My first Norton

I really enjoyed making my 'backyard cherry' and blackberry wines this summer , so I took the plunge into 'all grape' wine making. I found a source for grapes and placed my order. For those of you in Kentucky/Southern Indiana, that would be Pop's Farm Vinyard in Owensboro. (Off topic: Owensboro has an East End Bridge!)

I did not realize he had a crusher/destemmer available, and time was not on my side so I just brought the grapes home. First question: My Norton grapes are like blueberries on a vine, can someone tell me about size, ripeness, and what is normal, or is grape buying all about the weather?

As a homebrewer taking on grapes let me say that destemming 100 pounds of Norton was the single biggest PITA in homebrewing history for me. I used the 'milk crate' method and it still took hours (maybe four). Crushing was easy as me and Mrs. Winemaker did the old fashioned foot stomp method. Then I read various bits on the internet regarding destemming and could not reach any conclusions. Should one eliminate all 'jacks' (stems and stuff), all raisins, and all other detritus, or should one take a RDWHAHB approach and just stomp and go? I picked out a lot of stuff but there are still some stems, grape vine parts, and yes, bugs in the must. Wine making and beer making are true cousins, some similarities, and serious differences.

Either way, I'm in the latter part of my 24 hour 'sulfite rest' and will pitch yeast tonight. I paid $.75 per pound for the grapes, so it is more expensive that blackberry wine by a factor of two, and considerably more expensive than all all grain beer batch. The once-a-year chance to add 'winemaker' to the hobby, not to mention working with the storied 'American Grape' Norton itself, that's too tempting to pass up.

So, anyone have tips on Norton? I'm considering medium toast American Oak cubes, as well as a used destemmer/crusher.

Did about 115 gal of blackberry wine this summer. I mixed four cans of Alexandra Sun Barbara and oaked about 20 gal. Then put some cheap merlot to five gal of blackberry. Did this last year also and it really turns out great...

Where you got the grapes you said they had a De-stemmer most places only charge you a small amount, so next year show up with a couple of trash cans and save yourselve some time...

Wetfoot,

I, too picked my first ever batch of Norton's yesterday, in Independence, MO. I gathered 94 pounds and drove it 3 hours home to Nebraska, where my wife and I de-stemmed by hand over a 2 1/2 hour period. I know your pain.

The Brix was 23, the pH is 3.5. I'm out of TA testing chemicals.

It sits with sulfite and pectin enzyme right now, awaiting the yeast tonight.

I paid $.55 per pound, picked myself.

Keep in touch,

Ken

I Keep reading about mixing grapes with blackberry. Our Blackberry tastes good, fruit and acid-wise, but it needs more depth. I think I would like to add either Merlot or Cab to next year's blackberry.

The grower I bought from said sugar would be low (I measured 21 brix and added sugar) but that acid was fine. Next summer I will measure everything, but this year I am taking more of a let-it-go approach.

It's good too see prices are about the same.

I pressed the juice tonight and I barely got 5 gallons. If I tried harder, I might have squeezed out another quart. I was hoping for maybe 6 gallons, but I guess with grapes you don't have any choice. The wine actually tastes pretty good this early on....no harsh tannins, decent acid, and nearly dry (right at 1.000 today) I look forward to the addition of Oak Beans.

FWIW my 100 pounds yielded about 40 quarts of (skin on, with seeds) must. I separarted into two containers for primary to make punching down easier. Good to have the extra capacity for a red wine must. Another reason to get the biggest boil kettle you can, because you never know.

I'll be interested to know how your Norton turns out.

Wetfoot,

I mixed mulberries with Concord frozen concentrate last year and it was, in my wife's words, superb! Funny how we want to mix fruits with grapes go get interesting tastes.

Last night my SP GR was at 1.0400, so either tonight or tomorrow I'll press and rack. I've kept the "rotten egg" smell out of my Montrachet yeast with a lot of stirring and punching down. I had that with my mulberry wine, too and it never showed in the finished wine.

I'm going to try something radical after pressing - adding the pulp to a several cans of frozen Niagra concentrate, the Welch's variety from our local store. My aim is to make the Niagra into a blush, using whatever color is left from the pulp. I'll keep the pulp in mesh bags for about 18 hours then pull it. Might be good topping off stuff.

This is the best time of year - picking, crushing, fermenting....love it.

Ken

Wetfoot - today, my Norton SP GR is at 1.01. Will press tonight.

I like the idea of making a 'topping up' wine. I'll do that next year. I noticed there was still some flavor in the 'cake', but mine went stright to compost. I'm thinking of maybe using blackberry wine as a topper-upper.

I also had a small problem with wine expanding into my airlock, which has never happened with a beer. Since I was racking before fermentation was complete, I suppose the additional fermentation expanded the liquid up into the airlock. I had to take wine out twice. Next year I will leave more headspace for the still-fermenting wine, and buy more grapes!

Mine also went up the airlock, and I left some space in the 6 gallon carboy! From what I read, the act of pressing adds oxygen to the fermenting juice and the yeast goes extra crazy for about 24 hours. Mine only did it once - I cleaned it up and it's already slowing down a bit.

My "second run" with a bag of the Norton skins is also going crazy with foam and fruity smells. The SP GR drops every day and I'll have it in a carboy sometime this week. The color I stole from the leftover must is deep purple - I'm surprised there was that much left.
Ken

I pitched the yeast on 90 pounds of Nortons last night, myself. This morning they smelled heavenly- like some kind of pastry. They were 25* Brix, so they can and do get enough sugars, even though I would have preferred to let them ripen just a bit longer.

Nortons are known for having very small berries. This is a plus, since this means they have a high ratio of skin to innards, and most of the flavors, aromas, pigment, etc. are in the skins. When young, they are so inky from all that pigment they can actually stain your teeth purple! One of the best wines I've ever had was a Missouri Norton.

I hear ya on crushing/destemming by hand. Last year I did 120 pounds that way, after staying up 'till 4:30 AM to finish. I vowed never again. This year the vineyard owner offered to run them through a friend's crusher/destemmer for me when he did his own. (He does them by the ton.) He charges $.45/lb for the grapes if you pick them yourself, or $.55 if he picks them for you. Since I'm short on time, I let him pick 'em. He didn't charge me to crush them, but I gave him a $10 tip for saving me all that time, and keeping myself in good graces for next year.

Possum and/or Wetfoot - did either of you measure your TA before fermentation? I ran out of NAOH and didn't. I just fermented it knowing I'd test it later. Supposedly, Norton has a pretty high TA grape.

No, I did not measure TA. I will have a kit for next year, though. I took the grower at his word that acid levels were 'fine'. As far as taste goes, acidity seemed OK.

The few books I have read about wine making (specifically racking) really tail-off information-wise after fermentation. I have about 1 1/2 inch of lees and I am considering racking off these lees and introducing the oak beans, but there is some suggestion to leaving the wine on the lees.

I do not have any acid testing equipment, so I did not test beforehand either.

I recently started another thread about having too much acid in my Norton from last year, so I'm inclined to believe you about this grape having acid to spare. Though I've drank Norton wines from many wineries in the region, and have not had one with an acid problem that I can recall. (Likely they know something I don't. )