2012 Muscat A racked

Lori and I racked the Muscat A this morning.  Went from 5+5+5 to... 5+5+5, and here's how.

There was very little loss from the first two 5's.  Turned out to be about a quart each.  So we topped from the third 5, and left ourselves about a half gallon shy in the third.  What to top off with?  The 2012 ramato!  First we did a 9 to 1 bench blend, liked it - actually liked it better than the individual wines - and went ahead and topped off.

Why didn't we like the plain Muscat as much as we expected to?  Testing later I found that the cb we were working from was over-sulfited (50 ppm or more).  The ramato Muscat we were working from was around 20.  I need to go back through each cb and see what the deal is.

The wine is clear enough to go to bottle when we like.  But first we figure out the SO2.

2012 Merlot and Cabernet Franc racked

About time.  Racked both red wines and added Barrel Mill spirals of medium toast American oak (6 weeks until neutral).

Lost extremely little - the lees were light and thin in the Merlot, much more mucky in the Cab F. but just not a lot of it.  And a little volume was taken up by the oak.  Merlot went from 5+5+5+3+1 to 5+5+5+3.  Cab F was a little more complicated.  We only had 5+3 to start with, and that turned into 5+2.5 or a little more.  So?  Topped off with the remaining Merlot.  All is well.

Haven't added more SO2 - need to think that through and look at when it was last added.  Should probably up the level, since it will be 6 to 8 weeks before we touch it again.  (Now I see it's been 4 months since last SO2 - will definitely add today or tomorrow.)

The Cab F is candy-apple red, clear, not much nose and a little low in acid.  The Merlot is ruby red, has a real attack when you first sip it - acid is up in the white grape range, and I like it a lot.

Cab F pH was about 3.73 at the end of fermentation and it measured 3.71 today.  Need to look to see if we have a pH for the Merlot from the end of fermentation: I see one from the start, which was only 3.27.  Today it measured 3.77.

2012 Ramato Vermouth - the details

I decided to go with a variation of the Art of Drink description:

• 1.5 liters Ramato
• .5 liters brandy (I used Rodell on Ben Hagen's recommendation) 
• 3 g dried bitter orange peel
• 4 g fresh green green herbs (oregano, rosemary, time)
• 1/4 g chamomile (not that I can mesure below a single gram...)
• 2 g dried wormwood leaves
• 1 g gentian root
• 2 g vanilla bean
• 2.5 tbsp sugar

I added the herbs to 750 ml of the wine, brought it to a boil, simmered for 10 minutes, and set it aside to steep while I...

Combined the remaining 750 ml of wine with the 500 ml of brandy.

Carmalized the sugar and tried to mix it with hot liquid to keep it from solidifying and totally blew it.  Gave up and decided to go with straight sugar.

Readied two 750 ml bottles.

Strained (funnel and cheesecloth) the cooled herb-wine mixture into the wine-brandy mixture.

Added a tbsp sugar to each of the 750 ml bottles, filled them with the vermouth mixture, corked them and lay them in the cellar.  Will let it meld for a week before opening one.

I also had close to 300 ml left. to which I added a proportionate amount of sugar, jarred and put into the fridge.  I'll tast it tomorrow.

All in all, this should be more bitter and less sweet than my last walk down this lane.  No fresh citrus juice or peel, sugar scaled back to dry levels, and more bitter root.  Gonna beg for ice and a twist.

2012 Ramato, making vermouth from it

I've just tasted the 2012 Ramato - it had never been racked, only sulfited.  Pretty good, still between 20 and 25 ppm SO2, nothing obviously evil bubbling up from the lees, but not having stirred them all along I don't want to go poking in there now and release some hidden gaseous deathblob.

So I think I'll use it for a big batch of vermouth.

Last year's vermouth was based on Yvette Von Boven's recipe in Home Made.  Now I'd like to try something where I stew the herbs in wine rather than seep them in the fortification (the latter is YVB's method).

The Art Of Drink has a very nice article.  So does Last Crumb.  And Serious Eats has an article and recipe with a fraction of the ingredients.    The AOD article reminds me a bit more of amari than vermouth, but historic vermouths were more bitter than American ones.  The Last Crumb list would mean visits to one of the remaining herb shops in town rather than just raiding the pantry of Homebrew....

Possible labels

The 2010 Primitivo remains challenging (pooptivo) unless it's let breath for hours.  Thus:

While I was goofing around in that neck of the woods, there's a possible Muscat 2012 label:

But maybe much better this slight alteration of a Rother print:

2012 reds - American medium toast oak

We've gone again with spirals from Barrel Mill.  Medium toast American oak.  Purchased from Presque Isle: our local Brooklyn Homebrew doesn't keep these in stock in the quantity we needed (but will order them if wanted).

As though waking from a deep slumber...

We've set a date for this year's new wine party, and almost forgot that we've been very sorely neglecting that wine.

Settled on american oak medium toast for the 2012 reds and have ordered it from Presque Isle. The reds have been wanting a racking for a while.

Would like to bottle the 2012 Muscat at the end of the 1st or 2nd week of April so that it will have been in the bottle for a couple of months (as opposed to our couple of weeks or even sometimes a couple of days) before our party.  That means there is just about exactly enough time for us to rack and fine with Bentonite if we want to. I think I'd be OK with just racking - we're very clear now.  (Mine might be the minority opinion.)