2019 Merlot #2
May 2019
My niece asked me to make her a Merlot kit — we decided on a R J Spagnols kit (see 2019 Merlot #1) that was on clearance.
At the same time, I purchased this kit, a Winexpert Selection Merlot kit, which is a higher quality kit. I’m starting this kit the same day as #1, so in a year we can compare them.
Ingredients
| Kit | Winexpert Selection Merlot kit |
| Bentonite | 30 g |
| Yeast | Lalvin EC-1118 |
| Oak | 60 g French Oak Medium (whatever that means) |
| Sulfite | 4 g |
| Sorbate | 5.5 g |
| Chitosan | 125 ml |
| Aging Oak | 3 oz medium toast Hungarian cubes |
Method
| Added 2 cups hot tap water to the primary fermenter and sprinkled the bentonite on a bit at a time. Like with Merlot #1, no clumping.
Added contents of grape juice bag. Rinsed it with warm water and added to fermenter. Topped up to 5.5 gallons. Kit calls for 6 gallons, but I typically do 5.5. Stirred for 4 minutes with powered stirring rod, reversing direction every 30 seconds. Added oak then sprinkled yeast on top. |
05/13/2019 SG 1.092 |
| Racked into carboy. | 05/18/2019 SG 1.012 |
| Racked. Stirred for 4 minutes, reversing direction every 30 seconds.
Added sulfite and stirred 1 minute. Added chitosan, stirred 1 minute. This kit does not include Kieselsol for some reason. Added 3 oz Hungarian oak cubes, medium toast. I want to make this one a bit heavier. I’m going to let this set for a month then test it. I skipped the sorbate — the wine is bone dry so it is not necessary. I suspect it’s included in all kits because some folks do not let their wine ferment out completely, and the addition of sorbate helps prevent a renewed fermentation in the bottle. |
06/05/2019 SG 0.996 |
| Racked. Added 1/4 tsp K-meta. Bottled. | 09/05/2019 SG 0.995 |
Notes
| Yield | 27 bottles |
| Alcohol | 13.6% |
| 09/05/2019 | Another one that tasted good at bottling time. I think this one needs a year of aging … but I admit I’ll sample it at the 6 month mark. |
| 02/29/2020 | I felt the need to crack a bottle to see how this one is developing. Wow! I’m really happy I added the Hungarian oak cubes. The wine is a lot more complex at an early age than expected from a kit wine. Three months was just right. It will be interesting to see how this one develops over the next couple of years. |
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[…] the same time, I purchased a Winexpert Selection merlot kit (See 2019 Merlot #2), which is a higher quality kit. I am starting it at the same time so we can compare the […]