Muscadine wine recipe

I just picked about 30 pounds of muscadines here at home and i was wondering if anyone had a recipe they would like to share?

Are you comfortable with acid reduction procedures? Muscadine grapes are a high acid variety and require some work to make good wine.

Tell me what i need to do cause i want to do a good job with this.

Here is the recipe that I use.

Makes 1 US Gal
7lbs Muscadine grapes
2.25lbs sugar
3 qts water
1tsp pectic enzyme
1tsp yeast nutrient
1 campden tab (crushed)
Montrachet wine yeast

Using nylon straining bag press and squeeze juice into primary. Disolve sugar in water and pour over grapes. Add yeast nutrient and campden. After 12 hours add pectic enzyme. Wait additional 12 hours and measure both specific gravity and acid. S.G. should be in the 1.090 range, acidity should be below .70% tartaric. (see acid reduction below) Add yeast and cover, lightly press nylon bag and stir daily for about 5-7 days or until S.G. drops to 1.030. Press pulp well to extract liquid, rack to secondary, fit with airlock, and let stand 3 weeks or until SG has reached 1.000. Rack and top up, then rack again in 2 months or as needed for clearing.

If you plan to backsweeten this wine you will need to stabilize first. This wine requires extended aging and should not be touched for at least 18 months.

Acid Reduction with Potassium Bicarbonate: Potassium bicarbonate treatment can be used to reduce acid through precipitation and neutralization. Use 3.4 grams/gallon to reduce acidity by 0.1%. It is stirred directly into the full batch, then chilled to facilitate precipitation of potassium bicarbonate lees.

Ok a couple of questions

I dont have any problem with this procedure just need to know a few things,
when u say chill the wine after adding the sodium bicarb what temp should i chill to?
how long should it set before racking off the lees?
when u say add directly to the batch do u mean while its fermenting or while its in the clearing stage?

[quote=“shawn2974”]when u say chill the wine after adding the sodium bicarb what temp should i chill to?[/quote] Just above freezing.

[quote]how long should it set before racking off the lees?[/quote]6-8 weeks

[quote]when u say add directly to the batch do u mean while its fermenting or while its in the clearing stage?[/quote] After fermentation is complete. But, there are actually a couple of options here, if done before hand you will need to add energizer. Seeding and filtering might not be a bad idea either.