Archive for the ‘Wine Kits’ Category

I spent some time in my winemaking room this evening, and realized I had totally lost track of an “Old Vines Zinfandel” I started some time ago. I know I started it at least 6 weeks ago, and racked it – but that’s all I recall. It was one of those “I’ll start a log on this tomorrow” wines, but never did start one.

So I do not recall when I’ve done what to it – but I did rack it tonight off of some sediment in the bottom, and the wine was fairly clear – so I’m thinking I probably did stabilize and clarify it. But it reminds me that I really must keep track of what I’ve done!

I’ll give it another week, rack again, see how it looks and a quarter teaspoon of sulphite to it and likely bottle it in two weeks. I know I started it back in October, toward the beginning of the month. And I probably made notes, but I can’t find them right now.

Other notes: The Riesling is looking very clear – at least the one in the 19 litre carboy that I added liquid isinglass to – the 23 litre carboy, I added liquid isinglass a couple of weeks later, and it’s not quite so clear, but coming along nicely. If I put a large print book behind the 19 litre, I could probably read it through the wine.

The Liebfraumilch that I started five weeks ago is not as clear as I would like, and I racked it this evening off of some thick lees. After racking, I put the vacuum pump to it (which reminds me I have to return that pump or Bob is going to think I’m stealing it), and pulled out a lot of CO2. I’ll give it another week or so before bottling – if it clears up.

The gooseberry wine’s specific gravity is 1.040 – yeast activity is still strong – and it’s fun to watch the mini-explosions that are going on in that carboy. Stuff drops to the bottom, and then seconds later, stuff shoots upward towards the top while the airlock bounces up and down. Amazing the things that will humour a child, huh?

I did rack the gooseberry into another four gallon carboy though. I decided to strain the juice through a hops boiling bag into a pail, and from that, into the smaller carboy. There’s some headspace, but because it is still so active, I’m not worrying about that right now. The colour of the gooseberry has changed from the original lime green to a much lighter greenish/brownish pigment – it will be interesting to see the final colour of this.

Time for me to clean up, finish my glass of red Zinfandel, and get some sleep.

Racked the six week Vieux Chateau du Roi, similar to Chateauneuf-de-Pape, this evening. I’d like to take extra special care with this wine, well.. just because. Actually, there are a few reasons that come to mind.

I also stabilized it and added Isinglass for clarification. I noted that there was quite a bit of CO2 in the wine, so I spent some time degassing it with my handy dandy Fizz-X device. After five minutes, there was in my opinion, a lot of foam on the top as the CO2 began rising.

The reasons I want to take care with this? This wine variety holds special meaning, to me. I’d also like to send a bottle of it to someone who knows why it holds special meaning, and I want it to be very good.

It will be very drinkable when I bottle it in another two or three weeks, but I’m counting on it getting much better with some ageing.

I may purchase another kit just so that I can bulk age for a longer period of time.

One of those all nighters, where you try to do everything all at once, including fixing servers, write love letters (if I had a love to write to, it would be even better), bottle wine, and make room for more wine.

I finally got my Zinfandel bottled – from a cheapie kit so I won’t be planning on ageing it very long – and racked another wine – a kit wine that I plan on writing a review about. Was it worth the money? Well, I’ll let you know shortly.

Still have a few tasks to do, but for now, I think it is bedtime. And I’ll leave you with “Dance Me To The End Of Love.” Good song for bottling and drinking red wine, don’t you think?

So, you’ve made a few five gallon batches of wine from kits, and you’re starting to really enjoy the hobby. The wine you’ve made is not half bad either! And of course, it is considerably cheaper, and if it means anything to you, you’ve also by-passed the taxman and are enjoying wine that has not had the theft of duties or taxes added to it.

You run into someone else, and during a discussion, find out that he/she also makes wine. You’re excited to find others that share your hobby, when the other person asks, “So, what have you made wine from?”

You respond excitedly, “Well, I’ve made Pinot Noir, a few Valpolicellas, Liebfraumilch, Chamblais, and my favorite right now I think is the six week Pinot kit from RJ Spagnols. And yourself?”

You get a dirty look. And then, “Oh, you’re making wine from those wine kits?”

“Uh, yeah,” you say.

And then it comes. That arrogant voice. “Well, that is not really making your own wine, you know.” And he or she sniffs with their nose in the air. “The real way to make wine is to start with grapes or fruit. Kit wine is well.. just.. not the real winemaking at all.”

