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Baco Noir - First Time

Hi Folks,

I've been making wine for a couple of years now from kits and also trying my own from different varieties of fruit.

This year, I decided to order some fresh juice from a winery in the Niagara Region and today, picked up to 20 KG pails of Baco Noir.

Now this is a little different than what I have been doing before! The pails are about 5 gallons each - but wow.. I didn't realize that there would be so much grape content. I don't think my actual yield will be as much as I had thought.

But I'm looking forward to having a go anyhow :)

But.. I'm a bit confused - and am looking for some experienced advice. When I got home, I strained off some juice to measure the specific gravity and was quite surprised it was only 1.014.

Surprised because I have been lead to believe that this year's crop, although very poor in quantity, should be high in quality, including sugar content. Is 1.014 "high" for Baco Noir? Does one normally have to add sugar?

Or is there something else possibly wrong?

Anyhow, I've added five campden tablets to the pail, to kill off any wild yeast, and am planning on letting this sit for 12 to 24 hours before adding yeast.

But it seems to me that I'm also going to have to add sugar. But I have NO idea what sort of volume of juice to expect from 20 KG (about 40 pounds) of baco noir must with all the grape skins and mash in there.

My confusion I guess lays in the fact that I had thought I wouldn't need to add any sugar - that in fact, this year's crop was supposedly higher than normal in sugar content.. but 1.014 seems low to me!

Any suggestions or ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated!

I'm having a wonderful time with this hobby - mostly from kits in the past, and my own experiments with blueberries, raspberries and currants. But I'm not sure where to go with the Baco Noir must I purchased.

Thanks,

Ian

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Reply to
Ian Scott
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Grapes are usually sold in boxes. You mentioned pails. Was this by chance juice you bought rather than whole grapes?

If it was whole grapes, I agree with Tom. The hydrometer reading makes no sense. Wine grapes are just not that low.

If it was juice then I would say it is already fermenting with wild yeast and most of the ferment is over. If it is this par along the yeast you add may make no difference as the wild yeast has already taken over. Not NECESSARILY bad. It may turn out quite good.

Let us know

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

It's red juice - by grape content I meant grape skins, etc.

Ok... should I add yeast anyhow? I'm not really sure what to do at this point. Let it continue for a few more days while punching down the cap?

Advice would be appreciated!

I sure will.

Reply to
Ian Scott

Ian - You can count on your juice or wine being 2/3 of the total volume of juice, skins and seeds. I know Baco quite well and it's a high sugar, high acid grape in the Kansas City area. Looks like the vineyard sold you must that was already fermenting when you picked it up. I would be quite unhappy with them.\

Don't bother adding yeast now...it's about done with the rapid fermentation. Some winemakers in my area don't add wine yeast and count on the natural/wild yeast. Hopefully the Niagara region has a good quality natural yeast living in their vineyards. Here in Kansas you can't count on wild yeast being the best for winemaking.

Be sure to give your wine a good cold conditioning to precipitate a lot of acid. If the new wine tests high for acid and tastes very tart you might consider malo-lactic fermentation to soften the wine. Watch out for pH though...if it gets much above 3.5 the wine takes on a brown tint.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

Reply to
William Frazier

Just spoke with the vineyard folks, and they have admitted that I was not called in time to pick this up so they will be refunding me.

Still a disappointment nonetheless..... but I thought I may as well experiment.

A couple of people have suggested that I see what I get with the wild yeast fermentation that has occurred.

I have two pails - so I'm thinking about letting one pail carry on as it is, but the second pail, refermenting it by putting it through another fermentation with sugar and my wine yeast.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

Ian Scott

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Reply to
Ian Scott

Sounds like a good approach to me. Do you have some "Ballpark" Brox pr SG figures to calculate how much sugar to add. If you do, you may wish to consider adding this sugar amount to your "natural" fermentation also.

Reply to
Paul E. Lehmann

Ian - Don't add the extra sugar. You will end up with more fermentable sugar than any yeast can handle...the yeast will quit working...and you will be left with a very sweet, alcoholic liquid. It's too late for your wine yeast to have any impact on the flavor of your wine. Just go ahead with both pails as is. I would mix them together so you have one large batch of wine to work with. Then you can decide if the wine is to your liking or not.

Now, Baco juice in your part of the world may have lower acid levels than my Kansas Baco. But, in case Baco is Baco no matter where it's grown you will have a high acid wine. Do you have acid testing equipment? Do you depend on color change or do you have a pH meter to determine end point for acid titrations? I ask because you can do some interesting experiments with your wine that may help you in the future. Acid tests are better done using a pH meter to determine end points.

After the wine is finished fermenting test for acid and also taste test to see how you like it. If it's too acid or tart consider ways to reduce acid...read up on it. Then use some of your wine for these experiments and bottle the rest. You can consider malo-lactic fermentation to change malic into lactic acid (Baco has lots of malic acid). You can do a hard cold conditioning...you should do this any way. You could freeze a portion of the wine...this will drop out the most acid...and then blend the deacidified wine back with the bulk. You could neutralize a portion of the wine with potassium bicarbonate or do a double salt deacidification. Be aware that if you do either of these techniques to lower acid the taste will be adversely affected for several months.

Good luck with your wine. Let me know how it turns out. Some locals make Baco wine using the natural yeast that comes on the grapes. Some say it's pretty good wine.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

----- Original Message ----- From: "Ian Scott"

Reply to
William Frazier

Just wanted to second the motion to NOT add more sugar...

In a low-yield, ripe year (Ontario had one of the hottest, driest summers on record) adding sugar will only make your wine terribly unbalanced.

Baco is naturally high in sugar, acid, and tannins which allow the finished wine to be balanced. You don't really want to mess with it, especially since you have no idea where the alcohol content is right now...

Reply to
CJ

Thanks to both Bill and CJ for the advice.... but...

Heh - I really wasn't sure what to do, and so I ended up doing what I had thought of doing. Oh well.. call it "Wine Hacking." :) I'll learn something. And as you both say, the one will turn out to be a sweet alcoholic liquid - well, I know a few 20 something year olds that will drink it anyhow :)

All part of the learning, I guess :)

Reply to
Ian Scott

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