That troublesome white is finally bottled.

I've never had so much trouble with a wine kit. This Meglioli Moscat was more trouble than the rest of them put together. The rest of them being more than 3 dozen kits. It's supposed to be a 6 week kit, and it took nearly 3 months. Started March 14, and just finished yesterday.

I've referred to it off and on in this blog, and I suppose if you were really keen you could look back and get the details. But I doubt it. If I'm not keen enough to go back and provide you a link, you aren't going to go look yourself.

It all went normally, or so I thought, till degassing and stabilizing. It wouldn't settle. Sometimes whites take a little longer, but at least you can see progress. There was none. Just haze.

First I tried more metabisulfite and more degassing. I got lots of foam, but it didn't help. More bentonite and degassing (more foam) didn't help. And this isn't nambly-pambly stirring with a spoon. This is an all out assault with a drill and stirring tool!

My wine kit retailer suggested Sparkaloid and that did the trick. The problem is that it's a very soft layer on the bottom, easy to disturb during racking. I did, and had to go for a second racking before bottling.

Normally I get 29 bottles from a kit. Sometimes 30, sometimes 28, usually with part of a bottle left over for us to taste test right out of the carboy. This time I got only 25 bottles, plus 1.5 bottles of hazy wine for cooking, and part of a bottle for tasting. Considering I was thinking of dumping it at one point and starting the next kit, I suppose I'll have to take it.

Maybe it's a bit pissy of me, but I didn't like the labels either. Their a pain to get the backing off, and I'm pretty sure they are going to be a pain to get off the bottle as well. Which is typical for them.

I've got 3 more Meglioli kits to go and I think they will be the last. They're always more trouble than the other kits, and their instructions are masterpieces of confusion. Even though they do all juice kits, I don't think they are any better than the other kits.

Here's some photos starting still fairly hazy just after the Sparkaloid.

Much better! I was hoping to bottle this, but sucked up too much of the sediment and it was a bit hazy again.

Endless notes!

Finally in the bottle! We drank a glass each, and it's pretty good. Still a bit tart, but we suspect it will mellow very nicely.

Three other kits on the go, all reds. Next weekend I hope to bottle two of them, and get another white started. Then the last 3 of the Meglioli kits. I hope they go well.