New Year’s Resolutions

2009 was a year of learning about winemaking. Washington State University offers online courses in winemaking and I took the beginning course. Although I began the course in the spring, I quickly put it off to the fall when the winemaking processes the instructor talked about could be seen in practice at Vint Hill Craft Winery in Virginia and Tin Lizzie Wineworks in Maryland. In addition to a barrel of Cab at each of those wineries, I have a carboy of Cab at home. I was also happy with a batch of dry mead I made. I started the mead in 2008 and bottled it during the summer of 2009. So what are my 2010 winemaking resolutions?

1. Bottle a Cab/Tannat blend. This will be an east meets west wine: Virginia Tannat and California Cabernet Sauvignon.

2. Bottle the Cab at Tin Lizzie Wineworks.

3. Determine if the barrel of Cab at Vint Hill Craft Winery should be bottled during 2010 or if additional aging will benefit the wine.

4. Make a raspberry/mead melomel.

5. Perhaps make a Sauvignon Blanc that is fruit forward with tropical fruit aromas and tastes.

6. Kathy wants to make a peach wine. One of my all-time favorite fruit wines was a dry peach wine.

What are some of your winemaking New Year’s resolutions for 2010?

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