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Dan is busy at Work in His “Cellar”
Port wine is a sweet, fortified, (usually) red, wine, often enjoyed at the end of a meal. “Real” Port comes from Portugal, and it is made by stopping fermentation prematurely through additions of strong grape spirit. (The spirit is often called “brandy,” but it’s really much more like white lightning than cognac). There are different styles of Port, the main ones being: vintage, late-bottled vintage, ruby, and tawny. (I’ll take up these stylistic differences in another column). The fortification procedure kills the yeast and stabilizes the wine within a couple days. The final product has a residual sugar level between 5% and 10% and alcohol runs 18-22% by volume.
While it is certainly possible to make a Port-style wine at home using the same procedure, an easier, more predictable method, is to ferment a red table wine dry, then fortify it with pure grain alcohol (which is no longer available in Virginia’s ABC stores) or vodka, and add sugar to the desired sweetness level. This method works with wines made directly from grapes or other fruits, as well as those made from concentrates or kits. Sugar additions are fairly straightforward. If you are aiming for 10% residual sugar by weight, simply weigh out 10 grams of sugar per liter of wine. Remove some of the wine and warm it in a stainless pot. Dissolve the sugar in this and stir it thoroughly back into the main body of wine. If you prefer to simply use your taste buds to judge the correct sweetness level, make up your syrup and add it in increments after you fortify with alcohol. Just be very sure to stir the syrup in carefully before tasting.
Alcohol fortification involves a little math <shudder>. The problem is this: how much spirit at X percent alcohol do you need to add to a known quantity of base wine at a known alcohol level to produce a product with Y percent alcohol. There are four knowns (volume and strength of your base wine, strength of the addition spirit, and desired strength of the finished wine) and two unknowns (volume of spirit to be added and total volume of the finished wine). My algebra teacher would want to solve this problem with a simple series of simultaneous equations. However, as any good winemaker will tell you, the painless way to go about this is to set up the problem using Pearson’s Square.
In a Pearson’s Square, A is the strength (concentration by volume) of alcohol in your base wine. C is the strength of the spirit you are using to fortify the base wine. X is the strength you want your fortified wine to be. B/D is the proportion of base wine to spirit in the final mixture. B and D are calculated: B=C-X, and D=X-A. For example, the following square shows a solution for using a 12% base wine fortified with 100 proof (50% by volume) spirit to make a 20% Port-style wine.
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In this example the proportion of base wine to spirit is 30/8 or 3.75:1. For a 5 gallon batch of base wine, you will need to divide 3.75 by 5 to learn that you’ll need 1.3 gallons of 100 proof vodka to make a Port-style wine at 20% alcohol.
There are also kits to make Port-style wines. These use yet another method: one that is a bit dicey, in my opinion. Using very alcohol-tolerant yeast, the kits rely on an old moon-shiners’ trick of adding additional sugar (either as grape juice concentrate or as cane or corn sugar) in increments to a full-steam ferment in order to tease the greatest possible amount of alcohol from a straight fermentation. Then additional sugar is added for sweetening. The kits that I have tried make a pretty good product (although I feel they need a bit of further fortification), but it is certainly possible for things to go wrong with this method; namely a premature cessation of fermentation leaving you with too much sugar and not enough alcohol.
However you make your own Port, make enough so that you are not tempted to drink it all up in a year’s time. The magical interactions of alcohol, sugar and organic acids mean that your Port will simply get better and better for many years to come, if aged properly.
Paul writes:
I've been cold stabilizing my wine for the past month but would still like to try sur lei aging on a dry Riesling I have going. Now, can I rack this wine leaving the excess tartaric and dead yeast cells behind AND mix a fresh batch of yeast and add it to the carboy for flavoring? Hydrometer readings indicate no sugar left in this wine so I won't have to worry about fermentation kicking in again. Would it be safe then to add a healthy yeast culture to the Riesling to obtain the sur lei effect.
Paul, not only is it a “safe” thing to do, according to research recently announced by Virginia Tech's enology guru, Bruce Zoeklein, adding yeast at that stage (he calls it "yeast fining") will enhance mouth feel ("fullness" or "volume") of a wine, which, of course, is one of the goals of sur lie aging. So go for it! You'll probably need a fair amount of yeast to have a noticeable effect. On the other hand, unless you are worrying about serious defects from yeast autolysis, or re-dissolving the tartrate precipitate, there is no pressing need to rack yet. You can just periodically stir the lees you have.
By the way, I love Riesling finished very dry, if it has good varietal traits. And while the characteristics of sur lie aging are not normally associated with Riesling, I'll bet your experiment will make a fine wine. So when can I get a taste? :-}
Dan’s Super-Tuscan Wine Label
Castellina is a picturesque town in Chianti, and it’s also the name Brew King has given to their April 2003 Limited Edition release from Tuscany. Castellina is a wine in the recent style of the so-called “Super-Tuscans”, which blend the region’s wonderful Sangiovese with traditional Bordeaux varietals. This one brings cabernet sauvignon and sangiovese together for a wine with good cab-like structure underlying bright cherry-like notes typical of Chianti. I made up two batches of this wine last April and I used it as my primary gift for good friends and wine-loving relations this past holiday season. I added a bit of extra oak-aging time to my “Tuscan Sun,” and also added a bit of merlot to the blend. I was very pleased with the results.
Brew King’s Limited Edition wines, which are released monthly during the period January through April, are usually examples of the very highest quality to come from the wine-kit industry. There may be no more Castellina’s available (although rumors abound that this may become a regular offering), but there will be four more good wines this year. Don’t miss out!
James River Cellars, our “local” winery here in the Richmond area, makes two chardonnays—both grown in their Hanover County vineyards, and both very good. Their “regular” chard is fermented entirely in stainless steel tanks, while the reserve is aged in oak and experiences malolactic fermentation. As you might expect, the “stainless” bottling is fresh, clean, and crisp with very clear flavors of apples and pears. The Reserve, on the other hand is softer, smoother, with buttery-vanilliny flavors.
I first tasted the ’01 Reserve last year, shortly after it was bottled, and it was not one of my favorites. However, in the fashion of a true “reserve” wine, it is just now coming into its own. The oak has softened nicely, and the fruit is shining through, in the flavor if not the aroma.
The ’02 “stainless” Chardonnay is a great choice for seafood, simply prepared. The ’01 Reserve is an excellent choice to accompany richer fare. You may have some trouble finding the ’01, but James River has already released their ‘02 Reserve. This is an equally good wine—maybe better—but it really needs another year of careful aging. All these wines are great value. The regular chardonnay can be bought for about 10 bucks, while the reserve goes for 15. Not only do you get really nice wine, you get to support your local winery!
Also, see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CentralVirginiaWinemakers/
Copyright 2004 L. Daniel Mouer