1996 Muscadine
December 2007 – Lorraine and I went to the Raleigh Farmer’s Market, and when I spotted muscadine grapes, I decided I should give that a try.
I went into this knowing that I was purchasing eating grapes, not wine grapes.
Ingredients
| Fruit | 2 bushels Muscadine grapes (didn’t have a scale big enough to weigh them) |
| Sulfite | 5 tsp sodium metabisulfite |
| Sugar | 12 cups |
| Pectic Enzyme | 7 tsp |
| Yeast Nutrient | 7 tsp |
| Yeast | Red Star Red Wine yeast |
Method
| Crushed fruit, added sulfite, sugar, pectic enzyme, and nutrient.
Added sugar by the cup, stirring hard and checking hydrometer after each addition. |
09/21/1996 SG 1.076 |
| Added yeast. | 09/22/1996 SG 1.076 |
| No activity. Added Wyeast 3028 Pasteur Red Yeast to jump start it. | 09/24/1996 SG 1.076 |
| Jump start worked like a champ! Pressed fruit. | 09/29/1996 SG 1.004 |
| Racked. | 01/03/1996 SG 0.997 |
| Racked. | 01/13/1996 SG 0.997 |
| Bottled. | 03/08/1997 SG 0.996 |
Notes
| Yield | 30 bottles |
| Alcohol | 10.9% |
| Afterthoughts | This wine was VERY sharp, painful to drink. In retrospect I should have sweetened it at least a bit. No plans to make it again — the fruit quality (bought at Raleigh Farmer’s Market) was low and it’s not a grape that to my taste, anyway. |