My Next Wine

My winemaking continues. The first batch is essentially done, and is now aging in a carboy. I racked it this evening off the dead lees into a fresh, clean Better-Bottle carboy. It tastes OK, but I think a few month’s aging will really help. It’s actually pretty smooth. Still a little yeasty, but it’s OK. Using the autosiphon was a little tricky though. I couldn’t get the last few cups of wine out. I tried to start the autosiphon manually, but ended up with a mouthful of dead lees. It was pretty gross, so I gave up. I ended up adding a couple of bottles of White Zinfandel to top up the carboy. So, we’ll let it set for a couple of months, and see what happens. It definitely will be drinkable. Will it be good? Time will tell. We’ll see.

About a week ago, I started a new batch of wine. I started a Port-style wine kit. While at the Winefest in Denver, I tasted a few Port wines. Mmmm, they were very good. Port wine is a fortified wine, usually a high-alcohol content that is quite sweet, often a dessert wine. So, I got a Port kit and it’s fermenting now. It’s about 5 days in, and right now is about 11% alcohol. In another day or so, I’ll need to add another pound of sugar to get the alcohol content as high as possible before the yeast die out. Then, when it’s done, I’ll fortify with a bottle of brandy. This should boost the alcohol level to about 20%. I’m really curious how this will taste. Traditional Port is aged for years and years. I know I won’t have the patience for that.

After the Port, I’ve got a Blackberry Cabernet ready to go. This is another kit. It was intended to be a cooler-type of wine. Similar to a wine cooler or an Arbor mist, with an alcohol level of about 6%. I intend to add about 5lbs of sugar before fermentation to bring the alcohol level up to about 12%. This should make a traditional style wine, but sweeter like a wine cooler. The fruity flavor should be interesting.