My First Grape Wine

[torilen]

I bottled my first grape wine tonight. A 96oz jug of welche's grape juice, concord with other grape. I put a cup of sugar-water/syrup into the
mix about four days in, to up the alcohol a bit more, as it looked like
the fermentation was slowing down on me.

It turned out okay. Not sure if it is the yeast I am tasting, or if it fermented
to quickly and too hard, or if it fermented too long. It has the same odd
flavor that my apple ciders had. (At least I'm consistent, right?)

I have 1 full wine bottle in the fridge that I plan to go ahead and drink now.
I have three quart-size canning jars filled to put away. I'll open one in a couple of months, and then another a couple of months after that, and so on.

The first has a good-sized piece of charred pecan wood in it, to give it that
earthiness that wine should have.

All in all I'm fairly happy with it. I hope I'll be happier with it once it ages some. It is drinkable now, and I ended up with those three quart-sized canning jars, a full 750ml wine bottle, and one extra wine glass. Not too shabby for just under $8.00 or so.

 

[rtrent2002]

My first batch was also a 1 gallon jug of concorde. I tried everything to get it to taste good including oaking it for a few weeks but it never became drinkable to me, even after a year in the bottle. It always had a musky smell and taste that I just couldn't palate.Found out later that Concorde is nick named the fox grape because of its earthy flavor. Hope you have better luck than I did.

 

[torilen]

UPDATE - I am drinking the last bit of the wine bottle filled with my wine this morning. It still has a bit of a yeasty flavor, but it is diminished heavily. That gives me hope that it might be mostly gone with aging. The grape flavor is good and strong, but it has that dry earthiness that wine should have.

I have a charred pecan stick floating in one of the quart canning jars. That will be the first one I open in about a month, and I'll see how the wood flavor does with it.

 

[torilen]

UPDATE
Well, once again, impatience took over. I opened up the first quart jar I had bottled of this first attempt at wine.

It had an under-aroma of yeast still noticeable, but very little flavor of it. I could tell the aging was really doing the thing. This wine actually came out quite nice. The fermented juice really had a nice "wine taste", while the added juice concentrate (after fermentation) was still fairly pronounced and added a lot of sweetness...almost too much. I am thinking of backing off on the concentrate just a touch next time.

I ended up with a full wine bottle once again (which surprised me, I didn't think a quart equaled 750ml).

I am hoping I can wait it out and let the last two quarts age longer, so I can see what happens when good aging takes over.

 

[meatcleaver]

congratulations on a successful fermentation!
now the hard part...patience.
I'm just getting around to bottling wines & meads I made a year ago or more.
the general rule is to rack to another vessel every 60 days as long as the wine is dropping lees, racking onto campden every other racking to help prevent oxidation.
those multiple rankings give the wine ample chance to clear & lose that yeasty taste.
what yeast are you using?

 

[torilen]

For this wine I used Red Star Premier Cuvee. I am trying out Lalvin EC-1118 right now, and will probably use it for my second wine this week (a white grape cherry).

Thanks for the tips. I currently only have two 1 gallon carboy, and not much space to let anything else sit. I hope to get a third carboy in a couple of months, and that will let me actually rack something to sit for a while. I understand what you're explaining, though - I noticed quite a bit had settled out at the bottom of the jar when I opened this first one (I used three canning jars and pasteurized them so they could sit and age).

When I get that third carboy, I'll be sure to remember using the Camden tablet during every other racking - I can't remember if I had read that those will help prevent oxidation.

 

[fuelish]

UPDATE

I ended up with a full wine bottle once again (which surprised me, I didn't think a quart equaled 750ml).

A quart should be approx 945 ml

 

[torilen]

Wow - ignore the sheepish red face I have right now.

Yeah, when I did the conversion, I used ml to quart, and I put in
750ml. It didn't come out to a full quart. It was early morning, and
I didn't realize I had gotten the two backwards in my head.

Man, I hate when I do crap like that and then post it.

 

[Chef-Ryan]

Wow - ignore the sheepish red face I have right now.

Yeah, when I did the conversion, I used ml to quart, and I put in
750ml. It didn't come out to a full quart. It was early morning, and
I didn't realize I had gotten the two backwards in my head.

Man, I hate when I do crap like that and then post it.

If thats the worst thing you do when making wine then it is a good day.