Hey newsgroup! It has been a long time since I have been on here. I have a
couple of questions... - please keep in mind that I am still a new
winemaker.

1.) I am driving up to Indy to buy some Vidal Blanc juice on Saturday
that was pressed today. If I want to make a 6 gallon batch of wine from
this, how much juice do I need? Previous recipes for other wines that I
have made always called for adding a significant amount of water. A good
recipe for Vidal Blanc would be nice as well if anyone has any suggestions.

2.) This one may be a bit more difficult to answer. My previous
winemaking experience has come from 2 wine kits, and making several fruit
wines. I have made Peach, Blueberry, and Strawberry for 2 years in a row.
I recently went to pick some Niagara grapes from a relatives property. I am
not sure how to grade quality of grape. All I know about these grapes are
that the vines have been producing since pre-1940.

I picked about 15-20 lbs. of grapes. This gave me enough juice to make one
gallon of wine according to the Jack Keller website recipe for Niagara.
Here is what I did. My wife and I, upon getting home the same evening after
picking the grapes, de-stemmed the grapes. We then put them into a primary
fermenter and added some tannin (1/4 tsp.) because we wanted this wine to
last slightly longer than one year. Additionally, we added yeast nutrient.
The following night, we strained the juice away from the grapes. We added a
campden tablet as well. We did a basic titration and discovered that our
tartaric acid content was too high, so we adjusted by adding water (did not
have any potassium carbonate). The next morning, we looked at the mixture,
and it appeared as if some natural fermentation was occurring. We pitched
the yeast that morning. Now, 2 days later, it appears as if no fermentation
is occurring, and there is a white film on top of the mixture. Can anyone
advise me as to what is happening with this juice? I imagine that there is
probably no way at this point to salvage the mixture, but I am curious to
know what happened.

John,
I don't know what the film is, but just skim it off if you don't smell
vinegar and splash the must, that may get it going. I normally don't
add water to Niagara but if the sugar was high too you should be OK.
It's not unusual for a wine yeast do do whatever it feels like, i have
seen them go immediately and seen them take a day and a half. No
experience with making Vidal, sorry.

Joe


John Fouts wrote:
> Hey newsgroup! It has been a long time since I have been on here. I have a
> couple of questions... - please keep in mind that I am still a new
> winemaker.
>
> 1.) I am driving up to Indy to buy some Vidal Blanc juice on Saturday
> that was pressed today. If I want to make a 6 gallon batch of wine from
> this, how much juice do I need? Previous recipes for other wines that I
> have made always called for adding a significant amount of water. A good
> recipe for Vidal Blanc would be nice as well if anyone has any suggestions.
>
> 2.) This one may be a bit more difficult to answer. My previous
> winemaking experience has come from 2 wine kits, and making several fruit
> wines. I have made Peach, Blueberry, and Strawberry for 2 years in a row.
> I recently went to pick some Niagara grapes from a relatives property. I am
> not sure how to grade quality of grape. All I know about these grapes are
> that the vines have been producing since pre-1940.
>
> I picked about 15-20 lbs. of grapes. This gave me enough juice to make one
> gallon of wine according to the Jack Keller website recipe for Niagara.
> Here is what I did. My wife and I, upon getting home the same evening after
> picking the grapes, de-stemmed the grapes. We then put them into a primary
> fermenter and added some tannin (1/4 tsp.) because we wanted this wine to
> last slightly longer than one year. Additionally, we added yeast nutrient.
> The following night, we strained the juice away from the grapes. We added a
> campden tablet as well. We did a basic titration and discovered that our
> tartaric acid content was too high, so we adjusted by adding water (did not
> have any potassium carbonate). The next morning, we looked at the mixture,
> and it appeared as if some natural fermentation was occurring. We pitched
> the yeast that morning. Now, 2 days later, it appears as if no fermentation
> is occurring, and there is a white film on top of the mixture. Can anyone
> advise me as to what is happening with this juice? I imagine that there is
> probably no way at this point to salvage the mixture, but I am curious to
> know what happened.