Recent content by pomme homme

How do you use the medlars for wine? Do you scrape out the bletted flesh and use that alone? If so, I presume that you need a large number of medlars and a significant amount of bletted fruit to make wine. I can't imagine that you use the whole fruit or that you press these. But I could be wrong...

At 40mm diameter it could be a wild medlar. But if other fruits, from the same tree, are larger then its probably the cultivated variety (particularly if bought from a nursery). I'll have to go out to the fields to see what size fruit the wild medlar trees produce. But from memory, they are 40mm...

Are your trees cultivated medlars with larger fruit, Ron? I have wild medlar trees which produce smaller fruit which, unbletted, are as hard as rock. Whilst the medlars may add tannin, what I don't know is what effect they may have on the taste of the finished cider. Has anyone tried this and...

1. No, but I might add a little more yeast as the brix reading was 8 when I racked off and beforehand I cleaned the demijohns with sodium metabisulphite. 2. I don't know but they are in my boiler room and so I'd presume the temperature to be somwhere in excess of 20º.

Today I pressed the black grapes and disposed of the skins, stalks and pips. That reduced my volume from 16 litres to about 10 litres. Having completed the aerobic fermentation, I've racked off into two demijohns in which I'll finish off the anaerobic fermentation. Hopefully this wine will have...

I'd give it a try - but I'd blett the medlars first. The only other idea would be to shred them and then add them to the apple juice. I've often thought of using medlars - but I haven't yet put such thoughts into practice!

If your Marechal Foch vines are genetically related to Oberlin Noir, they shouldn't produce an inherently poor wine. Oberlin Noir is an Alsatian grape by origin - so probably better suited than many black grapes to the cooler climes of the UK - and of it the first of the websites in reply #21...

There's much on the internet concerning the Oberlin (Oberlin Noir) grape - but almost entirely in French - including http://lescepages.free.fr/oberlin_noir.html and https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberlin_noir. One of the local viticultural experts suggested that it is the variety that I have...

I might concur if you are speaking only of white wines, Tony, but I'd disagree if your theory extends to red wines - and I'd do so based on experience. I've made red wine from my Oberlin grapes, without adding sugar, and with an abv of less than 10% it was insipid, lacking in body and not a...

I added sugar at the start of the primary fermentation - on the basis that if the natural sugar content of the grapes had been high enough not to require chapitalisation, all the sugar would be there from the start . But whether that's right or wrong I'll leave to the experts and/or the passage...

Sensible man!

My 16 litres also includes skins and pips. So if you want to achieve an abv of 14-15%, you'll need more than 500g of sugar. If you look online you'll find tables that indicate, by reference to an initial sg/brix reading, how much sugar you need to add to achieve your desired final abv.

It's a brave amateur wine maker who attempts to produce a sparkling méthode traditionelle wine. Take a look at https://vinepair.com/articles/sparkling-wine-champagne-methods/.

I suppose it depends on how you like your wine. I'd say that 9-10% abv is too low and you may sacrifice flavour. If you look at commercial reds generally you'll find an abv of 12% at lowest - although this year some of the Anjou Rouge I bought en vrac was 14% abv.

I have a small row of Oberlin (I think) vines. As has been said already, 2018 is proving to be something of an annus mirablis for fruit. I picked the grapes on 5 October (but probably I could have left them later if not for the likelihood of the starlings stripping the vines) when they had a...