Showing posts with label passion fruit wine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label passion fruit wine. Show all posts
Saturday, April 11, 2020
2020 Wines - Chapter 2 - Passion Fruit
This is potentially a beautiful wine, one which did not deserve my shabby record-keeping. I was more focused on the jaboticaba wine I had going at the same time, and now I can't find any of my notes. I know that I didn't use any secondary fruit, adjusted the pH up a bit with calcium carbonate, and fermented cool and slow. It looks great - it always starts the color of store-bought orange juice, then lightens up. Thankfully it didn't lose the aroma of passion fruit through the fermentation.
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Better Today than Yesterday, Better Tomorrow than Today
This week the results came in for the Kansas City Cellarmasters Wine 2018 Classic. I entered 9 wines this year - only $10 entry fee, and I really wanted some feedback on all of of my 2016 wines. Also, some folks say these wine competitions are a bit random, so more entries gives a better shot at a medal.
In the past I've medaled at about a 50% rate. I guess I'm getting better, because this year I medaled with 7 of the 9 entries. I won second in class in two categories, worth $40 in gift certificates at St. Louis Wine and Beermaking. Hopefully I can put that toward grapes! In no particular order...
Syrah/Elderberry blend, a 50/50 blend, not surprisingly scored just out of medal range at 12.67. Judges felt that the elderberry overpowers this wine and I completely agree. You have to close your eyes and pretend you are drinking a fruity elderberry.
Syrah/elder/blackberry, 70/15/15 blend, scored better at 13.83 for a bronze. Still probably too much elderberry, and some judges felt it could use some sugar. This need for more residual sugar shows up a lot in my feedback, and I'm beginning to think this is just a personal preference we have for drier wines. These dry wines suffer in competition due to the Pepsi Paradox. I've put at least one bottle away for long term aging, I think this wine will age well.
The 2016 passion fruit wine was interesting because we opened a bottle at Christmas (fulfilling a vow to open one bottle of each wine just before the submission date, just for quality control purposes). I thought it was excellent. Beth and Lisa noted an off odor of funk or onions which, try as I might, I couldn't pick up. Well the judges missed it too, and this wine came in at 15.33, my highest score, worth a silver medal.
Blueberry rosé scored just in medal range at 13.00, but that score was worth second in the category, so was enough for one of the $20 gift certificates. I'm not particularly proud of this wine - I bottled it early, but missed on the acid. So I dumped it back into the carboy, treated it with KHCO3, then rebottled. It was better, but I thought the KHCO3 left it a little out of balance. The judges thought it was still too acidic with too little blueberry. Fair enough. I recognized the mistakes I made and adjusted with the 2017 version of this wine.
The wine with perhaps the greatest discrepancy between comments and score was the 2016 elderberry. I got three judging sheets back, and the final comments from each were, "Nice balanced fruity wine," "Nice overall wine for its age," and "Very nice wine." So I would have expected a little better than 13.67, bronze medal range. Elderberry tends to age well. I am going to start holding some of these wines for year or two before sending them in.
Chambourcin scored 14.3, worth a bronze. There weren't too many negative comments here either, with one judge noting this wine should age well. I agree. Thank you, Bill Books, for these grapes.
I think the judges at this competition just don't like dry blackberry wine. Seems there is an expectation that blackberry will always be sweet. I went to great lengths to assure that my 2016 blackberry did not suffer from the fatal flaws of the 2015 blackberry. I still only managed a score of 11.67. Comments included "too tart" and "needs some sugar." One judge noted "little blackberry aroma." There is literally nothing but blackberry in this wine. Short of spiking it with flavoring or blackberry brandy, there is no way to cram in more blackberry. Next year I may pull off a 1/2 gallon and sweeten it to 2% RS, just for this competition.
In contrast, everyone lines up behind the 2016 blueberry. This wine scored a silver medal with 15.17. We did bench trials for back-sweetening and wound up using 40g/gal. Comments included another "too tart" along with "needs more blueberry." I made some tweaks to my blueberry this year that might help in this regard.
Finally, the 2016 pinot grigio. This was a California juice bucket. This wine scored 15.17 as well, worth a silver medal and second in the white vinifera category. I've detected intermittently a very slight off odor - one of the four judges picked this up as well. They all liked it well enough however.
In the past I've medaled at about a 50% rate. I guess I'm getting better, because this year I medaled with 7 of the 9 entries. I won second in class in two categories, worth $40 in gift certificates at St. Louis Wine and Beermaking. Hopefully I can put that toward grapes! In no particular order...
Syrah/Elderberry blend, a 50/50 blend, not surprisingly scored just out of medal range at 12.67. Judges felt that the elderberry overpowers this wine and I completely agree. You have to close your eyes and pretend you are drinking a fruity elderberry.
Syrah/elder/blackberry, 70/15/15 blend, scored better at 13.83 for a bronze. Still probably too much elderberry, and some judges felt it could use some sugar. This need for more residual sugar shows up a lot in my feedback, and I'm beginning to think this is just a personal preference we have for drier wines. These dry wines suffer in competition due to the Pepsi Paradox. I've put at least one bottle away for long term aging, I think this wine will age well.
