Second Wines

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Rossnaree

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Don't hear or read too much about making second wines, but I have to say that this King of the North that I made from our grapes last year produced one of the best reds I've had in a long time, and today I just bottled the "second" wine I made from the pulp of the first batch, also used about 1-lb of blueberries in the 5-gallon batch. I have to say, it's a pretty big hit, even better than the first.

Anybody else do much in the way of second wines? A search wasn't very helpful.

- Tim
 
OK, I'll look it up in my notes. It's basically, IIRC, very loosely based on Jack Keller's "Second Fermentation," with I can't recall what modifications other than going to a bit more than 5 gallons so I'd have minimum airspace in a 5-gallon carboy for secondary -- http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques10.asp

Just scroll down to the last on the page.

Took a little while to find the notes and a little longer to make sense of them. I'd forgotten I "cheated" a little bit by racking onto about 1# of over-ripe blueberries that I had and didn't want to waste; crushed them, then mixed in a crushed Campden tablet, and tied the blueberry pulp in a jelly bag and just covered with a little water, left it just overnight before adding everything else... oops -->

9/21/10, Tuesday, 5:40PM:
I had about 14# of pulp from the first KOTN batch.; all I did was firmly squeeze the pulp bag and then used it in the next batch (this one). Instead of using frozen concentrate, I had about 6 quarts of frozen grape juice from the previous year, it was a mix of roughly 30% KOTN/70% Concord (again, our own). I added the juice to the primary with the blueberries, and added water to about 6-1/2 gallons. I added 11# sugar (more or less, I went by the hydrometer) to get to an adjusted OG of 1.095, added 3/4-tsp wine tannin, 3-tsp yeast nutrient, 1-tsp yeast energize, 3/4-tsp pectic enzyme (for the blueberry addition), and 1-pkt (11.5 grams) EC-1118, same yeast as I used for the first batch. I debated using an acid blend, but didn't. The first batch, even now, almost a year later is too high in acid but I left it that way, I have a feeling that with the ABV of 13.6% and the complex acidity it'll need a good bit of aging but might age very well. We'll see. Also with that first batch, it has the most intensely deep color I've ever had, possibly due to leaving it on the skins for 6-days? IDK... Anyways...

9/24/10, Friday, 7:40AM:
Decided to add some acid since when I punched down the cap and tasted a tiny bit of the wine, it was pretty lame on the acids, nothin like the first wine. So I added 1-tbsp + 1-tsp of acid blend, also another 1/2 tsp wine tannin. Strangely, although the must was bubbling along at a good clip, once this acid was added there was a short lived but intense frothing that almost went over the top of the 10-gallon fermentor. Didn't last more than a few seconds but it had me puzzled. No matter; also, the SG was down to 1.050.

9/26/10, Sunday, 2:25PM:
Found a stinkin' furit fly when I removed the towel to punch down the cap - not sure if it had just flown in there when removing the towel or what. Got rid of the bugger, wiped the interior of the bucket with StarSan just in case. SG @ 1.026. Decided to wait to rack to secondary until 1.020-1.010, per Keller's instructions.

9/27/10, Monday, 1:14PM:
SG 1.020, fermentation very quiet.

10/15/10, Friday, 10:00AM:
Racked to 5-gallon glass carboy, temp adjusted SG = 0.987. Really good tannins, very good flavor for a young wine! Still very cloudy, color is good but not impressive (hah! should've waited before making that entry into the notes! lol!!), about 1 bubble in the airlock every 3 minutes. Not adding Campden at this time, will at next racking. LOTS of lees in primary!!!

(I never did do another racking, almost no lees to speak of in secondary. Kept it cover with a towel to keep out the light, even though the "aging room" has very little light coming in)

8/22/11, Monday, 1:10PM:
Adjusted SG = 0.986 - Too dry? I'll leave it because it tastes amazingly good. The color is beautiful, strange in a way; it's so different from the first run, not too dark, a true ruby red, VERY clear, can read print through the glass. Very impressive. I really like this wine, so does entire family. The acid is maybe a tiny bit low; perhaps blend the first and the second? (Decided not to, might in the future) Finely crushed 5 Campden tablets, removed stopper, added powder, very gentle stir with sanitized stainless stir rod, cleaned and sanitized the stopper and replaced. Let sit for about an hour, then bottled; filled 27 bottles, decanted the balance into another bottle and set in the fridge. Had an idea, put a bottle of the high-acid in the fridge, see if acid precipitates out. (Note: It did. Well, at least some - there was a good bit of crystals on the bottom of the bottle, first run wine that is, the next night, so I decanted into another bottle and this stuff is SO much better but will still need time to mellow out) Finished the leftover bottle of second wine that night, very good, even though the ABV is UP there, it's not hot, definitely not rocket-fuel. Sneaky stuff but we love it. Have to remember this one. KOTN will be ripe in less than a month!

OK, end of notes. I know, more than asked for but there ya go.
 
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