Hybrid white grape wine

Hybrid grapes are cultivated in regions - which cannot produce (Vinifera) wine grapes - in the colder environments of the Northern part of the Western Hemisphere. Varieties of white grapes to look for include: Chardonel, Vidal Blanc, Vignoles and Seyval Blanc. Most vineyards will crush and press wine grapes bought on site into juice - as the recipe below calls for.

Ingredients

5 gallons white hybrid juice (It takes 40-50 lbs of hybrid grapes to produce 5 gallons of juice.)
white table sugar
2 Tsp yeast nutrient
1 Tsp liquid tannin (or 2 Tsp dry tannin made into a thin paste with water)
2 Tsp pectic enzyme powder
3/4 Tsp potassium metabisulfite made into a slurry with water
1 package Champagne yeast (Lalvin EC-1118)
bentonite finings

Method

Siphon (do not pour) the fresh grape juice into a food grade, 6-8 gallon primary fermenter. Add the slurry of potassium metabisulfite, yeast nutrient and tannin. Stir very gently.

Add cold water (traditionally 15% of the volume of juice), sufficient to bring the acid level to ~7 g/L. While using an an acid testing kit, shoot for 7-8 g/L (see the manual of your kit for specifics).

Using an hydrometer, bring the specific gravity to 1.095 by adding table sugar (one lb at a time). Stir thoroughly between additions of sugar.

Bring the must to 70-75 degrees F. Hold it at that temperature for 4 hours, then add the yeast.

After 5 days, siphon the wine into a 5 gallon, glass carboy and 2 or 3 one gallon, glass jugs. Since grape musts ferment rather violently, fill the carboy and jugs only 3/4 full. Attach air-locks to 6 1/2 size white, rubber bungs, fit the bungs into the necks of the carboy and jugs then fill the air-locks half-full of water.

When the specific gravity falls to 1.020, rack (siphon) the wine into a clean carboy and gallon jugs. Top up the carboy and jugs with the wine from the previous gallon jugs, leaving no more than two inches of head-space between the wine level and the bung of the air-lock.

When fermentation entirely ceases, rack the wine into a clean carboy and jugs. Top off the carboy and jugs with wine. Attach air-locks. Allow the wine to rest for 6 weeks.

Rack the wine into a clean carboy and a jug. After 4 months resting, add bentonite finings (prepared as the directions on the package indicate). When the wine becomes sparklingly clear (about 2 weeks), rack it into a clean carboy. Sulphite the wine with 1/4 Tsp potassium metabisulfite made into a slurry with water. Top off the carboy with wine. Attach an air-lock. Bulk age 3 months.

Bottle. Bottle age 3 months. Drink.

notes

In wine grape recipes unlike those found in fruit wines, the acid and sugar levels cannot be calculated high and the water levels low, so that the carboy can be topped off with tap water after racking in order to yield a wine with decent alcohol and acid levels. Grapes throw down a large quantity of lees, which by adding more water would dilute the resulting wine to the point where it would be insipid-tasting.

Here's an exhaustive list of French/American hybrid grapes: http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineguest/wgg.html#hybrid. Grapes to avoid for winemaking are those known to produce a "foxy" flavor.

links

Here is a comprehensive, online winemaking manual by Lum Eisenman - a must for beginners: The Home Winemakers Manual.

Here is another fine, though somewhat more technical guide by the apostle of home winemaking Stanley F. Anderson: Winemaking.

From Purdue, fining with bentonite. Bentonite is clay, i.e. dirt. It is not prepared in some lab; It is mined.