How do I make a "Sparkling Wine"?

[Erik the Awful]

Please critique my plan:

Our youngest just celebrated her 20th birthday, and for her 21st birthday she asked if I'd make a wine for her. I know she prefers white to red, and she likes sparkling wine. After reading NTexBrewer's post about Glitter Sparkling Wine, I've decided that's my goal, but I've never tried to make a sparkling wine before. Glitter Sparkling Wine

I plan on starting with white grape juice from frozen concentrate. My buckets are sized for five gallon batches. I was thinking of starting with 14 11.5oz cans, which if I add the appropriate amount of water puts me at 644oz, although I'll probably leave a little headspace.

Does frozen concentrate work well in wine with mixing at a 1:3 ratio with water? Or would I have to mix it closer to a 1:2 ratio to get to 1.100 SG? Or do I need to add sugar no matter what?

I plan on buying champagne bottles and corks, and it looks like I'll need 24 750mL bottles - unless anybody has a line on a dozen magnum bottles for less than $40.

If I understand it right, after primary fermentation, you rack straight into the final bottles? What should my SG be? Do I wait until it's at .990 SG and stable? I'm guessing not, or it wouldn't have any fizz, right?

I do have the Brew Glitter! At least if it isn't fizzy it'll still have the sprinkles.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Also, I will be using Lalvin EC-1118 yeast. It's my go-to yeast and I already have it on-hand.

I just ordered 750mL champagne bottles, plastic corks, wire cages, and a corker from Home Brew Ohio - $88 shipped. I seriously considered the gold foils.

 

[Toto's]

Your wine need to be completely finished fermenting first. Then you can calculate your priming pressure you want and add sugar accordingly. I was going to get some champagne bottles as well but at the end i just put it into coke and pepsi plastic bottles. It's less esthetic but works fine

 

[toadie]

Sorry bout the late reply. I bottled my first sparkling rhubarb quite recently. I left it in the carboy (well re-racked a few times) until just over 5 months. This has been my strategy for bottling cider. The idea is that you bottle before 6 months and there will hopefully be enough residual yeast to eat the priming sugar. Good luck and hope it works out for you!

 

[Erik the Awful]

On the 4th of July I popped open a test bottle. It's a very white-grapey sparkling wine, and it has enough pressure to pop the cork nicely. I have sixteen more bottles, three of which have the Brew Glitter. I'm hoping aging it until next March will help the taste.

 

[lukebuz]

Did you "degorge" to get rid of yeast, or just leave at the bottom?

 

[Erik the Awful]

I left it at the bottom. It was actually the easiest wine I've made so far.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Update: I gave the three bottles with brew glitter to my daughter this last week. She hasn't opened any yet, but I did sample a second bottle back in November and it was very nice. She's aware that I have a dozen more bottles without glitter. Here's my notes:

Sparkling Wine – White Grape Sparkling Wine
Started 20210403

14 cans 12oz Winco Frozen White Grape Juice Concentrate

20210403
Poured concentrate into primary bucket
Added 2 ½ gallons water
Hydrometer reading: 1.090 SG
Added 3 campden tablets

20210404
Added 2½ tbsp pectic enzyme
Added Lalvin EC-1118 yeast

20210413
Hydrometer reading: .990
Racked, very little sediment
Added 1 tbsp sparkolloid dissolved in 1 cup water

20210423
Added 1½ cups sugar and bottled – 17 750ml bottles
Added ½ tsp pink “brew glitter” to 4 bottles

20210704
Opened an un-glittered bottle and sampled.
Truly a ‘sparkling wine’.
Maybe a hair too much bottle pressure.
Very white-grapey flavor.
Acidity maybe off a bit?

20211106
Opened a glittered bottle and sampled. Glittered bottles must be stored cork-down for a while before serving, not great for removing cloudiness.
Very nice.

20220323
Gave 3 bottles of glittered wine for birthday
12 bottles left on shelf

 

[DuncB]

If you've got the equipment you could try my method for sparkling wine. I'm mainly a beer brewer but decided to make some sparkling elderflower wine.
I fermented this first in a bucket so that I could stir the flowers around daily as the instructions said.
Then racked it into a fermentasaurus ( pressure ferment vessel) and let the pressure rise with a spunding valve to get 3.5 vols of CO2 based on a carbonation calculator. I think this was about 32 psi based on the temperature.
Because these have a collection bottle at the bottom I was able to remove the yeast once it had settled and the " wine " was clear.
I did cold crash it to help this which brought the pressure down and then I was able to increase the carbonation by raising the pressure again to get to 4.5 vols.
Then used my counter pressure bottle filler to directly fill the Champagne bottles under CO2 and then crown capped them.
Tiny bit of Sod Met at recommended dose in the bottles prior to filling. Still drinking well packed with aroma and no sediment.

 

[toadie]

Hey @DuncB that sounds like a great idea. I've moved more into the wine world over the last few years and just started kegging this weekend after years of hoarding (and then cleaning) bottles. My understanding is that wine people use K meta (potassium) not sodium meta at every racking or bottling. I think the reasoning is why add salt to your drink? I haven't compared one to the other but I use K meta now.

I'm more interested in why you dose a carbonated beverage. I thought the carbonation and pressure added an additional layer of protection. I bottle carb my sparkling but consume it within a year. I plan on kegging a chardonnay or light fruit wine this fall or winter and so I have been thinking about these issues.

Anyway just looking for others opinions.
Cheers.

 

[DuncB]

@toadie
Only reason I did that was because my wine kits say to add the metabisulphate 1.5g per 24 litres if you are going to keep the wine for more than 3 months. They are still drinking fine after 2 years so something is working. There's less sodium I think in 1.5g of Sod met than there would be in 1.5g of NaCl and I don't reckon that I could taste 1/4 teaspoon of salt in 24litres of water let alone wine. A 40g packet of pork scratchings has 1.24g of salt in it and a litre of milk has 0.4g of sodium.
General wine plonk I am putting into wine bags the majority and keeping a few bottles each batch for long term aging.
Another option is to put a wine bag in a keg and then pressure into the keg surrounding it to force the wine out. Otherwise your flat chardonnay is going to slowly get some fizz or you depressurise your keg when you finish serving. But not if you are serving sparkling.