Port Wine Balance
 

Made some Plum Port last season, and am getting ready to bottle.

A book I have, Amerind and Singleton "Wine an introduction for
Americans" says the usual balance of alcohol to sugar is 20 x 7.
That is 20% abv and ~ 7deg Brix by hydrometer reading. It alos goes
on to say the range of sweetness is 6 to 8 degrees with port wines
usually on the low side of that.

Does that make sense to port wine makers out there?

Also I can fine little about acids. Since port is made it hot
regions, is sweet with high alcoho,l is acid much of an issue? Just
enough so it's not flabby?

Since this is my first port I'm inclined to 'paint by numbers' as I
read in the archives that the perception of sweetness will change with
age, and I have no experience with that yet.

Any pointers, tips, discussion is appreciated.

Port Wine Balance
 

The 20% abv is right. On the sweetness, it's hard to tell. It sounds
a bit high to me, but I don't make a lot of sweet wines. I'd be
inclined to start a good deal lower than that, and sweeten to taste.
You'll want to do some "bench trials" -- add measured amounts of sugar
to a couple ounces of wine at a time, and see what sugar level works
best. If you are testing with table sugar, I believe you can expect
some increase in perceived sweetness, as it breaks down into simple
sugars. If that concerns you, you can sweeten using simple sugars
instead, or follow the procedures available from various sources to
"invert" the table sugar into simple sugars.

In terms of acids, I believe you'll want to be in the "normal" range
for acids in table wines, but probably towards the high end. The
sugar in port tends to balance the acidity, so you can probably go
higher in acid than for other types of wines, without the final
product tasting unbalanced. Normal for a red table wine would be
something in the range of 7 g/L or so. If the wine tastes "flabby" to
you at that level, after adding the alcohol and sweetening, you might
want to do bench trials to see if a bit more acidity would improve
it.

I agree with you that it's better not to be too wild and crazy with
your first couple of batches, until you develop some sense for what is
"normal." On the other hand, at this point in the process, the
adjustment of sweetness and acidity really only have to please your
taste buds - there aren't any particular "standards" that you need to
worry about. It it tastes good to you, that's good enough.


Doug

Port Wine Balance
 

Maynard Amerine pretty much wrote the book on American winemaking but
I would do as Doug said, just add sugar in trials until you like where
you end up. Just make sure the alcohol is where you want it first,
alcohol tastes sweet to begin with. I don't make port so can't offer
useful advice. I have some other references and will take a look
later and post on the acids.

Port Wine Balance
 

On Jul 1, 8:37 pm, spud > wrote:
> Made some Plum Port last season, and am getting ready to bottle.
>
> A book I have, Amerind and Singleton "Wine an introduction for
> Americans" says the usual balance of alcohol to sugar is 20 x 7.
> That is 20% abv and ~ 7deg Brix by hydrometer reading. It alos goes
> on to say the range of sweetness is 6 to 8 degrees with port wines
> usually on the low side of that.
>
> Does that make sense to port wine makers out there?
>
> Also I can fine little about acids. Since port is made it hot
> regions, is sweet with high alcoho,l is acid much of an issue? Just
> enough so it's not flabby?
>
> Since this is my first port I'm inclined to 'paint by numbers' as I
> read in the archives that the perception of sweetness will change with
> age, and I have no experience with that yet.
>
> Any pointers, tips, discussion is appreciated.

Acid should be lower than for red table wines - the base for port is a
red wine made in a hot region and the must gets diluted with alcohol,
so ideally you're looking at something around 5 g/L TA, 6 at most. For
sugar, go with what the other posters said and do it by taste.

Also, you're starting with a very different base material, so that's
another argument for taking Amerine's numbers only as a rule of thumb.

The advanatage with port is that you can bulk age it for a long time,
so a good way of doing this is sweeten up in several stages, let sit
for a month or so and then retaste until you get the balance you want.

Pp

Port Wine Balance
 

Thanks for the replies. I didn't think about keeping it in a carboy
and sweetening prior to bottling if needed as it ages. No reason why
that can't be done. Except I'll need that carboy. Oh well, I need
another 3 gallon jug anyway ;-)

TA is 0.6%, it tastes all right so we'll work with that. So far I
like it.

Amerine also mentions some ports in California are heated to 120degF
for a few minutes to simulate aging. Anyone have experience with
this? I thought I might try it with 1 of the 3 gallons see what
happens.

