In Vino Falsus: 2020 Zinfandel Second Wine and the 2017 Sweet Merlot

My 2017 Merlot was finish two ways, most was finished dry and its great, but some was finished sweet. That's because my DW tasted the fermenting wine while it was sweet and liked it. I took ten liters out and finished it sweet by adding sorbet. Guess what? When the wine was done, she didn't like it anymore. I don't blame her, because this slightly sweet red was too robust to be a desert wine. 

I was unable to restart the fermentation, so I made little wine from frozen white grape & concord grape juice, and while it was vigorously fermenting, I added it to the 2017 Sweet Merlot, but it didn't restart. 

Last year with my 2019 Merlot, I added 2-3 quarts of rapidly fermenting must to the Sweet Merlot. No success. 

A problem with working so hard to recover problem wines is that each time you blend it, there is now more of it. I started with 10L of Sweet Merlot, and now have 15L of blended sweet wine that no one wants. 

Now, I am taking the pressed grapes from my 2020 Zinfandel, and making a second wine -- also called a false wine. (And not the same as what the French in Bordeaux call a second wine.) A second wine is made from sugar water and the already-fermented pressed grapes from a regular batch of wine. The pressed grapes flavor the water, and while no expects it to be as good as the first wine, and can be good enough. In fact, I recall the weaker, lighter second wine as being better than some of my grandfather & father's first wines. (Which says something about how robust and oaky those wines were.)

In this case, I am going to use my problematic 2017 Sweet Merlot to buttress the flavor. If this works, I'll have 30L of good wine instead of 15L of undrinkable wine. 

2020 Zinfandel Second (False) Wine and Blend with 2017 Sweet Merlot

16 L             Water

Pressed grapes from 110 pounds of fermented Zinfandel grapes 

15 L             2017 Sweet Merlot (modified as described above)

10 lb            Sugar

4t (17g)        Yeast energizer

4t (15g)        Pectic enzyme         

This fermented pretty well for a month, but did not go to dryness. I decided it was too acidic, and corrected it with calcium carbonate (and some Acid-X). Then I restarted the fermentation with Champagne yeast. 

After another month one container was good, and the other container was still sweet. I blended the two containers, and am hoping for the best. 

Sept 2021 Update: This worked better than I could have hoped. The wine eventually did ferment to dryness. 

The new wine blend is plenty good, and nothing to be embarrassed about.