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My goals this weekend were two-fold:

1) Celebrate “Earth Hour” on Saturday - which my wife and I did indeed do (hope you did too)

2) Get caught up on all of those wine making activities that I haven’t had time for over the last several weeks (and I know I’m not the only one in this boat …)

This mainly included:

- Cleaning out our pantry in the basement under the stairs so that we had a nice, dark and cool space to age our wine (we like to “bulk age” our wine in the carboy so that the batch has a consistent flavour)

- Racking our current batches of wine that are in the aging process so that I could get them into our new found “aging room”

I am pleased to say that for the most part I was successful in achieving my goals this weekend, but the experience was even more satisfying then expected as it reminded me of several important things about wine making that I wanted to share with you all.

Why Do We Rack Our Wine During The Aging Process?

Well, the most obvious reason is to get rid of the sediment at the bottom of the carboy as it helps clear the wine ensuring that there is less sediment in the bottle. Now of course if you are a proponent of filtering your wine this is less of an issue for you, but I’m of the mind that if you age and rack your wine properly you really don’t need to filter your wine. This is a personal opinion of course ….

The other (and often forgotten reason) is that racking your wine allows for a little bit of oxygen to be added to your wine, which in fact allows your wine to “breath” - much like when you decant your wine before enjoying it. This should help your wine develop it’s bouquet and flavours as it ages.

Do I Need To Add Anything To Wine If I Plan On Aging It For More Then Six Months?

The simple answer is yes. If you would like to age your wine past 6 months you need to add a preservative to stave off oxidization, which will potentially ruin your wine. To do this simply add 1/4 teaspoon of potassium metabisulphate to 1/2 cup of cool water then gently stir this solution into your carboy (this assumes you have 23 litres of wine).

I’ve Racked My Wine And Have An Airspace Left In The Carboy - Now What?

One of the reasons why we use carboys as the secondary and for aging is that it has narrow neck. This is to help reduce the airspace in the container to limit potential contact with oxygen thereby reducing the chance that your wine will spoil.

You’ll notice, however, that when you rack (transfer your wine from one container to the next leaving the sediment behind) that you’ll have less wine in the new carboy then what you originally had. This is simply because the sediment at the bottom of the carboy takes up some of the volume in the carboy, not to mention the fact that you’ll be leaving some of the wine behind from the bottom instead of risking having some of the sediment transfer over to the new carboy in the wine at the bottom.

You will want to top up your wine in the new carboy to within 5 cm of the bottom of the bung, so the question therefore becomes what do you use?

Here’s what I usually use (and I would be curious to hear what you use):

1) Sterile water - in my opinion though this waters down the wine depending on how much you have to add so I have been moving away from using it.

2) Similar wine to the one your making (either commercial or homemade) - it adds a unique, balanced flavour to the wine. This is what I did today with one of our wines we’re making from an expensive wine kit. It is the Stag’s Leap Merlot so I decided to added two bottles of Casa Lapostelle (a medium priced 2006 Chilean Merlot we quite like) with the hope that it will add a complex flavour to the wine. This was a little more expensive then we expected though as the wine we added cost $16 a bottle. So we’re now in for just under $200 for this wine kit so I hope it will turn out well - we justified the extra expense though as we’re still just over $6 a bottle for wine we expect will rival a $30 - $50 bottle of wine.

I’ve also heard of people making a cheaper matching wine kit to the one they’re making to specifically use as a “topper upper”. Interesting idea!

For our chocolate raspberry port I have purchased a cheap blended port to top things up once I rack it.

3) White or red grape concentrate (usually done with fruit wines) - This are usually included in the fruit wine recipes anyways to add a bit of fruitiness and depth so generally not a bad idea although I’ve heard some fruit wine advocates ask why you’d want a fruit wine to taste like a grape wine? Personal preference I guess.

4) Something else - This is where you can experiment a bit. For our crabapple wine, for example, I added two 500 ml cans of Strongbow dry cider and was also considering adding some unsweetened apple juice.

Which ones are right and which ones are wrong? I guess it really comes down to personal taste and you really won’t know how things turn out till you bottle your wine and try it for the first time.

Sometimes you wine and sometimes you lose but at least you can be comforted knowing that chances are you’ll still be able to use your wine in some fashion regardless. This could be as part of your cooking, as a wine spritzer in the summer (i.e. add Sprite or 7-Up to it) or you can even gussy it up with some drink crystals.

