I have made a few kits that were drinkable and aged well. On my next batch, a Pinot Noir for my wife, I was going to try this:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/extended.asp
MT
My thoughts, if you're interested:
Rehydrate your must to the full 6 U.S. gallons in a 6-gallon carboy, stirring well. If your tap water is good, use it. Otherwise use bottled spring water. Distilled water contains no trace minerals, which yeast need, and should be avoided.
Tap and spring water have a lot of undesirable components (sulfate, alkalinity, iron, and variable amounts of other ions).
Pure water is removed from the must to concentrate it, so that's what you should put back in to reconstitute it.
While grape juice does already have all the necessary trace minerals for yeast health, Go-Ferm and Fermaid O are a far superior way to supplement trace minerals (i.e. zinc, manganese) since they contain controlled and predictable amounts of only nutrients that are beneficial.
Many styles of full-bodied red wine kits benefit from the addition of grape tannin to the must before fermentation. Therefore, one may wish to add 1 to 1-1/2 level teaspoons of grape tannin as follows: Before rehydrating the must, thoroughly dissolve selected amount of grape tannin in about 1 quart of boiling water. Once dissolved, add the tannin solution to the must as part of its rehydration.
Remember Jack's article is 20 years old. Modern kits already have added tannins.
You can always add more tannins later if you think it's lacking; adding them up front is not a good idea because you can't take them out if it's too much.
Use a hydrometer to check the specific gravity of the must. A starting s.g. of 1.088 is perfect if you have a finished dry wine of similar type and style to top up with. If you intend to top up with water, raise the s.g. to 1.095 by adding 1 pound 4 ounces of sugar to 6 U.S. gallons of must.
Adding sugar water to top up? Using a smaller vessel is a much better plan.
If your kit has oak powder, add it now as instructed. If not and an oak fermentation is desired, add 1.4 ounce (39 grams) of untoasted Oak-Mor American White Oak Powder or 1.5 ounce (43 grams) of toasted to the carboy. The 5 gallons will get the oak. The reserved gallon will not until added back later.
I hear nothing but bad things about oak powder. Even chips are undesirable to most people with experience using oak products.
Next, withdraw 1 U.S. gallon of the must to a sealed glass jug and refrigerate it as a reserve for later addition to the main batch.
Not sure what's the point of pulling out must and then adding it right back in primary.
If making a white wine, prepare your bentonite as follows: [...]
Adding bentonite in primary isn't just to help make it faster, it actually aids in the degassing process to help reduce yeast stress. Also it's more effective in primary because the turbulence from fermentation distributes it better throughout the wine.
add 3 teaspoons of potassium sorbate
Sorbate is totally unneeded for a dry wine because there will be no risk of continued yeast fermentation if you did everything else right. Sorbate does have a negative flavor impact, and sometimes it even breaks down and can cause off-flavors (celery).
Add Medium toast, French Allier white oak chips (from
World Cooperage). "Heat sanitize" 4 oz (115g) of chips for 30 minutes by placing them on a piece of aluminum foil in an oven preheated to 250 degrees F. Allow the chips to cool and add to wine.
Add medium toast French StaVin (
http://www.stavin.com/homewinemaker.htm) oak cubes at a rate of 3.5 oz (100g) per 6-gallon carboy. No preparation of the cubes is necessary. Simply add to carboy.
...
35 days
That's an insanely high amount of oak. Yikes.
Essentially all he did was let it sit longer in secondary, with an additional two rackings. You're welcome to leave it sit as long as you want if the airlock is full and the sulfite level is appropriate.
There's nothing magical about these steps, and it's a pain managing all that headspace and sulfite levels over multiple rackings.
Unless you have a Brett contamination with inadequate sulfite level, leaving on the lees isn't a problem.
There's way too much racking going on at the homebrew level in my opinion. Sur lie aging has a lot of well-understood benefits like improving body, protecting against oxidation, and reducing harshness.
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