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 I decided, for better or worse to harvest the Niagara grapes. They only reached a brix level of 16 and stalled. The seeds were brown and the flavor was good. Normally, I’d let them hang but since some of the berries were beginning to rot and I don’t have many clusters, I decided to pick them. Kathy and I picked the grapes and then hand sorted. We ended up with 12 ¾ pounds. Not much to make wine, but I’ll give it a try.
Many people do not like wines made from American grapes. My family is different. When my adult children smell the Niagara grape or wine their immediate comment is, “Grand Ma’s house!” This is in reference to our summer trips to Marcellus, New York. Mom Linck had some Niagara grapes and the kids would help themselves. American varieties have a tendency to evoke memories. While tasting our Cab at Vint Hill Craft Winery last week, the winemaker tasted one of my Niagara grapes. DJ said it reminded him of his Grandfather’s grapes. He never knew what they were called, but remembered their aroma and taste. Varietal American grapes evoke instant memories.
Naming a wine is always interesting and occasionally a fun exercise. Since I’ll only end up with a few bottles, perhaps I’ll call the 2009 vintage Niagara, “Grandma’s House.”
Do Niagara grapes or wine evoke any memories for you?
Cheers,
Terry
Kathy and I traveled to Vint Hill Craft Winery in Virginia to taste our Cabernet Sauvignon in the barrel. Our Cab has been in French oak for nine months, since last November. I can keep it in the barrel until next summer. DJ (Vint Hill’s winemaker) explained that the longer a wine remains in a barrel the less oak influence will be on the aroma and taste. He went on to say that a mistake that some winemakers make is to oak their wines and taste them early on. Often they think the wines are over oaked and rack them out of the barrel. Instead they should have left them in the barrel.
Our Cab had a red to purple color and dark fruit aroma. Blackberries were on the taste. There were plenty of sharp tannins on the finish and Kathy pointed out that she needed food to go with the wine. DJ explained that by leaving the wine in the barrel for another year, the harsh tannins would soften. We should have a Cab that will pair well with food, and can also be easily enjoyed without food.
Cheers,
Terry
 I decided to design a very simple bottle label. Since 2009 was the first vintage of making wines from grapes. To say that we were enlightened at making wine in two different wineries in two states is an understatement. The only thing that was the same at both wineries was the varietal name. However the Cabs were sourced from different California AVA’s. Because of this enlightenment, I chose “Illuminatus” as the 2009 line of wines.
Simplicity ruled and since the wine was predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon, I used a French font. I’m pleased with the way the labels turned out. The wine made at Tin Lizzie Wineworks is only for personal consumption, they had the front label printed. I was going to create and print a back label, and then changed my mind. Instead, I’ll just create a web page for the back label, and create a QR code. I can print the QR code on small labels and affix it to the back of a bottle.
Since we had to affix all the labels by hand, I built a simple bottle holder out of wood. The bottle can be placed in the bottle holder and label attached. While in the holder, the bottle won’t move. I’ve seen similar bottle holders at a few boutique wineries we’ve visited. When labeling by hand, a bottle holder is great.
Cheers,
Terry
I’ve been collecting bottles for the past few months. After finishing the wine, the bottles are rinsed and then placed in a wine rack. However I am paranoid about cleaning the wine bottles. After retrieving the bottles from the wine cellar, I placed them in the dishwasher and ran the SaniWash cycle. I did not use dishwashing detergent. Then I shot a solution of potassium metabisulphite into the bottles using the Avvinatore bottle rinser and sulifter (Is that a word?). Then the bottles were placed on a bottle tree. Much easier than what I formally did by pouring the potassium metabisulphite into a bottle, then from one bottle to another and so forth. I then placed the bottles on the racks in the dishwasher. Now we have made progress!
