1988 Vidal Blanc
September 2007 – Vidal is one of those few grapes that anything can be done with it. It’s famous in the Finger Lakes for late harvest dessert wines, it makes a very good off-dry, semi-sweet, or sweet table wine. And it makes a good dry table wine. This prompted me to make a batch.
Ingredients
| fruit | 6 gallons Vidal juice, 21.0 brix, 30ppm sulfite |
| grape tannin | 1/4 tsp |
| pectic enzyme | 3 tsp |
| yeast nutrient | 6 tsp |
| yeast | Red Star Epernay II |
Method
| Started | 10/18/1988 1.082 |
| Racked, 1/4 tsp K-sulfite added | 11/01/1988 1.000 |
| Racked, 1/4 tsp K-sulfite, 1/2 tsp ascorbic, 1 tsp citric acid added | 01/28/1989 0.995 |
| Filtered, #1 filter pad | 03/27/1989 0.995 |
| Ravat pourback added | 04/08/1989 — |
| Filtered, #2 filter pad | 04/09/1989 — |
| Bottled | 11/14/1989 — |
Notes
| Yield | 26 bottles |
| Alcohol | 11.8% |
| Afterthoughts | I must have had a BUNCH of ravat reserved for pourback this year! Vidal makes a great wine, regardless of dry or sweet. |