Mark LaClair » Winemaking

Bottled the Merlot and the Riesling

mark — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:54:44 +0000

On Sunday, I was finally able to bottle the Riesling and the Merlot that had been fining in the cellar. Both wines could use some aging (couple of days)… or a couple months. The Riesling offers a nice floral bouquet when you first approach it, then gives you a quick burst of acid on the tongue when sipped. It is defintely a dry, medium body wine with a lingering acidic taste (at least for now). The Merlot, has not yet got much complexity. It has a fruity aroma, with a semi-sweet and somewhat smooth mouthfeel. The finish is rather short, but very drinkable.

I was able to get 29 bottles of each wine this time around. I’ve found that I’m not in favor of topping off the carboy before bottling. I think that adding even a slight amount of water thins the body of the wine out too much. I’d rather sacrifice one bottle per batch to get a more robust wine.

A new Chapter….

mark — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:05:49 +0000

For the past 2 years, I’ve been making wine at home and have had a great time entertaining myself, my friends and my family with some great wines. So… now, I’m going to embark on another adventure and work toward marketing and selling the wine. When the time is right, I will let the world know what I have up my sleeve. For now… this is what I have going on.

Last summer, I made 1 batch of blueberry wine from the blueberries picked locally here in NH. Well, this year, I have arranged to make 5 total batches of blueberry wine as an experiement. Last week, I started the fermentation of 90 lbs of blueberries to make 30 gallons of blueberry wine.

I won’t give all the details that I normally do… because this is, well, a new chapter in the winemaking process. In this process, I started the fermentation of 5 seperate batches of blueberry juice. The only difference in the 5 batches, is the yeast I used. Each of the 5 batches is using a different yeast. Everything else is exactly the same.

So… we are now 1 week into fermentation and all is well. Perking away and smelling great. More details to follow. Check out the pics. Very cool!

Chardonnay and Chianti Bottled

mark — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 01:51:54 +0000

Well, back a couple weeks ago, I bottled the Chardonnay and Chianti that had been vinifying for several months. I forgot to post that progress here… but am quite sure you’ll forgive me. IF not, I will give you a bottle of the greate wine that I have… and you WILL forgive me.

Both wines had gone through fermentation and reached dryness. They were both settling quite nicely and aging away in the basement. This coming weekend I will be bottling the remaining 2 batches of wine that are fining…the Merlot and the Riesling.

Merlot Second Batch

mark — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 20:38:46 +0000

Today, I also started my second batch of Merlot from the same Vintners Reserve collection. All things considered, I know all of this by heart now and it makes the process that much faster. My starting gravity on the Merlot must was 1.088 after adding 2 pounds of granular sugar to the mix. At 78 degrees F, I added the Premier Cuvee wine yeast and covered everything up. I expect to reach a gravity of around 1.030 by Friday, and 1.010 by Sunday (seven days).

Next weekend, I will rack the wine into a carboy for the second phase (MLF) of fermentation. No pic… because its the same as last time.

Chardonnay & Chianti Enter Final Stage

mark — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 20:32:44 +0000

Today, I got allot of wine work done, starting with the degassing and racking of the Chardonnay & Chianti that passed through MLF (malolactic fermentation). I measured the Chardonnay first and it registered a specific gravity of 0.996, perfect. The Chianti came in at 0.992 SG. So, I was able to add the provided Potassium Metabisulphites, the Potassium Sorbate, and the Isinglass to each of the wines and used my degassing wand (with the cordless) to whip the wine into a froth. I’ve learned to rack about half of the wine from each carboy into a temporary carboy for the degassing to allow room for expansion and explosion.

Regarding the degassing. I received a response from my latest YouTube video about over-degassing. One person suggests that over-whipping can introduce too much oxygen into the wine and cause it to oxidize. I’ve not yet had a problem with this, but would be interested in hearing what others thought on the matter.

After degassing, I re-racked all of the wine into their respective carboys where they will sit and settle (fining) over the course of the next month or so until they are bottled. Instructions tell you that you can bottle within a couple weeks. I find that it is much clearer after a month. So… I wait.

