First wine: Success! Second, looking to do a Super Tuscan

[Bowtiebrewery]

Thanks to many here on the forums and at my LHBS, I was able to make a very nice Voignier that I am very proud of. I now would like to make a Super Tuscan as my next wine, but the only thing I see available to make this is a Cellar Classic Winery Series kit with skins. I think its a RJS Kit.

So my real question is, can't i wait until fresh juice is delivered and start making wine then? Or can someone recommend another kit to use instead of that one. Anyone else make a Super Tuscan before who could chime in with some help?

Thanks

 

[rickswine]

Hey Bowtie
I started a batch last fall.80%sangiovase 10%cabernet,and 10%merlot. It's been almost 5 months it's bulk aging. I tasted it yesterday! Was pretty good! Still young I will bulk age til this fall then bottle. This was made from fresh Italian Juice. You might be able to find fresh Chilean Juice late April-early May. Last spring I picked up some Fresh Chilean Barbera. Just started drinking it and it's GREAT!! Also aging the Italian with toasted French oak chips.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Since "Super Tuscans" can be comprised of almost any combination of Italian grapes, you might need to buy 1, 2 4, or 8 different juice buckets and blend them to your liking...Or use the Cellar Classic kit and call it done.

 

[rickswine]

That's right Doc. I used 4 pails of juice 6 gal each. I blended 12gal. Sangiovase and 1.5 gal.each of cabernet&merlot. Also blended the remainder of the Cabernet & Merlot. That seems to be coming along good too. So I have 54lt demijohn of Super Tuscan & 6gal&3gal carboys with the Cabernet/Merlot Blend all aging in bulk. With toasted French oak chips. Will bottle in fall 2015.

 

[Pyg]

I made an RJR Spags Super Tuscan.
Forget the name, but is the highend kit. I did some cold storage to get win diamonds out, let it sit in an oak barrel for a few months and even added oak cubes and it turned out fantastic!

I dont know if RJ Spags still makes that kit, think they changed the name. If not well worth it

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

OK, I apologize in advance for continuing to hound you all.

I am in month 4 of my Super Tuscan from RJS and I've racked 4 times (I think this is my final rack) As there are almost no lees.

I tasted last night and I know it has to mature, but it definitely has some potential. My Syrah/Malbec blend actually tastes good enough to drink now, but I digress.

What are the thoughts of anyone who does filter on filtering this wine with a Vinbrite gravity filter? I figure its reasonably priced and if it clears up this wine and polishes it what harm could it do.

For reference, I've had some of my dads wines and he didnt filter or rack more than twice and he always had extremely heavy deposits of sediment and generally his wines were cloudy.

What say you?:rockin:

 

[DoctorCAD]

That filter is pretty poor. If you have a good one, go ahead.

When you say "almost no lees" that indicates that you are NOT ready to bottle. There should be no more than a tablespoon or so of lees before bottling or filtering.

Just so you know, filtering is not done to get rid of sediment, it is only done to polish an otherwise clear wine.

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

Thanks Doc for the information! The malbec/syrah has no lees whatsoever and the Super Tuscan has just a dusting on the bottom of the carboy.

So you would not recommend going out and buying the vinbrite? Can you suggest an alternative?

 

[beernutz]

Thanks to many here on the forums and at my LHBS, I was able to make a very nice Voignier that I am very proud of. I now would like to make a Super Tuscan as my next wine, but the only thing I see available to make this is a Cellar Classic Winery Series kit with skins. I think its a RJS Kit.

So my real question is, can't i wait until fresh juice is delivered and start making wine then? Or can someone recommend another kit to use instead of that one. Anyone else make a Super Tuscan before who could chime in with some help?

Thanks

I made the RJS En Primeur Super Tuscan kit last October and bottled it this April. En Primeur is a better quality RJS kit, or at least a more expensive one, than Cellar Classic. That said, I have made the Cellar Classic Pinot Grigio kit and it was very good wine so if the En Primeur is in general a step up from that I'm going to be thrilled.

I have only tried one bottle of the Super Tuscan after it has been bottled a month but was about 7 months old and it was quite good imo but needed more aging time.

More importantly my wife who has a much more refined wine palette than I do really liked it even as young as it was. I am going to give it a few more months of aging at 55 degrees before trying it again. Both the Cellar Classic and En Primeur Super Tuscan kits get great reviews and I only went with the higher quality kit at the recommendation of my local wine making store owner who had tried both. I didn't do any filtering of the wine, I just followed the basic instructions that came with it and my ST is very clear with no sediment. However, like I said I waited 6 months before bottling.

I'm not a wine expert by any means but my wife and I bought a ~$20 bottle of a Tuscano at Costco and my Super Tuscan compared very favorably to it. Of course Super Tuscans are blends so perhaps it was just luck that they were similar in taste.

I will definitely be making another batch of Super Tuscan as soon as I free up the homebrewing buckets and carboy I use for wine making.