Truffle Pig Wine

I got up early today and drove down to Niagara-on-the-Lake to pick up my Icewine order from Watson's Barrels. The harvest was late this year, but the Vidal and Riesling-Traminer look and taste great. I didn't get my order of Cab Franc because the juice was too murky for me (and other home winemakers) to deal with properly, so Kevin sold it all to a commercial winery, one with a centrifuge which will be needed to clear up the juice before fermentation.

I ended up with 21L of Vidal, and 13L of Reisling-Traminer.

The cost of the juice was $17/L for the Vidal and $30/L for the Riesling-Traminer, which is a lot better than I got at Palatine Hills. Although on tasting the juice alone, I think I like the Vidal from Palatine more than the Vidal from Watson's (though Watson's Riesling-Traminer is tastier than both). Of course, I have no idea how this will all work out once all three are fermented so I'll have to do a blind tasting with friends once they're all done and in bottle.

Like last year, Kevin didn't get any Tartratable Acid (TA) numbers on this stuff, but recommends I add 4 g/L acid to give it a boost in crispness. He's guessing the TA is around 8 g/L or so and personally likes his Icewine crisp. I guess so, 'cause that seems like a lot of acid to me. Instead, I think I'll add 2 g/L before fermentation, and then adjust it to taste once fermentation is complete and it's been aged awhile.

Here are the initial numbers:

Vidal: 36°B @ 50°F (10°C)
Riesling-Traminer: 36.5°B @ 50°F (10°C)