1999 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2nd Run
October 1999 – When I decided to make a white cabernet I just could not throw the pulp out! I figured I’d make a stab at doing a second run off the pulp. In the past I’ve done this with the residue of a “normal” red wine; given that this pulp hasn’t been fermented yet I figured it might work out.
Ingredients
| Fruit | pulp from pressing the juice from 102# of Cabernet Sauvignon from White Cabernet |
| Water | 3.5 gallons |
| Sugar | 8 lbs |
| Sulfite | 1/2 tsp |
| Yeast Nutrient | 5 tsp |
| Yeast Energizer | 3 energizer tablets |
| Pectic Enzyme | 3 tsp |
| Yeast | Red Star Pasteur Red |
Method
| I’ve never done a second run wine from pulp that hadn’t already been through fermentation. So I’m going to vary from the normal recipe. Typically I add 1 gallon of water for every 2 gallons of wine I get from the first batch. Then for each gallon of water I add 2-1/2 lbs sugar, 1/4 tsp grape tannin, and 1/2 tsp acid blend.
Since the pulp hasn’t been fermented yet I’m assuming all the tannins are there, and probably a good amount of acid and sugar, so I added 8 lbs of sugar for 3-1/2 gallons water. I also screwed up as I didn’t take an initial SG reading, so I have no idea what it was. Guess I’ll have to guess, and adjust the sugar accordingly. Note: I reverse engineered the sugar addition, based upon the juice having SG 1.072 and the batch producing 6 gallons of finished wine. |
10/03/1999 SG 1.071 |
| Fermentation is quite vigorous. I pressed the pulp out and got a full 8 gallons of wine! This was a huge surprise. I was expecting something more like 4 to 4-1/2 gallons. I think the difference is due to the fact that the pulp was unfermented. As I recall, getting the juice out is tougher as the unfermented pulp is tougher and requires more pressure. My press is not what anyone would call robust, so I suspect I just couldn’t get out as much juice as a better press would have.
Since I need to guess what the original SG was, I think I need to figure what SG 8 lbs of sugar in 3-1/2 gallons water comes to, and average it with 4-1/2 gallons of juice (from the pulp) at 17-1/2 brix. Then, if necessary I’ll adjust the sugar up to 22 or 23 brix equivalent. |
10/05/1999 SG 1.035 |
| I figured out that to get an effective 22 brix, I need to add 3 lbs of sugar to this batch. I was short on time this morning, so I quickly added 1 lb to get the fermentation going again. | 10/11/1999 SG ??? |
| Added another 2 lbs of sugar to kick the effective brix up to where I want it.
I must have been keeping track at the time to be confident of the final alcohol, but have no memory of checking SG – it’s possible I did but didn’t record it in the notebook. Note: I reverse-engineered the sugar additions — if all had been added up front, the OG should have been 1.091. |
10/15/1999 SG ??? |
| Fermentation is complete, so I racked it into a 5 and a 3-1/2 gallons carboys. Added 3 tsp bentonite to help in clearing. | 10/20/1999 SG 0.994 |
| Heavy sediment had dropped by Friday and the wine was relatively clear. So I racked the wine again, putting it into a 5 gallon carboy plus two 1 gallon jugs. Tastes pretty good. Although the color in the carboy looks dark, the wine is coming out more of a dark rose. Of course, I only fermented it on the skins for two days, so that’s more or less what I expected. | 10/24/1999 SG 0.994 |
| Finally got around to racking, which is seriously overdue. Like the first run, this one had a LOT of sediment. But the wine cleared nicely. I’ll probably bottle it in a few months. | 12/11/1999 SG 0.994 |
| Bottled both this one and the first run. This one is much nicer than the first run, which is slightly astringent. Very pleased with it. | 05/13/2000 SG 0.994 |
Notes
| Yield | 32 bottles |
| ABV | 12.7% |
| Afterthoughts | As with the White Cabernet, I have no excuse for not recording SG. |
| 08/14/2000 | No sediment is dropping, which is good. This is a pretty good wine, especially considering the poor quality of the grapes AND that it’s a second run! |
| 06/10/2001 | My last case was destroyed by oxidation. It came on fairly fast — had to pour it all down the drain. Not sure what happened, but the white cabernet died at the same time. I suspect the overall very low quality of the grapes was directly responsible. |
| 07/15/2021 | As with other records from this era, I’m reverse-engineering missing values and fixing records. This is not 100% accurate, but is sufficient for my interests. |