Late season concord wine tips

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dave35

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I just picked about 50lbs of Concord grapes. This is about as late in the season as possible, and there have been several nights of frost already. Grapes are *very* ripe and sweet.

I am aware that making straight Concord wine as from wine grapes is discouraged because of low sugar content, high acid content, and weird flavours in the skins. I crushed a pressed enough to check the SG of the juice and it's sitting around 1.085-1.088 (hard to read due to foam from fresh-pressed juice), which is higher than most Concord wine recipes had said to expect -- shouldn't need to add much. Not as acidic-tasting as normal Concord juice either, although this is subjective. Juice is viscous and a very deep purple.

I'm new to whole fruit wine generally, and this grape in particular. So, I need some recommendations: press the juice and then ferment, or ferment with skins in as with a normal red? add sugar to 1.095 and ferment to dry, or add more and go for sweet? sweeten with grape concentrate or syrup? dilute to reduce acidity? (titration kit first?) any other additives I need compared to a basic kit wine? anything else I might be missing?
 
dave35 said:
I just picked about 50lbs of Concord grapes. This is about as late in the season as possible, and there have been several nights of frost already. Grapes are *very* ripe and sweet.

I am aware that making straight Concord wine as from wine grapes is discouraged because of low sugar content, high acid content, and weird flavours in the skins. I crushed a pressed enough to check the SG of the juice and it's sitting around 1.085-1.088 (hard to read due to foam from fresh-pressed juice), which is higher than most Concord wine recipes had said to expect -- shouldn't need to add much. Not as acidic-tasting as normal Concord juice either, although this is subjective. Juice is viscous and a very deep purple.

I'm new to whole fruit wine generally, and this grape in particular. So, I need some recommendations: press the juice and then ferment, or ferment with skins in as with a normal red? add sugar to 1.095 and ferment to dry, or add more and go for sweet? sweeten with grape concentrate or syrup? dilute to reduce acidity? (titration kit first?) any other additives I need compared to a basic kit wine? anything else I might be missing?
Click to expand...

I love to ferment my concord and concord-ish grapes on the skins. It gives some extra flavor and color.

Since the SG is 1.085ish, I'd go ahead and just ferment it without additions. You can always dilute later, add more fermentables like sugar or grape concentrate, etc. You can titrate the acids if you want, but if it doesn't taste all that acidic, I'd probably not bother right now. It'd be fun to have a fermented pure concord to see how you like it.
 
Great to hear from someone with experience! So de-stem, campden the crushed juice, seeds, pulp, and skins in the primary bucket together, pitch something suitable for dry fruit wines (EC-1118?), ferment to dry, press afterwards?

Some people had recommended not using the skins at all, or pressing part way through primary, as they can impart a weird flavour.

How long do you age your concord wines? I was seeing some really long aging recommendations but those were for recipes involving diluting and adding loads of sugar.
 
dave35 said:
Great to hear from someone with experience! So de-stem, campden the crushed juice, seeds, pulp, and skins in the primary bucket together, pitch something suitable for dry fruit wines (EC-1118?), ferment to dry, press afterwards?

Some people had recommended not using the skins at all, or pressing part way through primary, as they can impart a weird flavour.

How long do you age your concord wines? I was seeing some really long aging recommendations but those were for recipes involving diluting and adding loads of sugar.
Click to expand...

I remove the skins on about day five. I put all the pulp and skins in a big mesh bag, then press them after about five days (keeping the remaining wine, of course!).

I'd probably use 71B-1122, as it metabolizes more malic acid than other strains, and concord and other native grapes are high in malic acid.

Consider a "seconds" wine! I love Jack Keller's site, and he has two recipes for concord wine, and then a seconds wine, here: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques10.asp
 
Thanks for the yeast recommendation, that sounds just like what I'm looking for. Hopefully if I can metabolize out some acid, avoid adding extra sugar, and take the skins out fairly quickly to keep the must from getting excessively flavourful (since the juice is already so strong), I can have something drinkable a little faster than Keller's recommended two years :)

I would like to try the seconds recipe and let it sit for a long time, though, as a more of an experiment.
 
dave35 said:
Thanks for the yeast recommendation, that sounds just like what I'm looking for. Hopefully if I can metabolize out some acid, avoid adding extra sugar, and take the skins out fairly quickly to keep the must from getting excessively flavourful (since the juice is already so strong), I can have something drinkable a little faster than Keller's recommended two years :) I would like to try the seconds recipe and let it sit for a long time, though, as a more of an experiment.
Click to expand...

Concord is a great young wine. I serve mine by Thanksgiving. What is left, I bottle for Christmas.

I do get a tad bit of sediment bottling so soon, but point is, very drinkable young.
 
Almost four years later, I can confirm that it was really nice. Quite dry, powerfully fruity, not quite too acidic, and was mostly served mulled over the winter of 2013/14. Nicer mulled than a grape red, really.
 

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