Remember to record what you’ve added and how much so that you can replicate your wine again if it turns out really well!

Anyhoo, just some ideas to throw your way this evening.

I’d be curious to know what your thoughts are on racking (i.e. how often during aging), wine filtering and what you use to up your wine during the aging process.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

- Scott

Well I certainly thought so until I received an interesting email from one of my readers the other day, which asked if you had to add ingredients (such as yeast, bentonite and a clearing agent) to a pail of juice like you do with a typical wine kit.

The reason why he was asking was that he has made several batches of wine using pails of juice, which turned out really well (was nice and clear plus had great “legs) and he didn’t have to add anything to it. He did note though that he left the lid slightly ajar during the primary stage so that leads me to believe that the fermentation was caused by natural yeast in the air (which, incidentally was how monks invented wine in the first place).

I asked him to make another batch using a juice pail and add the extra ingredients to see what kind of difference that will make. I’m curious what the results will be!

Have you had any experience with making wine the “natural” way? If so, I’d love to hear from you on how it turned out!

- Scott

I was recently reading a monthly newsletter I get from one of the local wine making supply shops I frequent and came across a new cool “toy” I HAD to get and try out - a plastic clear carboy.

These carboys are made by “Better-Bottle” (www.Better-Bottle.com) and seem to have an OEM relationship with RJ Spagnols.

This new carboy caught my attention for a number of reasons:

1) It’s made up of the same material (PET) that is used in regular water cooler bottles so I knew my wine wouldn’t get a plastic taste to it. They are also almost “unbreakable” (mind you so was the Titanic) and can be cleaned with hot water.

PET = polyethylene terephthalate

2) At 1.5 lbs it is about 1/10th the weight of the equivalent glass carboy so wouldn’t hurt the back as much when I move a full carboy around.

3) It is clear (unlike the current opaque plastic carboys - which stain from what I hear) so you can see how well your wine is clearing.

4) Cost wise it is about the same as a glass carboy ($24.99)

5) The wider neck makes it even easier to clean the a a regular carboy.

Note: Due to the increased size of the neck you’ll have to use a size 10 bung for the airlock.

I’ve quizzed wine making shop owners about what they see as the main drawbacks to using this new plastic carboy is that it tends to scratch on the inside when using a carboy brush. Apart from that it appears to be pretty equivalent to a glass carboy.

I haven’t used it yet so would be interested in hearing from you if you have one and your experiences with it.

If you have used it before please let me know via the “comments” option below!

- Scott

Here’s the vacuum pump you’ll want if you’d like to give this a try:

http://www.fermentationtrap.com/cb6346.html

You’ll also want to get a size 10 bugger with a hole drilled in the middle.

One of the things I love about helping people with their wine making is hearing about all of the crazy things people make wine out of! I guess I’m a “traditionalist” though as I typically make wine from wine kits and fresh fruit.

For example, I currently have the following wine kits from Winexperts on the go:

1. Piesporter (Vintner’s Reserve)
2. Pinot Noir (Vintner’s Reserve)
3. Napa Valley Stag’s Leap District Merlot (Estate Series)(my wife and I are big fans of Stag’s Leap Artemis, which is a Cabernet Sauvignon so we thought this kit would be interesting to try - cost us $150 though so BETTER be good … ).You can view the PDF for this one by clicking here.
4. Chocolate Raspberry Port (Limited Edition)(one of my readers has made this kit as well and said it was a big hit at Christmas)

On the fruit side I currently have on the go:

1. Blueberry Wine
2. Crabapple Wine

I have also completed a batch of Canadian Wheat Ale, which is quite tasty (need to tone down the carbonation though) and have a Mexican style beer waiting for it’s turn as well.

So needless to say, our house has been a perpetual “fermentation zone” for quite some time now.

In any event, I figured the wines that I make are pretty much what everyone else makes and man was I wrong!

In fact, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I discovered that people actually make wine out of “non-grape” fruit as well. My ski patrol friend Brian, for example, loves making wine from rhubarb, choke cherries and raspberries and this is mainly because he both loves the wine he can produce and he gets his fruit for free (not a bad deal).

