Distilling wine

[Spuddie]

Greetings distillers.
I have a small winery and pour out mountains of 1/4 empty tasting bottles, which has been bugging me for ages but I just couldn't think of anything to do with the wine. So, I thought I might try distilling it and making a Schnapps or something along those lines with it.
I make Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Sauv. Blanc, and would like to harvest the alcohol from these wines and hopefuly some of main fruit characters from each varietal. So I would have a Schnapps that tastes like Supercharged Chardy' or Pinot or Sauv.
After studying the web site and the pro's and cons of different stills, I thing that I need a very basic pot still with the absolute minimum of reflux if I want to acheive this. Is this right?
Has anyone out there done this before, and if so, could you offer some pointers please as to the best way to tackle it, and some do's and don'ts.
Thanks all
Spuddie

[junkyard dawg]

From what I have seen and my own experience, a good brandy is made from a wash made for distilling. Preferably a double boiler with lots of fruit/solids in it. Clarified old wine probably wont taste like what you are wanting.

Thats not to be negative in anyway... I'd love to have the resources you have available. You can make some good things with that wine, I just can't say exactly what to do. If it were me, I'd study up on modern brandy stills or eau de vie types. I'd use a double boiler rig so you can distill pomace. Ive made some great mustang grape vodka before... neutral or near neutral spirit is always an option, and it makes fortified wines an option.

[goose eye]

i aint sure them tastes is gonna cross over once you cook.
would take them bottles pour into a barrel an fill it 2/3 ful
an then add grape juice. i no it aint gonna fermint but hopefully them flavers will mingle. i would also put some of that juice in your doublein keg when you charge it an it mite cross over.
these boys tryed a barrel of winegrapes but it didnt turn out to good.
so im tole

[old_red_eye]

I make about 50 gallons of wine at home every year just for the hobby of it.
This includes blueberry, blackberry, strawberry, birch, maple, etc.
Sometimes, if I am not happy with the result, I run it through my de-refluxed still.
I have never been able to get much flavor out of it, it's usually just a watered-down
version of full-reflux vodka.

[Husker]

I have done wines. Some turn out VERY good, some or so-so. The ones that turned out good, had "normal" head/body/tails (20-65-20 percentages), and the ones I did that turned out bad, had very little body (say 35-40-25).

The bad ones, I simply turn into vodka. The good ones, I "hide" and only bring out for special occasions The wine comes from my dad's home made stuff. I have been cleaning out his REALLY old stock (My mother loves me for doing that). That being said, there is no consistancy, and it has been pretty small batch runs (10 gallons or so of 20 to 35 year old stuff, some of which oxidsed a little)

Wine are usually best turned into a brandy. So a pot still (run twice), will be your best bet. On left over bottles, I think you will get good flavor.

I see this was your first post, so I will cover what my Brandy experience has been.

I would do this:

1. strip run in a pot still (fast). Collect everything until there is almost no alcohol being output (end up with just a little under 1/3 original volume).

2. Combine 3 strip runs, and do a spirit run. Here run it slower. Toss the first 50 to 100mL per 5 gallons of starting wine volume.

3. Then smell / taste as it comes out to find where the heads end. I usually put these into 200mL sequenced collection jars, and sample later.

4. Then collect the body (Collect about 50% of your expected alcohol volume here). It is better to stop the body run too soon, than too late.

5. Then collect the tails (again in 200mL jars). Collect deep into tails, as you can re-add this to subsquent spirit runs (it contains a lot of flavors and smells).

6. When done, start sampling your head/tail samples, and find just where you should make your "cuts". Dump the viable jars back into the main body.

7. My ABV here is about 65%. If yours is different (higher), cut to 65%.

8. I oak for about a week (1" / .5" strips, 6" Long, toasted at 200C for 2 hours). I put in about 4 strips / gallon. During this week, I put in freezer for 1 day, and out of freezer the next (greatly enhances the oaking).

