Port style recipe critique

I like port. So I would love to try making a port style wine. I have found a wine fortification calculator, and I used beersmith to calculate ABV to find a starting OG to get 14% ABV before I stop the yeast. I plan on using a port concentrate for fermentables, and bump the ABV with everclear. I had read up on the aguardiente and although its made from grapes its supposedly considered a neutral spirit so instead of combing the entire internet for the specific spirit they use in Portugal I figured Everclear would work alright. I am counting on the alcohol content to kill the yeast, I would like to try it without using a stabilizer.

So it goes like this...
Fermentables: Port concentrate
Spirit: Everclear
Yeast: Lalvin 71-B

2gl batch (just a test batch, wine concentrate is not cheap)
1.8gl wine, .480mL everclear
OG 1.135
FG 1.035
Est ABV 13.5%
Final ABV after fortification 19%

Primary till 1.035, add everclear, wait for yeast to flocc out, rack to secondary, cold crash till clear. Rack to oak barrel, sample once a week till it's oaky enough, bottle, wait.

Thoughts?

The only issue I honestly see is the high OG of 1.135. To avoid stressing the yeast I would start at say 1.095, allow that to drop by 0.020, then feed back 0.020, allow to drop by another 0.020 and then feed that back, adding nutrient with each chaptalization.. Where did you source your port concentrate? What proof Everclear?

I see how happy yeast can make a better wine. As long as I do the calculations right the ABV should come out the same as long as I take notes and pay attention. The everclear is 90% ABV. Here is the source I am considering for the port concentrate. http://www.homewinery.com/cgi-bin/concen.cgi

I don't think I would use Everclear...it's a bit harsh. There's a reason real port is fortified with brandy.

huesmann said:

I don't think I would use Everclear...it's a bit harsh. There's a reason real port is fortified with brandy.

Click to expand...

Doing more reading, through the different sites I was looking at, it is mentioned that the aguardiente is odorless and flavorless. Here is a paragraph from http://thevintageportsite.com/view.php?id=13783

When the alcohol and sugar are at the desired levels, the fermentation is arrested by the addition of aguardente – a pure grape spirit of 77% alcohol. This is colourless and has neither aroma nor flavour – if you were to sample it, you would find it looks like water and goes down like liquid fire, but makes no taste impression at all. We want our wines to taste of the grapes, not the fortification agent.

Using a concentrate, I guess its not such a huge deal to use a flavorless spirit, and maybe it would taste better if I used something like kirschwasser. Who knows...

i fortified my chocolate raspberry kit port at 15% to 20% with st. remy brandy. I'd say time would mellow it out but it was significantly stronger for only 5% increase, and not really something i would do again.

I'd recommend trying 1 bottle first. I used c1v1+c2v2=c3v3 and cross multiplied. worked out to ~120ml of 40% brandy for a 750ml bottle if I remember correctly.