You feel disappointed. The excitement you felt at first, meeting another winemaker, and hoping to share some thoughts, or get some advice is blown out of you.

Yes, wine kit snobbery does exist. And you may run into it from time to time. But don’t let it get you down at all. In fact, you are likely to learn more over the next year by using wine kits then the snob did in his or her first year, and first attempt at making wine from the grapes or fruit.

And guess what? You didn’t need to wait a year for your wine to age before you could sample it. And it wasn’t half bad at all, was it?

Yes, you will come across this. But don’t let it bother you in the least. Of course, there are differences in making wine from a kit, where everything has been done for you initially, including ensuring the “balance” of the concentrate you buy is what will produce a nice wine.

But so what? Drink it and be merry, learn if you wish, expand your winemaking skills only if you want to. Snobs are among us, regardless of what we do in life – perhaps it’s a good time to ask yourself, “Am I snobbish about anything I do that I think is the right way to do it, and thereby turn off someone else’s quest for learning more?”

And then get on with your own hobby. Whether you decide to go from handy kits that will make you very nice wine in 8 weeks to making it from grapes or fruit that will take a year to age well, it matters not. This is the only life you have, it is not a dress rehearsal for something else, and you do deserve to enjoy your own fruits of your labour – whether it is from a kit, or berries you’ve hand picked.

If you decide to carry on, keep in mind that snob though. Someday, you may be able to retort right back, “Well, did you actually hand pick those grapes yourself? Use a machine? I handpicked my own blueberries, and I know exactly what blueberries I discarded and that which I decided to keep for my winemaking.”

Don’t worry about snobs. Life is too short. Enjoy what you enjoy, and make no excuses for that which YOU enjoy.

It’s amazing how much work time takes away from play and hobby time! I’ve been wanting to rack my ginger wines for a few weeks now, but haven’t had a chance. I’ve also had a couple of kits sitting in my winemaking room, waiting for me to start them.

First, the Ginger Wine. I started some ginger wine according to this recipe, and doubled it to make two gallons instead of just one. I wanted to make one sweet, and one dry.

I made some time today to rack the two, and added the half cup of demerrara sugar to the one that will be sweet. It will also be higher in alcohol content – a nice after dinner wine on a cold winter night here in Central western Ontario. Well, I hope it will be nice! It certainly smells interesting – the ginger is unmistakable. And I like ginger.

A few weeks ago, I purchased two kits from Winemakers here in Orangeville – a Cru Select “Platinum” kit consisting of Australian Shiraz juice, and a Grand Cru Zinfandel.

The Zinfandel is a four week kit, while the Shiraz is a six week. Costs were CDN$55.00 for the Zinfandel, and CDN$85.00 for the Shiraz. The Shiraz contained 16 litres of concentrated juice (so only 7 litres of water added) while the Zinfandel only contains 10 litres of concentrate.

I’m interested in aging the Shiraz for at least a year, while consuming the Zinfandel quickly. How quickly? I guess that depends on how many friends come over to help drink it! Both kits will make about 30 750 ml bottles though.

I was a little disappointed in the Specific Gravity of the Zinfandel, only coming in at 1.064 after adding the water to bring it up to 23 litres. That is quite low. The Shiraz was 1.072 – again, a little on the low side, but close enough to the range I’d like it to be in.

I also have a couple of new articles I want to write for the main Home Winery site, as well as do a quick one with pictures of my three year old son David, when he went with me on our “Daddy And David Adventure” trip to the Niagara Wine region to pick up fresh juice.

More on that soon.

There’s some debate over the “best” way to degass wine. Some say using the Fizz-X device is the best, while my own local winestore suggests that simply shaking the carboy vigorously a few times a day for two or three days will work fine.

Some swear by simply stirring vigorously with a spoon. Then there are those that say, correctly of course, that time will take care of degassing.

Time, however, is not on one’s side if one wants to bottle sooner rather than later. There are some batches I have going that I don’t mind waiting for time to take it’s course, but a couple of other batches, I’d like to bottle soon as I have a short window of opportunity to give bottles away as gifts.

I’ve been trying the first three methods – stirring, shaking AND using the Fizz-X device. All of them seem to get some of the CO2 out – but no matter what, the next time I stir, shake or “fizz-x” the batch, there are STILL bubbles appearing and foam created on top.

I’ve been using at least one of the methods each and every day for the past week! And at least 10 times per day. But no matter what, the gas still has not dissipated from the wine.

