Wine from Zin juice

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guscampag

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I am picking up a 5 gallon bucket of Zinfandel juice next week from a local HBS. They have it shipped in every fall from California. What will I have to do with this to make a good wine -- Other than put it in a carboy with wine yeast? Will I need to add any sugar or anything? should I add sugar to bring it up to a certain SG? Any particular yeast anyone would recommend? Thanks for any input.
 
There's a lot you need to do but adding sugar isn't one of them. I suggest searching everything you can about winemaking and malolactic fermentation.
 
A lot of the hard work has already been done in the vineyard - growing the grapes and testing for correct sugar content/ripeness.
You get the easy part - making the wine. (this is from the POV of a vineyard worker). Except there is a lot can go wrong so you need to be very careful at every step. Just remember its a natural process which works best if you mess with it as little as possible, and be patient.
 
I have been reading up quite a bit and have made some wine, mostly from concentrate and with fruits. I checked EC Krauss section on MLF and they indicated that they would not recommend it for Zin. Do you think this is correct? I never have done a MLF.

I was wondering specifically if any additives would be needed other than the standard stabilizer when done, like acid blend or tannin or pectic enzyme or will they be sufficiently supplied by the juice itself.

Also, should I use EC-1118 or something like that for the yeast?

thanks again.
 
That's the tricky part with grapes. You need a means of measuring TA, PH and sugar content of the grapes. With a kit, or even pails of fresh juice, that's already figured for you. As for MLF, it provides for a fuller bodied, more rounded mouthfeel. Check out this thread on winepress.com. You have to be a memebr to view this subforum but all it takes is registration. The thread covers numbers, MLF, and yeast recommendations for Zinfandel. Good luck.
 
I have a LODI Old Vine Zin in the carboy aging which was made from juice shipped to my area from California, last year. I found the juice was already fermenting when I received it, so getting exact numbers initially was impossible. Some people like to stop any wild fermentation activity by adding Potassium MetaBisulphite to the must 24 hours before pitching the chosen yeast for the wine.

Since the juice is just that, "JUICE". You might want to consider adding some raisins or zante currants to improve the body and mouthfeel of the wine. Oak is another addition to consider for a Zin wine. I used oak cubes initially during the fermentation and then added an oak spiral when I racked to my carboy.

My wine at this point is a good wine, but the body is a little thin. Color and aroma are nice, but I would not consider entering it into a competition.

A previous member suggested WinePress.us for information and I must agree, the forum is very good and it's members (I am one) are quite good at providing support and suggestions. You will not be dissappointed if you try them out.

Good luck with you Zin.

Salute! :mug:
 


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zvxxEaN0OI]YouTube - How to Make Wine - Step 2 (Racking)[/ame]
 
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