Then there were the wines made from fruits I’ve never heard of including:

1. Pomerac
2. Otaheite Apple (Pomarosa, Malacca Apple, Plum Rose)
3. Samarangense

Next, there was Rob who emailed me today and mentioned that he was making wine from Ribena. Well … I guess all you need is sugar right?

There’s Peter from the UK who loves to make wine from Beetroot (claims it went over quite nicely).

>> By the way, he sent me the recipe if you’d like it. You can contact me by going to www.AllWineMaking.com/Contactus.html

Then there’s Ian (also from the UK) who I think gets the award for pushing the wine making limits with his wine made from:

1. Tomatoes
2. Coconuts (ok … this one doesn’t sound toooo bad)
3. Sycamore (maple)
4. Prawns (yes … that’s right … prawns … as in … shrimp)

Don’t believe me that you can make wine from prawns? Here’s Ian’s recipe and I double dare ya to try it!

“You have to cook and blend 1lb of prawns in with flour, I found that half a banana helped with them . Get it to room temperature, add 2 lbs of sugar, leave them for a few days and then add the yeast. ” -> He did admit though that it took him a few tries to “get it just right”

I could go on with a bunch more entertaining wine recipes that I’ve heard but I’ll spare you the details.

It goes to show you though that once you feel you have your wine making skills honed and under control that you shouldn’t just limit yourself to just one style of wine as you never know what new and exciting flavours are waiting for you just around the corner.

It’s just a matter of getting out of your comfort zone and trying something completely different.

Now get out there and make some wine damn it!

To your wine making,

Scott
www.AllWineMaking.com

My father spent this past week with my family and I wanted to show him some of the interesting wine making projects we were doing. He has a PhD in bio-chemistry so I thought he’d be intrigued by the process and I wasn’t disappointed!

He asked me a very intriguing question: is there a big difference between potassium metabisulphite and sodium metabisulphite as chemically they are quite similar. Why would you use one over the other?

I remember reading somewhere that you wouldn’t want to use sodium metabisulphite as a stabilizer in your wine because it adds sodium to it and potentially could could change the taste of your wine. Potassium metabisulphite is therefore the preferred item to use.

I also discussed this with the owner of one of our local wine making supply stores and confirmed that potassium metabisulphite is definitely the way to go and that the only use of sodium metabisulphite in your wine making should be as a sterilizer for your wine making equipment.

This was further confirmed in Alison Crowe’s “The Wine Maker’s Answer Book” on page 107, where she states:

“Most home winemakers use potassium metabisulphite, available in either powdered or solid (Campden tablets) form, to add sulfur dioxide. There’s also a sodium form of sulfite (which isn’t recommended for use in wine) as well as a self-dissolving effervescent potassium metabisulphite tablet. I recommend using the powdered form.”

> By the way, if you are looking for a good book that covers all of the intricate details about wine making then I highly recommend you purchase Alison Crowe’s “The Wine Maker’s Answer Book”. It is available for purchase via Amazon.com.

Interested in learning more about both sulphites? Here are some good descriptions on Wikipedia:

Potassium metabisulphite - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_metabisulphite

Sodium metabisulphite - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_metabisulfite

If you are interested in finding out how to properly calculate the amount of sulphite needed for your wine go to Winemaker Magazine’s “Sulphite Calculator”, which is available by going to:

http://www.winemakermag.com/sulfitecalculator/index.html

Would be interested to here what your thoughts and experiences are with using these sulphites!

Home Wine Making Blog: When you think about a wine you normally don’t think of it in terms of being in a good mood, humorous or even under-the-weather, but there is a term used by the wine industry that might make you think that such terms are appropriate.

Bottle sickness is often used to describe a wine that has taken a plunge in quality, usually right after bottling. It is referred to as a ’sickness’ because the effects are temporary and with a little rest the wine will come back to its good-ole self once again.

Bottle sickness (also referred to as ‘bottle shock’ or ‘travel shock’) occurs when the wine absorbs too much oxygen in too little time, something that is likely to happen during bottling. Wines can handle the slow, gradual infusion of air that is naturally allowed by wine corks. In fact, most red wines will benefit from such a scenario, but when the oxygen comes too fast a build-up of an element called acetaldehyde starts to become prevalent in the wine.

Acetaldehyde is naturally found in any wine, at least in small, unnoticeable amounts, but in higher amounts its presence can be detected as an odor of rotting apples or nuts. This is what’s noticed in wines that are suffering from bottle shock. The overall impression the wine gives can be described as flat or flabby, or just plain lacking in fruitiness.

