Mark LaClair

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.

At long last Apple Cider Wine Bottled

mark — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:32:57 +0000

After nearly 9 months of fermenting, stabilizing, and clearing, the Apple Cider Wine was bottled today. The wine was extremely dry to the taste, (SG=0.990) thus requiring some back sweetening. At the last racking (about a month ago) I added 6 campden tablets to the wine. Today, I added 3 more because I suspect it will be aging for some time, perhaps 6 months or more. I also added 3 teaspoons of potassium sorbate to prevent re-fermentation when I add the sugar. For the 6 gallons of wine, I added 1.5 lbs of granulated sugar, dissolved in about 2 cups of warm water. That should sweeten it just enough.

Because of the added sugar (and perhaps the other chems), I was actually able to bottle 32 bottles. The wine is clear as a bell. Of course, it has been settling for 6 months and has been racked off the lees 3 or 4 times now. There is still a slight odor from the wine that I can’t place. Can’t taste it… but can smell it. When the wine is let to air for a minute, the odor goes away. The same thing happened with the peach-raisin, that we just recently opened after 6 months of aging. It has a wonderful taste and no more smell. I’m thinking the same will happen with the apple. We shall see.

I have to thank the folks at Windy Ridge Orchard for giving me the cider and for allowing me to experiment with it. I’m not quite sure that this is going to be the best wine that I’ve made, but will certainly satisfy its drinkers. I will hopefully be able to work with Windy Ridge again with other fruits at harves this summer/fall. Can anyone say Blueberry?

Merlot Degassed and Fining

mark — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 19:26:01 +0000

The Vintners Reserve Merlot that I’ve had fermenting in the cellar was degassed and stabilized today. The wine reached full dryness last week, but I was unable to get to the degassing until today. As I have found in the past, the easiest way to degas is to remove about a third of the wine from its carboy before whipping with the degassing wand. I added the packet of metabisulphite and sorbate to the wine and mixed it thoroughly for 2 minutes. Then, I racked another third of the wine into the temporary carboy and added the isinglass fining agent. This way, I am mixing all of these ingredients well. After 2 minutes of mixing all of the above, I racked all the wine from the temporary carboy back into the original. I re-sanitized the air lock just in case.

Now, I’ll have it set still and settle for another month or so until it is clear enough for bottling.

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.