How to Make Chilean Malbec Wine at Home

Making a New World Classic – Chilean Malbec

Chilean and Argentinian Malbec has become famous around the world for its consistently high quality and intense fruit flavors. Musto Wine Grape carries either fresh Chilean Malbec grapes or juice so that you can make wine at home. Chilean Malbec was the first wine that I made at the professional level, and it will always have a special place in my heart and at my dinner table. Here is my recipe for making a classic, fruity, Chilean Malbec at home.

1. Crush Malbec grapes into a sanitized bin or tub. (Each 18lb crate will make 1.25 gals of finished wine).
2. Apply 50ppm of Potassium Metabisulfite and stir well. Allow to sit for 8-12 hours.
3. Apply .5ml of Color Pro Pectic enzyme per box diluted into a 10% solution with water to the must and stir. Allow to sit for another 8-12 hours.
4. Mix Booster Rouge, FT Rouge, and Opti-Red, with spring water until it is the consistency of pancake batter and pour over top of crushed grapes. Mix in well.
5. Add rehydrate CSM yeast (1g/gal) with Go Ferm rehydration nutrient and warm water. Allow to sit for 15 minutes and pour over top of crushed grapes.
6. Punch down grapes 3 times per day throughout the duration of fermentation and monitor temperature and Brix levels daily. Use a hydrometer to test sugar content in a strained juice sample. Make sure the temperature does not exceed 85F.
7. One day after adding the yeast, add Fermaid O, mixed with spring water in to the pancake batter style slurry. Dump into grapes during a punch down.
8. After the depletion of 1/3 of the Brix (when the Brix level is between 16-11), add Fermaid O that is mixed with spring water into the pancake batter style slurry. Dump into to grapes at a punch down.
9. Add Malo-lactic bacteria the same day as the Fermaid K. If you are using liquid cultures, just pour over the grape must and mix. If you use the dry cultures, rehydrate them in warm spring water according to their specific directions, utilizing any rehydration nutrients recommended.
10. When the Brix have dropped below zero, press the wine into a sanitized tank, carboy, or demijohn. Make sure the vessel is topped up all the way to the top of the neck and sealed properly with a bung and airlock.
11. Rack after 48 hours and then again in a week. Allow MLF to complete before adding sulfites.
12. Allow the wine to age and rack it every 2 months and add sulfites when racking.

Recipe by the Winemakers at Musto Wine Grape

Interested in making your own wine? Musto Wine Grape Company is here to help! Musto’s New England’s largest supplier for home winemaking products and services. Visit juicegrape.com or give us a call at (877) 812 – 1137 to learn more.