Muscat

[Farside]

I just picked up muscat grapes for $10 per lug.

I have no idea how to work with this grape. Any tips?

I'm thinking full maceration ferment...

 

[Farside]

Hmm oxidation of white wine skins turns the wine orange/brown.

Maybe a cold soak and press before fermenting.

 

[Farside]

Ok well it's snowing lightly this evening so I figured it would be a perfect time to stand out there crushing grapes.

I'm going to go with Lalvin D47 yeast and I started it this evening with some grape must I drew off.

After pressing I'm going to use the pomace to make grappa.

 

[Farside]

Looks like an SG. Of 1.070. Lower than l expected.

 

[Farside]

I added 1.25kg of sugar and 7 liters of water to the pomace.

Then pitched Lalvin 1118 although I suspect it might be a dud sachet. When I rehydrated it the grains didn't really break up which I don't think is a good sign.

If nothing is going on in 24 hours I'll repitch.

 

[Farside]

A day later and there is activity in the pomace so that 1118 yeast seems to have taken hold.

I visited a friend today who is processing 20 cases of the same grapes. He's soaking them to get the dirt and pesticides off before processing which I probably should have done.

I processed mine in the dark and didn't really notice how dirty they were. The water after cleaning the grapes looks like weak tea. :-/

 

[chicken]

I can't answer your question about muscat grapes (last time we used them was in a zinfandel-muscat blend many years ago, and our notes are a bit spotty, and don't even mention if we were happy with how it came out!).

But I wouldn't worry too much about the grapes being dirty. We have never washed or soaked grapes, to no ill effect. In fact, I think I read somewhere that you shouldn't wash the grapes before crushing them.

 

[Farside]

Well the wine is still going strong but the wine on skins has significantly slowed which I'm happy about because it's getting tedious plunging the cap 3 times per day.

They are fermenting in the same space so I'm thinking it's the 1118 fermenting faster than the D47 at this temperature.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

I do Muscat annually, we have 35 Muscat vines in our back yard. I get anywhere from 150-350lbs of fruit per year.
I've done 1118, 1116, 1122, and premiere cuvee yeasts, all made good product.
I love Muscat, fruity and floral wine.
I've never left them on skins, just crushed and pressed.
Maybe next year I'll do an experiment with that.

 

[Farside]

The Muscat wine from the juice is still going but the wine pomace ferment looked ready so I pressed it today. The pressing went really well and the cheeses coming out of the press were excellent.

Based on what I've read online I was expecting a slightly orange liquid with lots of astringent tannins from the seeds, skins, and the odd stem I missed.

To my surprise none of this is present. It's actually a very drinkable young wine, although lacking the acidity needed for aging.

So the good news is that this is a good young drinking wine. Bad news is that it's too good for brandy.

 

[Farside]

Here is a photo of the freshly pressed wine. The excess that didn't fit into the secondary anyway!

 

[Farside]

It could be the fermentation temperature. I did a slow cold ferment at under 15C / 60F. That tends to reduce the amount of astringent tannins extracted from the seeds.