2016 Wines - Chapter 12 - Elderberry Rosé

Final chapter for 2016. Some passion fruit which will go toward a one gallon batch when all of the 2016 passion fruits have been harvested, but it cannot be counted as a 2016 wine, as some of the fruit is left over, frozen from 2015. There are some elderberries, blackberries, and blueberries left, but I'm out of carboys and low on inspiration.

This is the third year for elderberry "seconds" wine. Last year's wine had some blackberry, and it was pretty good, earning a bronze medal at the Wine Classic. But I judged the 2014 version superior, and it was all elderberry. Therefore, I started with the idea of dialing back the blackberry this year. But because I tweaked the first runs of both wines, it wound up with even more blackberry this time than in 2015. That may be fine, as the comments from the Wine Classic indicated the elderberry dominated the 2015 version; more blackberry should be welcome.

We used seconds from the 2015 elderberry wine, which started with 15#, and half of the seconds from the 2015 EB. All told, it used seconds from 21# elderberry and 14# blackberry. Also included were 3# bananas, simmered and strained; 46oz can of Alexanders Sauv Blanc concentrate, 1735g sugar, 11.5qt water, 3g Booster Blanc, 6g Opti White, 3tsp pectic, and 0.3g Lallzyme EX.

Banana water

Initial SG was 1.086, spot on. The pH started at 4.07, down to 3.41 with 3t citric and 1t tartaric. Pitched K1-V1116 and it was off to the races.

I kept this in the basement most of the time, hoping to keep the fermentation cooler. Step fed with Fermaid K and added some bentonite on day 3. The Lallzyme is a new addition, and I think it worked, perhaps too well. I racked today to carboy at 1.015, and this wine has a ton of pulp.

Cleaning this carboy will be interesting