2018 Wines - Chapter 2 - Row Seven

We picked all of the grapes on the same day, in part because we wanted Jake to be able to help. Having read stories of difficulty making good red wine from Frontenac we elected to make rosé. We didn't have much Foch, and one of the vines billed as Frontenac is clearly not. So we lumped everything together from the seventh row and made rosé.

We adjusted the TA down from 1.08% to around 0.80% with calcium carbonate. The pH came up more than expected from 3.16 to 3.59. The wine may require some acid additions later. We also added KMS, 4g Booster Blanc, 6g Opti White. The starting Brix was 25, SG 1.102. We fermented it in our temperature control system set at 55F and the temp stayed in the 57-58F range throughout. I step fed with Fermaid K and added bentonite once the fermentation got going. That temperature didn't slow the QA23 and it powered through to 1.004 in a week.

After another week it was down to 0.994 and we topped with 1 bottle of cheap dry Missouri rosé from Stone Hill to make it an even 3 gallons.