We bottled two wines, the Cabernet Sauvignon/Tannat blend and five bottles of Zinfandel that I rescued from a press as we were breaking it down and cleaning it. I was going to use the pomace for wine jelly but I ended up with a gallon of wine after filtering it through tripled layered cheesecloth. I thought that a gallon would make too much jelly so I placed it in a gallon carboy. I added a French oak spiral and let it sit and age for a couple weeks. After that I removed the spiral and let the wine do its thing in a gallon carboy for nine months.
It took Kathy and me about two hours cleaning and sanitizing things, bottling 35 bottles and cleaning up. I recalled the first time I bottled wine. It took four of us four hours to bottle 29 bottles. Again on with the progress!
Cheers,
Terry
I’ve given up with my Dornfelder. After an assault from birds, I learned to place netting over the vines and grapes. It helped somewhat. We did have to free a few birds from inside the netting. Then the bees went after the grapes. I guess they are ready for harvest although the highest brix I could get from them was 16. Chalk this year up to learning. I didn’t have enough grapes for wine. Didn’t even have enough for jelly. But they do taste good on the dinner table.
I may have enough Niagara to make a small batch of wine though. They too are struggling with sugar. We have had a lot of rain for the past month with showers coming every two to three days. Now, for the first time since the beginning of July we have no rain in the long range forecast. I’m interested in seeing what will happen to the brix. Ten days ago the brix measured 12 and today it measured 15. The seeds are brown, there seems to be good acid in the grapes. I would be happy if the grapes could make it to 18 brix or higher before the next rains come.
I believe that growing grapes gives one a unique understanding of terroir. One can observe how weather is different year after year and the weather certainly affects the grapes. Timing harvest may be in the same ballpark area year after year, but will always have some variance. Harvest of the Niagara is coming soon.
Cheers,
Terry
After blending the California Cabernet Sauvignon with Virginia Tannat, I wanted to run a couple of tests on the wine. At home I measured the pH. My meter measured a pH of 3.8, which I thought was higher than I expected. Since Kathy and I were going to go to Vint Hill Craft Winery to sample our wine in the barrel, I took a sample of the Cab/Tannat blend to test in their lab. The pH was measured at 3.59, a better reading for pH. I caught my own error with the meter at home. The last time I calibrated the pH meter was in the winter. DJ, winemaker at Vint Hill, said he calibrates his meter weekly. The next time I use my pH meter I will calibrate it first.
My Cab/Tannat blend has a pH of 3.59. We then checked the SO2 levels. It recorded 23.22 ppm of SO2. DJ calculated that I needed to add 1 gram of Potassium Metabisulfate to my wine in the six-gallon carboy. We just added 1 gram to the extra wine in the sample that I brought. I then added that to the carboy.
During the winter I used French oak spirals to impart some oak flavors and aromas. I used a heavy French oak spiral for three weeks and a light French oak spiral for five weeks. The wine tastes quite good right now. It looks like we will be able to drink this wine while cellaring the wine we made at wineries.
I’ll save tasting notes for next week’s Cabernet Event on September 2nd.
Cheers,
Terry
I’ve waited for ten months to blend my west coast, California, Cabernet Sauvignon with east coast, Virginia, Tannat. Having family home for my youngest son’s wedding afforded an opportunity to get feedback on potential blends. The wine was to be Cabernet Sauvignon based so I set up four trials with a 10 percent Tannat influence, 20%, 30% and 40%. Family members tasted the different blends and wrote comments about each of them.
The Cabernet Sauvignon without the Tannat added was also excellent. It was a fruit bomb and had a nice dark red color. The tannins were too mild for my liking so the adding of some Tannat made sense. Everyone tasted the 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and a 100% Tannat before tasting the blends. What turned out interesting, to me is that most favored the second blend which was 80 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 20 percent Tannat. Those that didn’t select that blend as their choice selected the 90 percent ten percent blend. I actually liked the 80/20 blend over the others. It offered a black fruit aroma and taste while having good tannins on the fruity finish. The fruit was intense at times and the wine changed while in the mouth to different fruits. Since my thoughts were backed up by the majorit of tasters, I went with the 80/20 blend.