Over the course of time the acetaldehyde will slowly convert to alcohol, bringing the wine back into line with something enjoyable to drink. How long this takes depends on the severity of the sickness. It could be as little as a few days or as long as a few weeks.

This is just one more reason of many as to why aging is so important. You could pick up a newly bottled wine from your cellar one week and wonder why it’s so lifeless then the next week be overwhelmed by its superb flavor.

Home Wine Making Blog: “On many occasions we have been asked this simple question, ‘Should a fermenter be sealed with an air-lock during the first few days of fermentation, or should it be left open, exposed to the air?’

This question arises because there is so much conflicting information floating around in books, on the internet and in other places as to which method is correct. In fact, even our own website recommends just covering the primary fermentation with a thin towel, while the box ingredient kits we sell recommend using an air-lock.

Even commercial wineries are not consistent in this area. While most wineries will put white wines under an air-lock and expose red wines to air, there are many, many wineries that will do the very opposite.

The reason we recommend leaving the must exposed to air during the primary fermentation is because this method leads a more vigorous fermentation, one that is able to complete more thoroughly and rapidly. Wine kit producers recommend sealing up the primary fermentation with an air-lock because they are more concerned about eliminating any risk of spoilage than providing the fastest fermentation possible.

Spoilage can be of concern on those rare occasion when the fermentation does not start as planned, but if the fermentation takes off in a timely manner, spoilage is of no issue. The activity from the fermentation will easily protect the must by stifling the growth of any unwanted organisms.

So, What Should You Do?

While we do recommend using a thin, clean towel to cover the fermenter during the primary fermentation and nothing more, if you are concerned about your fermentation not starting there is a compromising method you could follow:

When you first pitch the yeast into the must, put an air-lock on the fermenter. After a few hours, once you see that the fermentation has begun–indicated by activity or foam on the surface–you can then take the air-lock off and safely allow air to get to the must. This is, in a sense, giving you the best of both worlds–the protection and an invigorated fermentation.

As A Side Note:

It is important to note that an air-lock should always be used after the must has gone into its secondary fermentation. This usually starts around the fifth or sixth day, or when the first racking is performed. It is about this time you will notice the fermentation’s activity level starting to taper off.”

Home Wine Making Blog: “This is a story of two wines, Syrah and Shiraz, and how they both are the same, yet different, at the same time. On the surface it seems to be somewhat of an exercise in semantics, with their names being the only difference, but after taking a closer look it starts to become clear that there is much more to the story than just that.

Syrah and Shiraz teaches us a lesson, one that illustrates how a grape’s environment and the way in which it is process can influence the outcome of a resulting wine.

Any wine expert will tell you that Syrah and Shiraz are two varietal wines that are made from the exact same grape. If you analyze the DNA of each of the grapes used to make these wines you will find that there is no difference between them.

Then Why The Two Names?

The French refer to the grape and the wine they make from it as Syrah. Other parts of the world such as: South America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and parts of the United States refer to the grape and the wine as Shiraz.

But there is something more than just a difference in name. There is a difference in style as well. While both wines are very assertive, a Syrah tends to be a little more elegant and complex. It usually has more of a smokey, earthy character with flavors of plum and spicy pepper. A Shiraz on the other hand is more crisp and fruity, less layered with slight, jammy flavors of berry as compared to a Syrah. This is a very wide generalization of each wine, but even so it would be safe to say that if you tasted both wines side-by-side you would notice more differences than similarities between the two.

So, Why Are These Wines Different?

While the grape remains the same in each wine there is so much else that is different. The soil, the climate, the cultivation, and the fermentation all vary to make a Syrah a Syrah and a Shiraz a Shiraz.

While different soils can not assert there own character onto a grape, they can guide the way in which a grape develops its own flavor. This is referred to as the terroir. The French vineyards are heavy in limestone which can hold moisture better and deeper than most soils. This forces the vines to get more of their nutrients from deeper soils. The result is a wine with more layered, complex flavors.

The French are not allowed to use irrigation or fertilization on their vines either. This stems from governmental laws designed to keep the grape production limited. This leads to stressed vines with fewer berries, but with each berry packing more flavor.

