Springgate Nouveau Merlot 2015 Adventure

This week I was blessed by my friends at Springgate to get 2 whole gallons of this year's Merlot fresh from its first fermentation - before sulphates, oaking, blending, etc. Fresh, "raw" Merlot. While they were drawing the two one-gallon carboys, I got to have my first taste along with Trevor, one of Marty's winery minions. It was amazing - no acid, no bite, just pure grapey, fruity smoothness.

Now onto what I did first. The plan had been to get the Merlot two days earlier. I had gathered ingredients for a nice beef stew - a nice 7 pound boneless round roast, a couple pounds of carrots & onions, about 1/2 pound of Shiitake mushrooms. But at the last minute, I had to go with some Cabernet Franc instead because of timing and equipment issues to extract the Merlot. So the beef stew came off great, but sans Merlot (you can see details for the stew HERE).

So Wednesday night, I started my first round with the Merlot. I had determined to make 1 gallon into Wine Jelly. But by the time I had cleaned everything and was ready to make jelly (I made it in four smaller batches) I had time to make the first two - plus I needed to scrounge up more jars anyway. So the first night - success.

Last night, I started earlier, my wife managed to find enough jars and I finished off the jelly and the first gallon of Merlot.

Now what to do with the rest?

The plan is:
1 qt - mix with gelatin an whip over ice to make a "mousse". Combined with a dark chocolate mousse for parfaits. This is similar to something I've done before with Panna Cotta with Dark Chocolate Ganache & Merlot Wine Gelatin Whip

1 qt - Merlot Syrup to use over ice cream.

As for the other remaining quarts - stay tuned!