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.
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| 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.
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