Hey, everybody!

I just put together a new wine that might interest the crowd.

It's sitting in the fermenter now, sans yeast, as the campden and pectic
enzyme start to work their magic before pitching the yeast, tomorrow.

Here's the recipe:

4 gallons of fresh, hand-picked blackberries. (wash off the bugs and blood
from the thorns...)
1 Vintners' Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon wine kit
NaSO4
Active Pectic enzyme

1) Pick all the blackberries. Choose fruit that is intact and not blighted
or covered with ants. *Do* choose and pick berries that release from the
vine without any effort. (fruit will be around 10 Brix)
2) Add sulfite and pectic enzyme
3) When crushed by hand (which is very fun and squishy), the volume of the
berries should decrease to around 2.5 gallons (juice, skins, and seeds)
4) Add wine bag contents. (Do not add all the stuff in the baggies...in
fact, I recommend just tossing them)
5) Top off with water to 6 gallons +/- 0.1 gallons.

You should have the following must:
25 Brix
3.8 pH
6 gallons

Seal off with a cover and place aside, to let the campden and pectic enzyme
start working.

Here's my plan for later:

I bought some stuff from Presque Isle cellars (incl a 5 pound bag of med
toast Amer oak chips). I recommend these guys anyday. They have bulk
quantities of stuff that we winemakers need at very good prices, plus, I
received my goods 2 business days after ordering.

I plan on letting ferment in the primary, while punching down the cap 2
times daily, for one week. Then, I will press the wine through my floor
press and muslin bag into a 6 gallon secondary. Let sit until fermentation
stops, fine with sparkalloid and bentonite, then rack to a third (5 gallon)
carboy, with oak chips. Age for 8 months or so.

Brian