2012 Merlot Wine

Its the first day of fall, rainy, and a good day to make wine. It was crowded at the California Wine Grapes, our local wine grape vendor up in Detroit.

I did a wine tasting on my 2011 batches before I left, and I decided that the Old Vine Zinfandel was best; however I bawked at the price when I got to the store.

2012 Merlot Recipe

106 lb Merlot Grapes (Smiling Baby, Lodi CA)
Crushed
6 g sodium bisulfite
added immediately then wait for the juice to warm
12 g  yeast nutrient
185 g cane sugar
1 pack Pasteur Red Yeast (Red Star)

I crushed the grapes, and got 1.107 g/ml density and 24.6 degrees Brix (refractive index) which give 13.9-14.1% alcohol.  That was what I got last year. This years grapes seems sweet, so that is promising.   Since I thought hearty is better than weak, I added enough sugar to raise the sugar content by 0.5% or 185 g.