6 Different Bottles of Wine from 1 Gallon of Base Wine!

[jamesbsmith]

"Making Award Winning Wines at Home" by Bill Smith is such a great wine making book.

I am currently making a gallon of the following base wine, which can then be used to make 6 different wines:

Base Wine (Chiltern Masters / Bill Smith) ~15.5%

1.5L White Grape Juice or 368ml White Grape Concentrate
1L Apple Juice
57ml Glycerol
907g Rhubarb
227g Clover Honey
113g Fresh (or 1 tin of) Strawberries
820g Sugar
154ml White Grape Concentrate (for sweetening)
54g Raspberries (for sweetening)
136g sugar (for sweetening)
Gervin no.6

(Note - Be careful not to add too much water at any stage, otherwise you will end up with over a gallon!)

Ferment the sugar, apple juice, rhubarb juice and grape juice for three weeks in bucket. Pasteurise the honey (and remove any foam), and add with the strawberries and glycerol to the bucket. Leave for two hours, then strain into demijohn.
Ferment to dryness, add one crushed campden and a teaspoon of potassium sorbate

Make up the following and balance with base wine, acid & water (800ml of each to allow tasting)

Sauternes Style (1 Bottle) ~15%
770ml Base Wine
31ml Grape Concentrate
44g sugar

Sweet Table (1 Bottle) ~14%
750ml Base Wine
50ml Grape Concentrate
33g Sugar

Sweet Fruit (1 Bottle) ~14%
727ml Base Wine
73ml Grape Concentrate
22g Sugar

Medium White (1 Bottle) ~11.5%
595ml Base Wine
108ml Grape Juice
97ml Water
21g Sugar

Medium Rose (1 Bottle) ~11.5%
595ml Base Wine
54g Raspberries
149ml Water
16g Sugar

Dry White (~2 Bottles) ~12.4%
Take remaining base wine and dilute at the following ratio:
4 Base Wine : 1 Water

Buy the book here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1854862685/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Well worth the money, this is the best wine making book I own!

In addition to this, I was wondering whether it was possible to do the same with a red wine. As the alcohol and acid contents in the base wine are 1.44% more in the base wine, then they are in the dry wine, I was thinking of taking a couple of dry red recipes I have created and multiply the ingredients by 1.44X, and then dilute down with water / add grape juice & sugar to make various sweet to dry wines. My reservation here is whether a sweet red should have more dried fruit in its ingredients?

Elderberry Wine (Dry Red) ~13%
750ml Purple Grape Juice (Tesco) or 1Kg Purple Grapes
950g Sugar
GV2 Yeast
1.5 Teaspoons Pectic Enzyme
Ferment until expulsion of CO2 is slowing (e.g. 2 weeks)
1200g Elderberries (Maybe substitute 200g with 43g sloes)
650g Blackberries (Can substitute any 200g blackberries with 200g raspberries / cherries / plums / strawberries / 175g elderberries / 110g blackcurrants / 35g rosehips / 142g dates)

Extract juice from berry mix in steamer (or pasteurize) and add to demijohn (Can always bottle and add 1 campden per gallon and store in bottle until required).

Sweet version of this (~18.8%), multiply the above by 1.4444 and maybe use 250g raisins instead of 1L grape juice. Can create dry wine from it by adding 300ml water to 700ml wine. Use GV4 wine yeast (goes up to 21% and is a dessert style).

Blackberry Wine (Dry Red) ~13%
750ml Purple Grape Juice (Tesco) or 1Kg Purple Grapes
970g Sugar
GV2 Yeast
Ferment until expulsion of CO2 is slowing (e.g. 2 weeks)
1330g Blackberries (Can substitute any 200g blackberries with 200g raspberries / cherries / plums / strawberries / 175g elderberries / 110g blackcurrants / 35g rosehips / 142g dates)
585g Elderberries

Extract juice from berry mix in steamer (or pasteurize) and add to demijohn (Can always bottle and add 1 campden per gallon and store in bottle until required).

Sweet version of this (~18.8%), multiply the above by 1.4444 and maybe use 250g raisins instead of 1L grape juice. Can create dry wine from it by adding 300ml water to 700ml wine. Use GV4 wine yeast (goes up to 21% and is a dessert style).

Thoughts?!

 

[jamesbsmith]

To recap, the book gives the recipe for a base wine, which can then be diluted with varying degrees of grape concentrate, sugar, water and raspberries to make 6 different style wines.

I made up all 6 wines, for which the three sweet wines came out oustandingly!

Unfortunately the medium white, medium rose and dry white did not come out well at all. In fact I poured them down the sink! What I think the issue was, was that I added the glycerol during fermentation (as stated in the recipe). Quite a lot of glycerol goes in, which does smooth the wine, but also sweetens it incredibly. This means that when the base wine is diluted with water to make the medium and dry wines, it remains too sweet to really make a satisfactory wine of those styles. I think that if the glycerol was added to just the three sweet wines and not to the dry and medium wines, they may have all come out OK.

Although each of the three sweet wines came out very well indeed, the only difference in making each of them from the base wine, was that varying degrees of sugar and grape concentrate ratios are added until an SG of 1.030 is achieved. I therefore dont really see the wine being versatile in being able to make six different wines at all, rather an excellent recipe for making ONE sweet wine, with the wine makers preferred ratio of sugar and grape concentrate being added until an SG of 1.030 is achieved (i.e. typical of all sweet wines).

Maybe if the glycerol was not added, the medium and dry wines might have come out well. I will definately make this wine again, but with the view of making just the one style of wine in the future. For dry and medium wines, I would follow relevant recipes for those wines.

To simplify things, I am therefore going to give the single recipe for the sweet wine, to make a UK and a US gallon.

UK Gallon:
Sauternes (Chiltern Masters / Bill Smith) ~15%
Acidity 0.83%
Tannin 0.04%
1.5L White Grape Juice (or 368ml White Grape Concentrate)
1L Apple Juice
907g Rhubarb (Extract Juice)
227g Clear Honey
820g Sugar
113g Strawberries (or 1 tin strawberries and syrup)
57ml Glycerol
White Grape Concentrate (For Sweetening)
Sugar (for sweetening)
Gervin no.6 or another sweet wine yeast, nutrient and pectic enzyme

Ferment the sugar, apple juice, rhubarb juice and grape juice for three weeks in bucket,
Add the honey and add with, the mashed strawberries and glycerol,
leave for two hours and strain,
Ferment to dryness, add one crushed campden and half teaspoon of potassium sorbate,

Add sugar / grape concentrate / grape juice to SG 1.030.

US Gallon:
Sauternes (Chiltern Masters / Bill Smith) ~15%
Acidity 0.83%
Tannin 0.04%
1.25L White Grape Juice (or 305ml White Grape Concentrate)
830mL Apple Juice
750g Rhubarb (Extract Juice)
188g Clear Honey
680g Sugar
94g Strawberries (or 1 tin strawberries and syrup)
47ml Glycerol
White Grape Concentrate (For Sweetening)
Sugar (for sweetening)
Gervin no.6 or another sweet wine yeast, nutrient and pectic enzyme

Ferment the sugar, apple juice, rhubarb juice and grape juice for three weeks in bucket,
Add the honey and add with, the mashed strawberries and glycerol,
leave for two hours and strain,
Ferment to dryness, add one crushed campden and half teaspoon of potassium sorbate,

Add sugar / grape concentrate / grape juice to SG 1.030.

The book does contain some other good recipes and processes, and I would still recommend it!