2012 Winemaking Resolutions – How Well did I Do?

I had four winemaking resolutions for 2012. They were:

1. Use the filter Kathy gave me for a Christmas present.
2. Make a raspberry melomel.
3. Monitor the weather in California and determine if I should make another barrel of Cabernet Sauvignon.
4. Make another very high end kit white wine.

Ouch! only two of the four resolution were met. I did meet #1 and #3. We used the filter on the peach wine and will continue to use the filter on our whites. We are making a barrel of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, and I did watch the weather in California very carefully. It was a great weather year.

The melomel never happened. A high end white wine from a kit never happened; however, I did make two white Cabernet Sauvignons one from Virginia grapes and one from Maryland grapes. So the white wine from a kit was replaced with the white Cabs. The melomel was to be our experimental wine for 2012. We didn’t do it. Instead we experimented making a second run wine from a mixture of pomace. The wine, made from Atlas Peak AVA grapes in Napa valley were pressed at Tin Lizzie Wineworks. The pomace was headed for a compost pile when Kathy and I captured about 12 pounds of it. Our experiment was to add water and sugar and see what happens.

So 50% for 2012 isn’t that bad if you consider that I still made a white wine and an experimental wine. What will 2013 bring?

Cheers,
Terry