Evangeline (Kw96-2) Wine 2014

Evangeline (Kw96-2) was the perfect grape for the growing conditions in 2014 (see previous blog evangeline wine making).  We had a hot summer which brought the grapes to ripeness early but we also had a really early frost, 2-3 weeks early.  The frost came on the 15th of September and that ended the growing season.  Having said that most of the varieties had already hardened off quite nice by then although three more weeks would have been great.

The evangeline was picked at 20 brix and was 21 brix once crushed.  The ph was 3.3.  We mixed the evangeline and petite millot together as they have some similarities.  The petitie millot is more subtle in aroma and flavour than the evangeline and more reisling like while the evangeline is more muscat fruity.

The blend is 70% evangeline and 30% petite milot and the grapes were crushed and pressed and left overnight for sediment and pulp to settle out.  The juice was then syphoned off into a fresh carboy and yeast added and fermented to dryness.  The resulting wine was cold stabilized, fined, then back sweetened with 15g/ltr of sugar.

The wine finished with 12.5% A/vol and ph of 3.4 and has strong aromas of tropical fruit - it is very nice.