I’m beginning to wonder if it is really possible to totally degass a new wine completely. I’ll write more on this later, including an examination of the different methods and with some links to the various debates about degassing wine, later over at The Home Winery.

I’ve had some email correspondence with Sunni Maravillosa which has included a wee bit on the subject of wine making. Sunni indicated to me that she was interested in making her own wine, but wondered about the amount of time that would have to be dedicated to this. I’ve tried to convince her that basic winemaking, which can produce very good wine, takes up 15 minutes to get going, and about 15 minutes a week until bottling time. Bottling time for 5 Imperial Gallons will take about an hour or so – but it’s not critical to bottle on any particular day. In fact, if you can’t bottle exactly 28 days later (for a one month kit), your wine will do nothing but bulk age a bit longer, which is a good thing!

So with this email discussion in mind, I have added a new article on Getting Started, and specifically had Sunni in mind when I wrote it. I hope she’ll read it and get started! The article is available at Getting Started – Part 2.

I did not get to starting a ginger or cranberry wine today, however I did rack my Pinot Noir from a primary into a carboy. I had a wee taste of it at the beginning of the syphon process, and it was quite nice already! The specific gravity measured at 1.010. Dead on for the secondary fermentation in the carboy.

I did start an inexpensive four week Liebraumilch kit, which was the basis of the new article I wrote, mentioned above. I was disappointed that dried elderberry flowers were not included in this kit – and I’ll have to see if I can pick some up somewhere and add it to the muss in the next day or two.

So tomorrow, hopefully I’ll have an opportunity to start that ginger wine! I might try two different batches, if I have enough ginger. One that will be fortified with grape juice later, and one that won’t be.

I’m also beginning to like the smaller pails with the tight fitting lids. I just have to punch them down a few times each day during the primary fermentation process – but I can even stack a couple of pails on top of each other, which I can’t do with the larger pails and the non-sealing lids. I know that some folks like to have an airlock on their primary fermenters if they have tight fitting lids, but I’m not convinced this is necessary if I’m around to punch the lids down.

I’ve also come across an interesting study on whether or not oxygen is important in the ageing process. Too much oxygen is BAD. But some swear by ageing bottles of wine with cork bottle closure. It’s this belief that small amounts of oxygen can pass through the cork to assist with ageing that has kept many wineries using cork with their more expensive wines. I’ll have more on this when I do more research on the study.

And that’s about it for today!

It’s June 19th, 2005, and it’s only appropriate, after many months of non winemaking, that today would be the day I’d finally start a new batch.

It’s Father’s Day.

Two years ago, my father’s day present from my one year old son and his mom was a wine making kit.

I have made several batches of wine since then, but due to some odd circumstances, never bottled any of it. Oh yes, it was all consumed.. but rather quickly.

Folks would come by, and I’d ask if they wanted wine. Or sometimes, I felt like some wine myself. So, after the fermentation cycle was completed, I’d just go down to my lousy wine making area, suck my syphon, and fill a bottle.

The wine was quite good in spite of my unconventional method of enjoying it.

I started off with a kit of Liebframilch. A quickie. By August, it was ready and the summer temperatures were warm – perfect weather for bottles of Liebramilch. Then, I tried some Volipecella. A red, for the winter. I did intend to bottling it up, but syphoning on an “as needed basis” meant that in the long run, no bottling was ever done. Just syphon off.. enjoy.

A few more batches like that, and I was into wine-making, but detested the only area I had for winemaking.

Today, after some plumbing, some clean up, and some labour on the part of a great friend, I now have my own wine making area that is awesome.

And son on this Father’s Day, two years from when I received my first wine making kit, I started a new batch of Liebframilch. A six week kit, distributed by Vineco – the Bin49 line.

After sanitizing all my equipment that has been in storage for about a year, I poured in the juice into my primary fermenter. Added warm water, a mixture of very hot water and Bentonite, the dried Elderflowers, and the yeast. The juice temperature was about 85 F, the room temperature 21.9 C. The Specific Gravity was 1.90 – which should mean a wine of about 13% alcohol.

A perfect summer wine for August.

In about ten days, we’ll transfer the wine into the secondary fermenter, Then 20 days later, transfer back into the primary, add some potassium metabisulphite, and stir vigorously to remove gases for a couple of days.

Then, we’ll stabalize the wine, transfer back into the secondary fermenter, and let it sit for about 2 1/2 weeks.

In the meantime, we’ll also start a wonderful full bodied red Valpolicella as well.