2022 Pinot Noir
April 2022
Label Peelers had a 10% off sale on Finer Wine Kits, and on top of my 10% off for life on FWK, a pair of Tavola kits averaged $75 each, not including S&H ($11.50 each). I wasn’t planning on making more kits … but when the price is right?
This one is a Tavola kit, made without skin packs. It’s purpose is a quicker drinking red, lighter in body. I have a triple batch each of Forte Super Tuscan and Forte Rhone (my blend of Syrah, Petite Sirah, Merlot) in barrels as my long agers. While skin packs can be added for Tavola reds, IMO I’ll either do a Forte (double skin packs + aging oak) or a Tavola (no skin packs).
Ingredients
| Kit | Finer Wine Kits Tavola Pinot Noir |
| Nutrients | Nutrient packet A (must) Nutrient packet B (yeast starter) Nutrient packet C (must) |
| Fermentation Oak | 0.5 oz small oak chips |
| Yeast | Lalvin RC 212 |
| Sorbate | N/A |
| Fining Agent | Kieselsol & Chitosan provided in kit |
| Aging Oak | 1 oz medium toast Hungarian cubes |
| K-meta | as needed |
| Glycerin | 6 oz |
Method
| Prepared the yeast starter by putting the yeast, the yeast starter nutrient pack B, and 1 cup water in a wine bottle. Shook to mix and put a towel over it to keep stuff out.
Poured the concentrate into the fermenter. Rinsed the bag 3 times, adding the water to the fermenter. Note: The concentrate is partially frozen, but 3 rinses dissolved it all. Stirred with a drill-mounted stirring rod when the fermenter was about half full, to ensure the concentrate is broken up. Added Packet A and continued adding water, stirring as I went. The plan is to ensure the must is well mixed. The instructions say to add the chips now. I am waiting until tomorrow, after I check the SG again, and before I add the starter. Must temperature is 62.5 F. |
04/10/2022 SG 1.100 |
| Checked the SG this morning — still 1.100. I assume that stirring the way I did through the 2nd half of reconstitution made a difference. The must temperature is 63.5 F.
Added the starter and the oak chips. |
04/11/2022 SG 1.100 |
| Checked the SG, about 1.050. Yesterday morning it was 1.090, so this rate of activity is right for a FWK.
Stirred Packet C into the must. |
04/13/2022 SG 1.050 |
| I checked the SG, but the wine is fizzing so much that it jumped between 0.995 and 1.010. I stirred the wine for 30 seconds with a stainless steel paddle.
I’m guessing the SG is closer to 0.995, so I sealed the fermenter and added an airlock. Then I shook the fermenter to cause it to emit CO2, and airlock is bubbling away. |
04/15/2022 SG ??? |
| Unsealed the fermenter and racked into a carboy, adding kieselsol and 1/4 tsp K-meta. Stirred for 30 seconds with a drill-mounted stirring rod. Added the chitosan and stirred for 30 seconds in the opposite direction.
Note: An hour later a firm layer of sediment had already dropped. |
04/24/2022 SG 0.996 |
| I decided to rack today — the sediment level hasn’t changed since Monday. The sediment dropped amazingly quickly after adding the K&C.
Added 1/4 tsp K-meta and 1 oz medium toast Hungarian cubes. I plan to bottle in 4 or 5 months. I got less volume than I expected. I racked from a 23 liter carboy to a 19 liter, and expected to fill most of a 4 liter jug. I filled it less than half, and transferred the wine to a 1.5 liter bottle, which needed about 2 oz of a commercial wine to fill. |
04/29/2022 SG 0.996 |
| Racked the wine, adding a heaping 1/4 tsp K-meta and 6 oz glycerin. The glycerin is more than I’d normally add, but my goal for this wine is a fruity one approachable by non-red wine drinkers, and this one hit that goal. | 10/04/2022 SG 0.994 |
Notes
| Yield | 27 bottles |
| Alcohol | 14.1% |
| At Bottling | The surprise in this one is that the SG dropped 2 point since it went into bulk aging, yet there was only a minute layer of sediment among the oak cubes, an amount I consider normal. |
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