This is all in contrast to places like Australia, South Africa and New Zealand where Shiraz grapes are produced in sandy soils with plenty of fertilization and irrigation. The cultivation is abundant. This creates a wine with a more even character than a Syrah and with the ability to mature more quickly.

The Syrah is also grown in France’s cooler climate. This lends to the plum-like, smokey character of this wine. This is in comparison to Shiraz which is grown in warmer climates which makes the wine more jammy and berry-like.

Even the rate of fermentation plays some role in the flavor development of the wine. A Syrah is fermented more slowly so as to increase the time the pulp can stay on the fermentation. A Shiraz is fermented at a faster, more-normal rate which helps to make the wine, in general, more fruity.

In Summary:

So as you can see there is much more than just the grape when it comes to bringing a wine to life. While a wine’s character always begins with the grape. It ends upon many other factors, including the human touch. There are many other examples of how this is true, but none quite as clear as the dichotomy of the Syrah/Shiraz grape. It’s a clear example of how the New World wines compare with the wines of the Old World.”

Natural stoppers are renewable resource: WWF

Mike De Souza, CanWest News Service

Published: Monday, October 22

OTTAWA - The average person probably won’t know what it is when they take a sip of their favourite wine.

In fact, many wouldn’t even notice the mouldy taste, sometimes compared to dirty socks, in their glass. But for wine-tasting experts, who could detect it in concentrations as low as one or two parts per trillion, a small sip would leave a bad taste in their mouths.
“It’s not really a safety issue. It’s not a health issue. It’s a quality issue and it’s costing the industry millions and millions of dollars,” said Dr. George Soleas, a chemist who has spent more than a decade in the Canadian wine industry.

Poor-quality natural corks are the source of the problem, according to industry experts, who blame the faulty stoppers for tainting wine with trichloroanisole (TCA) and ruining some of the best bottles on the market. A recent American industry estimate pegged losses at up to $250 million a year.

But environmentalists are mounting a campaign to defend the natural cork, arguing the alternative solutions have dirty environmental footprints.

“It’s very simple,” said Chantal Menard, a spokeswoman for the World Wildlife Fund in Europe.

“If you use cork, you use a renewable resource, which is not the case for aluminum used in screw caps, and it’s also not the case for oil or petrol, which is used for making synthetic stoppers.”

Natural cork is harvested from the cork oak tree, which grows mainly in European and North African countries such as Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

Harvesters strip the bark of a mature tree that is at least 25 years old. When done properly, there is no need to cut down trees and the bark grows back in about a decade.

Soleas, also the vice-president of quality assurance at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, concedes that high-quality natural cork is still the best option for wine drinkers who want to store their bottles for a few years. The synthetic and screw caps block oxygen from entering the bottle and allowing the wine to age.
But since most customers consume their wine within a year, he said the Ontario liquor board favours the alternative stoppers to eliminate the risk of TCA tainting and its impact on sales.

Soleas defended the use of alternative closures, noting synthetic stoppers and aluminum screw caps can be recycled.

A peer-reviewed study in 2002 by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario tested 2,400 wines and found that 32 per cent of bottles with a low-grade composite cork closure were tainted with TCA. Six per cent of bottles with high-quality natural corks were found to be tainted, while none of the bottles with synthetic closures or screw caps were.

“Although you don’t often get customer returns, because the majority of the customers don’t know what the smell is, they just don’t like the wine and they’ll never buy it again,” Soleas said.

The tainting problem from natural corks has caused a major shift for wine-makers over the past few years, according to Stephane Rein, a wine industry consultant in France.

While 95 per cent of wine bottles had natural corks in 2001, five years later more than a quarter of bottles used alternative closures, Rein said — about 19 per cent used synthetic cork closures and 7.5 per cent used screw caps.

“It’s a very dynamic market and there’s a lot of controversy,” said Rein.

But he praised the WWF campaign as ” an excellent initiative. … It asks people to be conscious of the whole chain of production. They should know that when they buy cork, it won’t have an impact on the forest.”

The industry is starting to address the rapid rise of alternative closures and their impact on the environment, said Chris Thomson, the national sales manager in Canada for Cork Supply USA Inc.

“Of the three, natural cork is the most preferential in terms of doing the least amount of harm,” said Thomson, whose company produces and distributes a variety of natural and alternative closures.

© The Edmonton Journal 2007