Chardonnay Perks Away

mark — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:15:17 +0000

Tonight, I found the Chardonnay at 1.028 which is just perfect for racking. I took the following video to try and demonstrate how the CO2 in the wine is escaping in an effervescent sort of way.

I racked the wine into a carboy and fitted the airlock for about 10 days of secondary fermentation.

Chianti for the first time

mark — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:11:28 +0000

Tonight, I started a Chianti wine from Vintners Reserve. This will be the first Chianti that I’ve attempted to make. I’m actually not a big fan of Chianti normally, but since I am making it…I’m sure I’ll like it.

Starting with a specific gravity of 1.080 (after adding 2 lbs of sugar to the must) and a temp of 75 degrees F, I added some Premier Cuvee wine yeast, and we are off to the races. The kit came with some oak chips which are added during primary fermentation as well.

My guess is that it will ferment for about 7 days before it reaches a good gravity for racking. I look for it to reach around 1.030 or so before racking it off the sediment (lees). Then, I will rack the wine into a carboy (better bottle) for the next phase of fermentation.

2nd Chardonnay On The Way

mark — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:35:03 +0000

Sunday, I started making my second batch of Chardonnay from Vintner’s Reserver. The first batch of 30 bottles were so successful that I ended up giving much of it away to friends. So… I decided I’d make some more.

As usual, the primary fermentation from a kit is very easy to set up. In a large 6 gallon food-grade bucket, I added the first round of ingredients, including the bentonite, juice, water, and yeast. Of course, we sterilized everything prior to touching the juice.

The starting specific gravity was 1.085, after I added 2 pounds of sugar to the must. It initally came in at 1.070, so the added sugar brought it up to a good beginning SG. The temperature of the juice was exactly 75 degrees F at the start, perfect for activating the wine yeast.

Covered the primary and now wait for the perking to start. Next Sunday, the juice ought to be ready for racking off the lees into a carboy for the second step of the process.

Degassing first LaClair Riesling

mark — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:59:07 +0000

The Riesling wine tested today near full dryness at 0.994, so it was time to de-gas it. I racked out about 1 gallon of the wine into a sterile carboy so as to create some room for the expected foaming. I added the metabisulfite and potassium sorbate to the wine and used my cordless drill and degassing wand to whip the wine. My goal is to get all of the gas that is still dissolved in the wine to come to the surface. By whipping it, the gas seperates from the liquid and rises to the top. I added the packet of Isinglass (to assist in fining) to the wine and whipped it again for a few minutes. It appeared that the foaming stopped to accumulate on the surface, a sign that the gas was fully removed.

What I figured out during this racking is that I could get a better “whip”, or more agitation while degassing if I kept the degassing wand toward the top of the wine in the carboy. Intuition told me to submerge the wand as far into the bottle to stir up what was on the bottom. However, it did not agitate the juice on the bottom nearly as much as when I kept it toward the top. Who knew?

I reattached the airlock and moved the Riesling into the cellar, where it will settle for the next month or so before bottling. Tastes great by the way. Looking forward to drinking the first LaClair Riesling.

Here is some video I took and the tip about keeping the degassing wand toward the surface:

Botlling of the second Pinot Noir

mark — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:15:02 +0000

Yesterday, I bottled 29 bottles of my second batch of Pinot Noir. Because the first batch was so popular at Christmas time, I had to start another batch. This one is better than the first.

The wine I bottle yesterday was more full-bodied. One of the mistakes that I had been making before today was topping off the carboys as they sat during clearing. That had an effect of watering down the wine too much. Sure, I wanted to get a full 30 bottles…but really, I was getting 29 bottles stretched into 30 bottles. The other thing is that I have been more careful to leave behind more of the sediment in the carboys at racking, reducing the amount of wine that I have to bottle, but keeping a much more refined wine. Makes sense.

I’ve also decided that I’m going to stay with #8 corks with the hand-corker that I have. Though I can get a #9 cork into the bottle with the hand-corker, it is much more work, and I’m not sure it is worth it.

So this batch of Pinot Noir has an alcohol percentage of 13.3% alcohol by volume. Perfect. As I bottled, of course, I tatsted the wine and smelled it. It has a wonderfully smooth taste, with a clean finish. After a couple months of aging, this wine will definitely be at the top of my favorites list.