2020 Cabernet Sauvignon
September 2020
In the summer 2020, Patrick asked me to make wine for his wedding reception, scheduled for October 2021. After a fair amount of thought, I made this one and a Chardonnay.
Note: This is the first time I’m trying the new formulation of the Winexpert kits. Their new process produces a smaller volume that they claim is the same quality — in the past this would be a 12 liter kit. The jury is still out regarding if this is just a marketing gimmick.
I printed 2 labels for the wine — serious and funny. Patrick & Grace loved both of them, so 25% of the bottles at their wedding reception had the joke label.
Ingredients
| Kit | Winexpert Reserve Australian Cabernet Sauvignon 6 week/10 liter kit |
| Bentonite | 30 g |
| Fermentation Oak | 90 g medium toast American oak chips 30 g medium toast American oak granular (dust) |
| Yeast | Lalvin EC-1118 |
| Sulfite | as needed |
| Sorbate | N/A |
| Kieselsol | provided in kit |
| Chitosan | provided in kit |
Method
| Added 2 cups hot tap water to the primary fermenter and sprinkled the bentonite on a bit at a time, then stirred until dissolved.
Added contents of grape juice bag. Rinsed it with warm water and added to fermenter. Topped up to 5.75 gallons, as my per usual method. Stirred oak chips & dust into the wine. Sprinkled yeast on top. |
09/04/2020 SG 1.096 |
| Racked. Moved to carboy | 09/11/2020 SG 1.000 |
| Racked. Added kieselsol/chitosan + 1/4 tsp K-meta. Threw away the enclosed K-meta/sorbate pack as sorbate is unnecessary in a dry wine. | 09/16/2020 SG 0.994 |
| Racked. Added 2 oz French oak cubes + 1/4 tsp K-meta. | 09/27/2020 SG 0.994 |
| Added 1/4 tsp K-meta | 12/25/2020 SG 0.994 |
| Racked, added 1/4 tsp K-meta, bottled. | 04/17/2021 SG 0.994 |
Notes
| Yield | 25 bottles |
| Alcohol | 13.9% |
| 04/17/2021 | At bottling time, the wine is honestly amazing. It’s the best kit Cabernet Sauvignon I’ve made, and it’s still young. The new Winexpert formulization appears to be as good as advertised. |
| 10/24/2021 | We served this wine and the 2020 Chardonnay at our son’s wedding reception last night. Both wines were a hit. I am highly pleased with the new WE formulization. |
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