The wine was racked into a carboy and I plan to bottle on Sunday.
The wine we have in barrel at Tin Lizzie Wineworks will be bottled today. I will be at my son’s wedding at the time of bottling, but hope to pick up the wine later during the day.
Cheers,
Terry
 The process of winemaking is long. Even those, who make wine at home from kits, must wait for several weeks. They are advised to wait longer after bottling to consume the wine. If you make wine from grapes, the wait is going to be longer often months or years. Groups making wine at Tin Lizzie Wineworks in Clarksville, Maryland have proceeded to another phase of winemaking: bottling. Mid-August is the time that many red wines aging in barrels will be bottled.
Most of the people bottling the Rhone blend of Grenache, Syrah and Carignane saw bottling as just another step in the process rather than an end. Pam Rowe preferred the pressing of the must phase over the bottling. Mindy Myers, however, liked the way everything came together. Fred Rowe and Larry Leak see the process extending past bottling. They are interested in how the wine will taste a year from now and longer. This was the second year of bottling at Tin Lizzie for John and Lisa Viglotti who continue to always learn something new while going through the process.
Just as the wines improved while aging in the oak barrel, there is the potential that they will improve while aging in the bottle. Most wineries age wine in bottles before releasing it to the public. Full-bodied red wines are good wine to age. One benefit of having several cases of a wine you made is to age it for a number of years. With just one case you can drink one bottle a year and note how it changes over time.
There are many phases of the winemaking process and bottling is just one of those phases. What do you think?
Cheers,
Terry
 Since the birds were insistent on stealing the Dornfelder, I bought a refractrometer and checked the brix levels. Prior to testing, I tasted the grapes. Although the Dornfelder was developing sweetness, the acid was more prevalent. Seeds were still green but beginning to turn brown. The Dornfelder measured a 16.5 brix. The birds probably have it right. Those pests usually harvest grapes before people.
 The Niagara seemed to taste sweeter than the Dornfelder. They definitely had the noticeable Niagara aroma. They too were noticeably acidic. The Niagara measured at 12 brix. Perhaps the perceived sweetness was a result of the aroma. Interestingly, the birds haven’t been bothering the Niagara grapes yet.
Sugar levels might be watered down since we had two days worth of thunderstorms which dumped a couple of inches of rain on the vines. I’ll test daily to see the grapes progress. There is so little Dornfelder, that we will only use them for table grapes this year. If the birds go after the Niagara, we won’t have enough for wine, so it will be jelly for this year. On the other hand, if the birds leave them alone, I might be able to get a gallon or two of juice to ferment.
I have a newfound respect for grape growers. Finally, after two years of succumbing to black rot, I managed to aggressively spray my six grape vines that now have very nice fruit. The berries must be good since they are visited by a non-stop wave of birds. With only six vines and dozens of interested spectators, I wonder how growers with acres of vineyards deal with the bird problems.
We have come across solutions during our travels. In Texas we learned that one vineyard introduces road kill to the side of the vineyard. The road kill attracts birds of prey and those birds seem to persuade others to keep their distance. Then there are vineyards that utilize different netting procedures. Others try different sounds such as gunshot or bird distress sounds. Every now and then we’ll observe a vineyard with balloons keeping a watchful eye on the vines.
Since we had success with netting keeping the dear and groundhog from eating all our zucchini and cucumbers, we decided to give the netting a try. It looks easy but proved more difficult to put on than I imagined. On three occasions we found a bird inside the netting just waiting for us to release it. A few more grapes were missing. Since birds are such a pain with six vines, I can’t even imagine the havoc they play with acres of vines.
The grapes are not yet ready to harvest. They have good acid levels, but need to develop higher sugar levels. Apparently the birds must like the acid over the sugar. I am pondering putting out a tray of birdseed in hopes the birds will go for the seed over the grapes. However then I’m going to have to contend with squirrels. It’s amazing that growers can get grapes to the wineries.
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