Mark LaClair » Blush Wines

White Zinfandel Gets Bottled

mark — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:25:16 +0000

Only 1 casualty today when bottling the White Zinfandel that’s been vinting for the past 2 months. I was able to get 29 bottles from the batch that I made. And, as I was corking one of them, the glass shattered. What a mess. I’m not sure what I was more upset about…losing a bottle of good wine, or having to clean up the mess.

The white zin is a nice, semi-sweet red wine that has a nice aroma, even in this early state. The total alcohol for this wine will end up around 14 percent, which is just right. Dubbed “Marcia’s Favorite”, this wine will not last long, since it is on the sweeter side and is what the neighborhood seems to enjoy more.

I’ll get some labels made up and get them on the rack. Would like to have them sit for a couple months before dipping into them. BTW – I added only 3 campden tablets at bottling this time, compared to the usual 6. My thinking is that the sulfites are giving the wife a bit of a headache when she drinks the wine. And, I certainly don’t want that.

Berry, Apple, White Zin, & Shiraz

mark — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:21:05 +0000

All four of these LaClair wines are in different phases of fermentation, clearing, fining, and aging.

White Zinfandel Degassed

mark — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:15:59 +0000

The white zinfandel has finished fermenting now and is ready for clearing. This is the point where I degass the wine to get out any remaining CO2 that remains in the juice. I added the metabisulfite and potassium sorbate, included in the kit, then used the degassing wand with my cordless drill to get out all the gas.

I learned a new technique today with the degassing wand. I decided to remove about 1/4 of the wine into a second carboy, creating room for the wine to foam. Then, I inserted the degassing wand into the wine and kept the tip toward the surface of the juice. By doing this, the wand whipped the juice into an amazing foam. But, what I found was that the spinning juice at the surface created a whirlpool effect, which actually stirred up the entire carboy better than when the wand was submerged further into the juice. Sort of counter-intuitive. But…it works.

So, then I added the super-rich, very sweet grape juice to the currently dry wine to sweeten it up and give it some color. I could smell how sticky sweet the juice was that I added to the wine. I am excited to give this wine a try. It will sit for about a month now before it gets bottled.

Marcia’s Favorite – White Zinfandel

mark — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:20:16 +0000

I’ve yet to try making a blush so far though I have some incentive.Â White Zinfandel is mom’s favorite.Â I bought a kit from Vintner’s Reserve and started making it today.Â This will be the first “sweet” grape wine that I’ve ever made, and from the kit I can see that it contains an “F Pack” that is obviously some form of sweet syrup that is used to back sweeten before bottling.Â

The kit wines all have the very same instructions and I’ve done so many now, that I have memorized them.Â The juiceÂ (with water) filled the 6 gallon fermentor to the top and I measured the specific gravity.Â The original SG was only 1.070 which is in the range that the kit instructions call for (1.070 – 1.085).Â However, knowing that this low level will create a weak wine, I added sugar, enough to bring it up to 1.085.Â Of course, I added all the other ingredients that are pre-measured out for you and covered it up.

7 days in the bucket at around 70 degrees, should get us down to 1.010 or so.Â White Zin… here we go.