Baco Noir First Time Revisited

Ian - Don't add the extra sugar. You will end up with more fermentable sugar than any yeast can handle...the yeast will quit working...and you will be left with a very sweet, alcoholic liquid. It's too late for your wine yeast to have any impact on the flavor of your wine. Just go ahead with both pails as is. I would mix them together so you have one large batch of wine to work with. Then you can decide if the wine is to your liking or not.

Now, Baco juice in your part of the world may have lower acid levels than my Kansas Baco. But, in case Baco is Baco no matter where it's grown you will have a high acid wine. Do you have acid testing equipment? Do you depend on color change or do you have a pH meter to determine end point for acid breastrations? I ask because you can do some interesting experiments with your wine that may help you in the future. Acid tests are better done using a pH meter to determine end points.

After the wine is finished fermenting test for acid and also taste test to see how you like it. If it's too acid or tart consider ways to reduce acid...read up on it. Then use some of your wine for these experiments and bottle the rest. You can consider malo-lactic fermentation to change malic into lactic acid (Baco has lots of malic acid). You can do a hard cold conditioning...you should do this any way. You could freeze a portion of the wine...this will drop out the most acid...and then blend the deacidified wine back with the bulk. You could neutralize a portion of the wine with potbuttium bicarbonate or do a double salt deacidification. Be aware that if you do either of these techniques to lower acid the taste will be adversely affected for several months.

Good luck with your wine. Let me know how it turns out. Some locals make Baco wine using the natural yeast that comes on the grapes. Some say it's pretty good wine.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

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