My 2016 and 2017 raspberry wines were so good that I wanted to make more. While I liked small glasses of raspberry wine by itself, it was too intense to drink more than a little. Though I liked to drink it at Christmas. Mostly though I drank it blended with red grape wine.
I prefer red raspberries are superior to blackberries for wine-making and general eating because the flavor is better. (I am withholding judgment on black raspberries for now.)
Last year (2020), I made a second/false wine of my zinfandel. I liked that, and I blended with some mediocre fruit wine to improve it.
This year I want to make a second from the must of my main red wine, merlot, this year. And then add some fruitiness with raspberries.
2021 Merlot Raspberry Recipe
6 kg (=13.2 lb) sugar dissolved in the above water
Pressed must from about 90 lb of merlot grapes (with a 20% cabernet sauvingnon grapes)
10 lb of frozen red raspberries (various brands)
2 tsp yeast energizer
2 tsp pectic enzyme
Yeast is primarily Lalvin EC1118 which was on the Merlot pomace.
Initial reading was 23.5 degree Brix which corresponds to 26% sugar and 12.3% alcohol. I am looking for 13-13.5% alcohol, so I added 426g of additional sugar.
The mixture has started foaming after 25 minutes as if the yeast is working, so I did not add any more yeast.
April 2022: So far the malolactic fermentation has not completed. The pH is 2.7 and the titratable acid (as tartaric) is 12.7 -- somewhat higher than the 8 that I'd like.
September 2022: I transferred this wine to jugs and a smaller demijohn to make room for the 2022 vintages. The wine seemed pretty harsh but without a compensating depth of flavor.
Perhaps aeration will help it, but if not I might try coagulating some of the tannin with an additive -- perhaps egg whites. Maybe it just needs to age? Honestly it seemed better sneaking tastes with my wine thief, then drinking it from a glass. The other idea is to buy a bunch of cheap Australian Merlot and dilute the harshness away.
November 2022: After some tasting tests, I took 2 gallons (7.6 L) and added 3 L of Yellow Tail Australian red wine (Merlot and Cab. Sauv.). I also added 1% dextrose to take the edge off the harshness. (I tested all the way up to 5%, but settled on 1% which killed the harshness and didn't get too sweet.
The plan is to blend the rest with the 2021 Muscato.
The label image was painted with
acrylics on paper then imported
into ProCreate where the backgrounds
and black outline were added.
1 comment:
So far the malolactic fermentation has not completed.
The pH is 2.7 and the titratable acid (as tartaric) is 12.7 -- somewhat higher than the 8 that I'd like.
Post a Comment