2016 Orange Chocolate Port
September 2018 – I made an Orange Chocolate Port a few years ago. It came out really good, so I wanted to do another port-style wine. Although I wanted to do something different, American Brewmaster only had this kit.
While I was slightly disappointed, I wasn’t disappointed enough to not buy it. 🙂
Ingredients
| Kit | R J Spagnols Orange Chocolate Dessert Wine kit |
| Additives | bentonite, metabisulphite, sorbate, chitosan (included in kit) |
| Yeast | Lalvin EC-1118 yeast (included in kit) |
| Sulphite | As needed |
Method
| Emptied grape juice bag into fermenter, squeezing the bag to get out as much as possible. No water is added to this kit. Stirred for 1 minute.
Sprinkled bentonite on top, avoiding clumping. Stirred bentonite into the must. Sprinkled yeast on top, did not stir in. |
02/09/2016 SG 1.110 |
| Racked wine. Added sulphite and sorbate. Stirred for 2 minutes.
Added F Pack, stirred for 2 minutes. Added Kieselsol, stirred 1 minute. Waited 5 minutes, added chitosan, stirred gently. Racked into 3.5 gallon carboy. |
03/24/2016 SG 0.994 Final SG 1.030 |
| Racked wine. Added 1/4 tsp potassium metabisulphite. Bottled. | 07/14/2018 SG 1.030 |
Notes
| Yield | 30 split bottles |
| Alcohol | 16.3% |
| Residual Sugar | 5% |
| Winemaking Notes | I let this one set longer than I intended, but the high alcohol and sugar preserved it. |
| 08/17/2018 | 1 month post-bottling, the wine is very tasty. |
| 10/20/2018 | This is a very nice dessert wine! While it doesn’t rank with real port or similar wines, it’s a pleasing end to a meal. |
| 02/29/2020 | I haven’t recorded notes on this one in over a year. Now that I’m down to 10 bottles (splits) I figure I should make notes.
Overall this one came out good, but it was a the lees a bit too long at one point. This gives it an off flavor that distracts from the orange and chocolate notes. Still a good wine, but getting wine off the less relatively soon is a good lesson. |