9. Now, take a fruit (peaches, pears, apples, or others depending upon what flavor you want, but those 3 are easiest to work with), core/pit, and cut in 1/3rds. Cover with your 65%. I have done about 2/3 quart of fruit per 1 gallon of 65% product.

10. Soak for 1 to 3 weeks (depends on the fruit).

11. Drain, and filter your product.

12. Cover the resultant fruit with cane sugar, and put in a warm place. A clear syrup will form. Bleed off this syrup, and add more sugar, until no more syrup produced.

13. Toast a little of the fruit (I use peels). Toast about 200C for 20-30 minutes. Add this to the 65% (for a few days). This will add more carmalized flavor. I have done this, while making the syrup.

14. Filter the toasted fruit out, and add the syrup (filtered) to taste.

15. Monitor your volume (based on original 65%), and cut to whatever strength you desire. Keep in mind, some alcohol will be left in the fruit, in the oak, etc. So in my calcs, I always cut my original 65% ABV volume down a little (say, 3-5% loss), when computing how much final volume I want to acheive my final proof.

After this, you might let the bottles "breath" a little for a few days/weeks/month(s) (open bottle, but covered with a coffee filter. Much of the harshness should have been removed by the above aging steps, but this last step will also help to age the product, with minimal loss.

Good luck. I have to say, a lot of excess wine dumped down the drain, is a terrible thing to waste

H.

[birdwatcher]

Don't get me wrong; I have nothing against people who make wine from concentrate at wine supply stores. I think it tastes like shit, and I won't drink it.

I have made wine at home from quality concentrate, when money was an issue and my product after aging for a year, I considered drinkable.

Now to the above subject. When some one brings me a bottle of wine store made wine, I simply add it to my next completed wash and distill it.

Simply convert your unwanted wine to ethanol and thence to vodka/gin/liqueurs.

If you have large quantities, people into distillation would certainly be interested in taking some off your hands at the right price.

Cheers,

G

[rangaz]

I had a quarter full bottle of wine that was just sitting there when I was doing the 3 run of a sugar wash through a potstill so I chucked it in figuring it would just sit there for eternity anyway and would boost alcohol content. I thought that the grape flavour actually came out quite overpowering.

[olcarguy]

If you have winery you should distill all your spent skins and seeds, they contain ethanol. And could make some grappa as well as brandy from the part bottles of wine. Just put all the parts into a barrel or carboy till you have enough saved. Use a pot still for best flavour retention.

[pintoshine]

There is a general rule. Good flavored wash in, good flavored alcohol out. I leive near a few wineries in souther Indiana USA, and they sell bulk wine in the late fall. It is the left overs from the bottling. Last time I bought fifty gallons, 190 Liters, and I ran it all. I had people begging for more after I was out. A great wine make a great brandy.
My froiend who sells me the wine cheap, gives me apretty good allowance for teh brany I offer hime because he likes to make cordials with it. Another good reason to distill good wine.

[marquee moon]

Don't get me wrong; I have nothing against people who make wine from concentrate at wine supply stores. I think it tastes like shit, and I won't drink it.

I dont think people in the Yarra Valley make wine from concentrate....

[DjRick]

Hello all, I'm still refining my skills, so I will ask your opinions on my process. I've been given the opportunity to process several cases of bad wine, and so using my pot still, I strip 18,000ml of wine, toss 300ml of feints, collect 1.5 gallons of low wines, air out for 12 hours, then do a spirit run. I'm partial to apple pie moonshine, so in my thumper I will add my fruit and spices, and i use toasted applewood from our trees. It turns out decent enough for my taste.
My question: is it efficient enough to do a stripping run, air out for 12 hours, then do a spirit run and just blend it all together without doing cuts?

[SW_Shiner]

Why air the low wines for 12 hours? And why bother doing a strip and spirit run if you're just going to blend it all together without making cuts? Kind of seems like just drinking low wines, but with extra steps.

[6 Row Joe]

I had a few unopened bottles of peach wine that I ran through my 1 gal. Air still. I did a strip/spirit run and aged it in some toasted oak chips. It turned into a very nice brandy .