Thanks
Steve
Oregon






On Tue, 03 Jul 2007 09:58:39 -0700, pp > wrote:

>On Jul 1, 8:37 pm, spud > wrote:
>> Made some Plum Port last season, and am getting ready to bottle.
>>
>> A book I have, Amerind and Singleton "Wine an introduction for
>> Americans" says the usual balance of alcohol to sugar is 20 x 7.
>> That is 20% abv and ~ 7deg Brix by hydrometer reading. It alos goes
>> on to say the range of sweetness is 6 to 8 degrees with port wines
>> usually on the low side of that.
>>
>> Does that make sense to port wine makers out there?
>>
>> Also I can fine little about acids. Since port is made it hot
>> regions, is sweet with high alcoho,l is acid much of an issue? Just
>> enough so it's not flabby?
>>
>> Since this is my first port I'm inclined to 'paint by numbers' as I
>> read in the archives that the perception of sweetness will change with
>> age, and I have no experience with that yet.
>>
>> Any pointers, tips, discussion is appreciated.
>
>Acid should be lower than for red table wines - the base for port is a
>red wine made in a hot region and the must gets diluted with alcohol,
>so ideally you're looking at something around 5 g/L TA, 6 at most. For
>sugar, go with what the other posters said and do it by taste.
>
>Also, you're starting with a very different base material, so that's
>another argument for taking Amerine's numbers only as a rule of thumb.
>
>The advanatage with port is that you can bulk age it for a long time,
>so a good way of doing this is sweeten up in several stages, let sit
>for a month or so and then retaste until you get the balance you want.
>
>Pp

Port Wine Balance
 

I realize you are making port using a different method (fermenting to
dry, then resweetening) than I have, and I'd have to check my files,
but if I remember right, I fortified to about 19% when brix reached
10-12. I'm pretty sure this is the sweetness level of most port. But,
as others have mentioned, you can sweeten to whatever taste you
desire. I started with very high brix merlot grapes, by the way.

miker

Port Wine Balance
 

On Jul 18, 12:55 pm, miker > wrote:
> I realize you are making port using a different method (fermenting to
> dry, then resweetening) than I have, and I'd have to check my files,
> but if I remember right, I fortified to about 19% when brix reached
> 10-12. I'm pretty sure this is the sweetness level of most port. But,
> as others have mentioned, you can sweeten to whatever taste you
> desire. I started with very high brix merlot grapes, by the way.
>
> miker


I was thinking that the brix probably changes after adding the
fortification, so perhaps it ends up a little lower. Maybe even down
to the 7 or so reported earlier in this thread. Can't say I ever
tested the brix of the finished product.

miker

Port Wine Balance
 

Hi Mike:

That's the way port is made, and if possible I will try that technique
this year.

I oaked my plum port 0.1oz/gal at fermentation and again at the 2nd
racking. Yesterday brought it up to 20% abv by addition of Everclear
(avaialble in Oregon) and sweetened to just over 5 Brix.

Played around bench tasting with an oak extract I made and ended up
adding 1 full tablespoon to the 3 gallons. Everclear has been soaking
in chips for a couple of seasons and is really heavy to vanilla, I
mean in your face vanilla and smooth. Not like it was when only a few
weeks or months old. Side by side tastes it added mouthfeel and
smoothed the rough edges of the 20% abv.

I was going to add a little sweetness to cut the abv edge but it seems
the oak has accomplished that with some added interest. This is a
prune plum port, has a reddish hue with an orange background.

Right now it's going to settle and clear a bit more before a final
taste and tweaking if needed. Then bottle. I would really like to
age this stuff some, but I'm not sure I will be able to let it cellar.
Very impressed with this little odd ball port.

Also sweetened a Gewerz. last night. Very perfumey, a little odd
tasting from the handling, but sweetened to taste *just* off dry.
Will let it set and tweak if needed.

Take Care
Steve
Oregon







On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 07:36:06 -0700, miker > wrote:

>On Jul 18, 12:55 pm, miker > wrote:
>> I realize you are making port using a different method (fermenting to
>> dry, then resweetening) than I have, and I'd have to check my files,
>> but if I remember right, I fortified to about 19% when brix reached
>> 10-12. I'm pretty sure this is the sweetness level of most port. But,
>> as others have mentioned, you can sweeten to whatever taste you
>> desire. I started with very high brix merlot grapes, by the way.
>>
>> miker
>
>
>I was thinking that the brix probably changes after adding the
>fortification, so perhaps it ends up a little lower. Maybe even down
>to the 7 or so reported earlier in this thread. Can't say I ever
>tested the brix of the finished product.
>
>miker