituted juice prior to taking a specific gravity reading, and then helping to stir in the bentonite mixture. But – he also stuck his finger into the must and licked the residual juice and decided it was yummy.

So yummy, he wanted more. So we’ve decided to go to the grocery store tomorrow to buy some grape juice. Rudy the puppy also seems to have a sweet tooth; he seemed to enjoy discovering – and then licking – the splashes of the sweet juice that were on the floor before David and I cleaned them up. Rudy would have cleaned them up himself, I’m sure – the way he was lapping away with his tongue – but a clean kitchen is a good kitchen – and poor Rudy never did get to finish his licking.

Sometime ago, I wrote a review of an “Advintage Celebrations” kit, using Barolo juice. Admittedly, my review of the kit as far as the instructions are concerned was not very good. But what of the final product?

Well, I have to admit that I never did write any formal tasting notes – but – it was, in my opinion, yummy! I had some bottles that were drunk young, other bottles aged a year – and all of them were just… wonderful. One thing I do recall that was a distinctive licorice or anise taste to it. But not overwhelming anise or licorice – and the flavours were bursting – and delicious that the 30 bottles I made have all been consumed over the past two years. This Barolo went well with pasta dishes, red meat, or just for the want of sipping and tasting Barolo.

I know there is some controversy about what makes a “real” Barolo – in days gone by, a Barolo was expected to age for years. But whatever – I’m not interested in what is “real,” but rather, what I enjoy and like. And it was time to make another Barolo.

This evening, while starting the Petit Chenin Blanc, I decided I also had time to start another Advintage Celebrations Barolo kit that I’ve had for a couple of weeks. I was visiting my friend Debbie (the very pretty and knowledgable Debbie) who owns “Wines To Go” in Alliston, and asked her, “Debbie… do you have any of that Barolo?”

Well, she did! So I bought one. Started it this evening, and this time, I’m committing myself to keep back even more bottles (oh, if I can… if I can) for longer ageing.

I still say the instructions are not the easiest to follow – but I am so looking forward to the final product. I also suspect that I might have to go see Debbie again – no.. not just to have an enjoyable conversation with her – but to pick up another Advintage Celebrations Barolo kit. Maybe if I have 60 bottles instead of 30 – I can really put some aside for longer ageing.

I’m also experimenting with another mead this evening – more on that soon. The mead I made last year, using this recipe seems “ok,” but at the same time, a little thin. So, I’m increasing the pounds of honey I’m using and am hoping that I came close to something that will have a starting specific gravity of at least 1.090.

Posted a review of R.J. Spagnols 2006 “Restricted Quantities” Petit Chenin Blanc. I’ve been enjoying it so much, I went back for another kit, which Winemakers had in stock.

The above review also includes tasting notes.

Any readers familiar with a strain of yeast named “BK-1″ and distributed by Rudolf Keller SRL? This yeast came with the Advintage Celebration Kit I started. After 11 days, the fermentation seems to be progressing quite slowly, with the SG at 1.020. There is still fermentation activity going on, but after 11 days, I would have expected it to be just about complete by now. Or at least much further along then it is.

I’m curious if anyone else has experience with BK 1 yeast, and whether they found it slow?