The 2016 passion fruit wine was interesting because we opened a bottle at Christmas (fulfilling a vow to open one bottle of each wine just before the submission date, just for quality control purposes). I thought it was excellent. Beth and Lisa noted an off odor of funk or onions which, try as I might, I couldn't pick up. Well the judges missed it too, and this wine came in at 15.33, my highest score, worth a silver medal.
Blueberry rosé scored just in medal range at 13.00, but that score was worth second in the category, so was enough for one of the $20 gift certificates. I'm not particularly proud of this wine - I bottled it early, but missed on the acid. So I dumped it back into the carboy, treated it with KHCO3, then rebottled. It was better, but I thought the KHCO3 left it a little out of balance. The judges thought it was still too acidic with too little blueberry. Fair enough. I recognized the mistakes I made and adjusted with the 2017 version of this wine.
The wine with perhaps the greatest discrepancy between comments and score was the 2016 elderberry. I got three judging sheets back, and the final comments from each were, "Nice balanced fruity wine," "Nice overall wine for its age," and "Very nice wine." So I would have expected a little better than 13.67, bronze medal range. Elderberry tends to age well. I am going to start holding some of these wines for year or two before sending them in.
Chambourcin scored 14.3, worth a bronze. There weren't too many negative comments here either, with one judge noting this wine should age well. I agree. Thank you, Bill Books, for these grapes.
I think the judges at this competition just don't like dry blackberry wine. Seems there is an expectation that blackberry will always be sweet. I went to great lengths to assure that my 2016 blackberry did not suffer from the fatal flaws of the 2015 blackberry. I still only managed a score of 11.67. Comments included "too tart" and "needs some sugar." One judge noted "little blackberry aroma." There is literally nothing but blackberry in this wine. Short of spiking it with flavoring or blackberry brandy, there is no way to cram in more blackberry. Next year I may pull off a 1/2 gallon and sweeten it to 2% RS, just for this competition.
In contrast, everyone lines up behind the 2016 blueberry. This wine scored a silver medal with 15.17. We did bench trials for back-sweetening and wound up using 40g/gal. Comments included another "too tart" along with "needs more blueberry." I made some tweaks to my blueberry this year that might help in this regard.
Finally, the 2016 pinot grigio. This was a California juice bucket. This wine scored 15.17 as well, worth a silver medal and second in the white vinifera category. I've detected intermittently a very slight off odor - one of the four judges picked this up as well. They all liked it well enough however.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Fall Has Arrived
Fall blew in suddenly last night. Fortunately yesterday we got most of the plants in the greenhouse. Still harvesting purple guava, passionfruit, sugar apple, acerola, and cherimoya.
The juice and grapes from California arrived. I picked them up Friday in St. Louis. It was fun to run into Jerry, who I have corresponded with now for a couple of years but had never met. Also great to meet Stephen, head of a St. Louis-area winemaking club, who provided some helpful advice on sulfites. The Sauv Blanc and Zinfandel are underway, full posts to follow.
I bottled some wine. Blueberry is smooth and delicious.
Passionfruit is Sauv Blanc-level sharp but polished and beautiful; it fills the room with passion fruit aromas. Maybe it could have used a little more sugar.
The QA 23 left our Vignoles with plenty of tropical aromas as well. I got this guy off the fine lees, now we just need to wait for it to clear.
We have just a bit more yard work to do to be ready for vacation. I fear we will return to winter.
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| Sega Palms did not make the greenhouse cut this year |
I bottled some wine. Blueberry is smooth and delicious.
Passionfruit is Sauv Blanc-level sharp but polished and beautiful; it fills the room with passion fruit aromas. Maybe it could have used a little more sugar.
The QA 23 left our Vignoles with plenty of tropical aromas as well. I got this guy off the fine lees, now we just need to wait for it to clear.
We have just a bit more yard work to do to be ready for vacation. I fear we will return to winter.
Sunday, April 30, 2017
2016 Wines - Chapter 13 - Passion fruit
Finally the last passion fruit dropped so we can move forward with passion fruit wine.
- 5# 1oz passionfruit pulp, frozen, thawed, bagged
- 1 can white grape concentrate
- 456g sugar
- Kmeta at thaw
- 1/4t Fermaid K, divided
- 0.5t GoFerm at hydration
- Tannin 1/4t
- Pectic enzyme 1t
- Water to 1 gal
- Calcium carbonate 3.5t
- Opti Red/Opti White 1g
- Booster Blanc/Rouge 1g
- Lallzyme EX 0.1g
- Bentonite 2g on day 3
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| I held back a few ounces for a secondary infusion if needed |
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| Just the pulp, bagged up |
The sugar brought the SG from 1.042 to 1.085. The calcium carbonate brought the pH from 2.68 to 3.04. Lallzyme went in with the pectic, 12 hours after the Kmeta, and 12 hours prior to pitching QA 23.
We fermented it in a water bath chilled with ice packs. The temperature wasn't quite as steady as I would have liked but generally it was no higher than 16C. The last time we made passion fruit wine it ripped through in 3 days - like carambola, it is a very rapid fermenter. This time we stretched to 7 days, and by day 7 at 1.008 we racked to secondary.
We hope to preserve that wonderful passion fruit aroma this time.
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