2021 Merlot Raspberry Wine

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

20.3 L water 
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

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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.

2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Wine

Although I still have Cabernet Sauvignon leftover from 2019, I wanted to make a third wine this year. I couldn't find any Sirah, and didn't manage to get up to Oregon Wisconsin to pick wine grapes during the season. I really wanted the white grapes from them, and they are ripened early this year. All of which is to say that, I made this small batch because they had it at my grape dealer which was Jennaro Brothers in Milwaukee this year. 

The refractive index showed 23.4 degrees Brix which would make 12.1% alcohol. I added 233 g for a projected 13.5%

2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Recipe

Grapes                    36 lb

Yeast energizer        1 g

Pectic enzyme        1 g    

Sugar                        233 g

Lalvin EC1118        1 packet

This fermented quickly so on the fourth day I pressed it and transferred it to a glass demijohn. This made about 10 liters. 

April 2, 2022 Update

The Malolactic fermentation has finished. The titratable acid is high at 15.6g/L as tartaric. Last year's titratable acid was also high. The measured pH is 2.9.

2021 Merlot

These merlot grapes were fairly firm when I got them. (The grapes were from Delta Packing Co in Lodi CA. Smiling Baby brand.) I used a home-made milk-crate type destemmer, and then crushed them in my crusher. The crusher did not so a great job. While the grapes were generally cracked, the majority of the grape stayed in the skin. I ran most of the must through my old crusher to do a better job. The measured sugar content went up after the second crushing from 12.7 to 13.1 degrees Brix. 

2021 Merlot Recipe

Merlot grapes        144 lb

pectic enzyme            4 g

yeast energizer            5 g

sugar                        741 g

Lalvin EC 1118             2 packets

The Brix refractive index was 13.1 degrees, and corresponded to 13.1% alcohol. I added some sugar to get to 13.4%. 

Fermentation started slowly. I added a second packet of yeast on the second morning. Of the three batches I started last Friday, this one is fermenting the slowest. At 6 days it is still significantly sweet. 

 

2021 Muscato Wine

The muscato juice had a share content of 23% (Brix of 21 degrees) for a projected alcohol content of 11%.  I thought about this a while, and decided not to add sugar. The thought is that Muscato is usually made at lower alcohol content, even as low as 7%. (I can always fortify it later, if I want to.) 

2021 Muscato Wine

Grapes                            108 lb

Yeast Energizer              3 g

Pectic enzyme                3 g

Lalvin QA23 yeast        1 packet

I pressed the grapes immediately. The grapes were very juicy and they extruded themselves through gaps in the press. 

I kept the grapes in the press overnight, and drained two liters that way. In the morning I cranked-down on the press and got more wine out. In the morning, the drained grapes were firmer, and I could press them in the normal way. 

Fermentation started immediately, and the juice was fairly dry after four days. I transferred it to a glass demijohn at that time..  

Spring 2022

I put this outside for about a week for cold aging to help the insolubles to fall out of solution. 

Update: 8/27/2022

I backsweetened about half of this batch with 1.0% dextrose. This made the tartness milder, but still there. At 1.5 or higher, the flavor seemed less complex -- it is hard to describe, but I didn't like it as well. 

The rest of the batch may be used for blending with my reds. 

The wine has an OK flavor, but is not very complex. 

Calculators for Wine Making

Here is a link to several calculators for wine making. 

https://techniquesinhomewinemaking.com/index.php/winemaking-tools/?fbclid=IwAR2RCslZUAw8Brb7P66Z4wwYGZ-6tPffohx-GQNT01_v3c79jPwNhT7Vm6M 

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. 

 

Yeast Strains

We know that yeast selection is important to avoid a wine-making disaster. 

Yes, it is possible to use a  wild strain to make a good wine. But what about the opposite, when you have already made a bad wine what can you do beside whine, nothing. You should have used a better yeast. 

Here is a good wine yeast selection chart.  Don't forget my old Lalvin post.

Formerly there was also Red Star Yeast, which was purchased by Lasaffre, and whose wine products are now sold by the Fermentis (fermetis.com) division. Red Star in the USA is a joint venture of Lasaffre and ADM. It seems to be 100% commercial and not for hobbies.