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Big Barolo Wine Kick-Off!

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indaswamp

indaswamp

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Apr 27, 2017
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South Louisiana-Yes, it is HOT
Got the kit in last week. Kicked off the wine today. This is a new kit by R.J. Spagnols; only been out since late 2021.
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And it includes genuwine grape skins...
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A good Borolo wine starts at $60 and goes up from there. Can age in the bottle 25-30 years. This is a great kit for more bang for your buck! I did all the cleaning of equipment and the 6gal. fermenter bucket; as well as all the heavy lifting. My Uncle gave me directions.
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8L of nebbiolo grape juice concentrate in the primary fermenter!
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Yeast on top... will close up and let sit for 48hours then stir in...should start seeing bubbles in the bubbler soon!!!

Once bottled, I will let it age min, 4 years before sampling a bottle....8 would be better though.
 
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Looking good. I have made several cru international kits and enjoyed every one. Unfortunately I do not have your willpower to wait years. If I can hold out for 6 months I'm doing good lol! Having several hundred bottles on my shelves doesn't seem to help much. But I enjoy it all the same. Good luck in your project.
 
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Started bubbling yesterday so we are making alcohol. We are on our way! The fermentation temperature was a little too high so my Uncle is leaving the door to the laundry room open to allow it to cool down. Should be good now.
 
Inda, your skills never cease to amaze me but I'll add my 2 cents anyway....cleanliness is next to godliness in making wine. Every container, utensil, etc needs to be biologically/surgically clean. It's a totally different world than BBQ where heat is our Guardian Angel, killing off enemies we have no idea exist.

Your uncle probably knows all this if he consistently makes good stuff.
 
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Yep. I spent 1.5 hours cleaning stuff prepping before we opened the juice....even boiled the spigot to make damn sure it was clean.
 
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Well, after a long extended maceration on the skins post fermentation to extract the flavors, tannins and color from the skins; it is time to do the first racking. Look at the dark color on that wine!
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I had read that nebbiolo grapes make a dark wine after a long maceration, but WOW!

Racking into carboy...
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More french oak added, racking complete. ready for colder temps. while on oak....
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Packed up in the truck to transfer from my Uncle's house to my house.
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Carboy in my old drying chamber at 58-62*F. Will let age on oak for 60 days. This will soften the strong tannins in the nebbiolo wine...
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Then we bottle mid-September.
 
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bill1 said:
Inda, your skills never cease to amaze me but I'll add my 2 cents anyway....cleanliness is next to godliness in making wine. Every container, utensil, etc needs to be biologically/surgically clean. It's a totally different world than BBQ where heat is our Guardian Angel, killing off enemies we have no idea exist.

Your uncle probably knows all this if he consistently makes good stuff.
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Bill, making salami has prepped me well for making wine. I am boarder-line OCD with cleaning everything when making salami as it is the first and most important hurdle we have to make a safe product.
 
Sounds like it is going to be a winner! I really need to get some more Blueberry going. Blew me away how good it turned out. Was good at one year but really good after 2.
 
indaswamp said:
Pulled a small sample with the wine thief....Oh Wow! This one is exceptional! We bottle Saturday; I can't wait to sample once it has aged! I am truly stunned at how good this wine is right now, and it has not peaked yet!
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Happy for ya! I am no wine guy but been brewing a long time and of the opinion the young product should taste good but sure, age does improve it. Monitoring pH is a GREAT idea. Insanely critical for beer. Confused on the chiller, did you need to boil or heat? If you needed to add water, I would check the pH at that time. I think you are lucky where you live and water is good as is, but up here we're on limestone and throws pH WAY out of range. Once you get a feel for it, you don't have to measure all the time.
 
zwiller said:
Happy for ya! I am no wine guy but been brewing a long time and of the opinion the young product should taste good but sure, age does improve it. Monitoring pH is a GREAT idea. Insanely critical for beer. Confused on the chiller, did you need to boil or heat? If you needed to add water, I would check the pH at that time. I think you are lucky where you live and water is good as is, but up here we're on limestone and throws pH WAY out of range. Once you get a feel for it, you don't have to measure all the time.
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I was going to use it as a chiller. With it being so brutally hot here where I live- especially so this year with a heat wave. But that proved unnecessary as I was able to utilize my old dry curing chamber to keep the wine 59-66*F.
We actually use distilled water here because the chloramine is so hard to remove.
 
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BrianGSDTexoma said:
Sounds like it is going to be a winner! I really need to get some more Blueberry going. Blew me away how good it turned out. Was good at one year but really good after 2.
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I'm not in to sweet wines , but a lot of people are. fall an winter are the best times to make wine IMO...good luck with your project.
 
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