2020 Zinfandel Wine

This year I drove down to Caputo's in Carol Spring, Illinois for grapes. This is 95 minute drive for me. It was a clean professional operation with pretty good prices.  Being a professional, Covid-19 compliant operation, I could not taste the grapes before buying them. 

The Zinfandel grapes had a good strong flavor, and were sweet but not exceptionally sweet. The refractive index measured 25.2 degrees Brix, which gives 13.2% alcohol, and the density was 1.108 which predicts 13.4% alcohol. Target is 13.5% alcohol, so I added one pound of sugar, which is estimated to be 2.3% of the total sugar in the batch. 

I noticed that the free run juice from the crusher was less sweet than the juice after stirring the must. I expect the sweetest juice was trapped inside the grapes. My new crusher may not crush the grapes as completely as my old crusher. On the other hand, it is about twice as fast. 

2020 Zinfandel Wine Recipe

180 lb Zinfandel (DePalma)

7 g    pectic enzyme

5 teaspoons yeast energizer

1 pound of sugar

1 packet Lalvin RC212

1 packet of Red Star Premier Rouge, because fermentation was not noticeable at 18 hours

After another night the fermentation was vigorous.