2020 Petite Pearl Wine

Marshall Vineyard in Oregon Wisconsin. Its in between Madison and my home base of Janesville Wisconsin. 

I found grapes at a local vineyard called Marshall Vineyard, which is in Oregon, Wisconsin. Sadly, they were sold out of white grapes. 

I am skeptical of northern-grown red grapes, but after a little reading online, I decided to try Petite Pearl grapes. It is another U of Minnesota variety. 

I ventured out in to the vineyard, and after a lot of walking, I found some vines that had not already been harvested, and hauled out 3 five gallon pails of grapes which weighed 56 pounds. They charged me $84 which seems steep, but on the other hand, they were rapidly selling out. 

I suppose there is some romance in picking local grapes and making wine from them -- maybe I have to pay extra for that. 

Petite Pearl grape vine

2020 Petite Pearl Wine Recipe

56 pounds Petite Pearl Grapes

4 pounds sugar

3 g pectic enzyme  

2 teaspoons yeast nutrient

Lalvin EC-1118 yeast, 1 packet

The juice had a sugar content of 19.4% which provides an alcohol content of 10%. I am shooting for 13% alcohol, and so  I added 3.5 pounds of sugar. I dissolved the sugar in juice that I heated on the stove. When I blended it all together, the measured sugar content was still low. This suggest to me that the spiked juice just sank to the bottom. The next day the must was vigorously fermenting, and I remeasured the sugar content at 24%, which should produce 12.6% alcohol. That is okay, and since there had already been a night of fermenting, the actual alcohol content will be a little higher than that, perhaps 13% as targeted.

Sept 2021 Update

I made the wine as above in glass demijohns, and have not added any flavors. 

It has a nice violet color with no haze. It tastes like a rose' more than a red wine. It has lemon note, strawberry, melon, a plant-y scent that I am calling hay, some tree fragrance that I need to pin-down, but perhaps hawthorn. It doesn't have currant, raspberry or blueberry fragrance or flavors one expects from California red grapes. Happily, there are no off-odors or flavors. 

I like it pretty well. I think I'd like it more if the color were lighter. If this were a pretty pink or orange, I'd like that. 

Maybe I will flavor some with my home grown Columbine flowers.