I neglected making yearly resolutions last year, so I wanted to make them before I forget to do so this year. My first resolution is to learn to make grappa. It’s not that I like grappa that much, although I had some good grappa in Italy and some good chacha in Georgia. It is the learning process that I want to experience. This resolution will be my hardest for the year.
An easier resolution to accomplish is to bottle the 2014 second run wine that I made. When we pressed the must to put the 2014 in barrel, the wine was quite good just after fermentation. I decided to make a second run with with the pomace. 2014 may be a superb year for Napa grapes and we were excited about the 2014 Bordeaux-like blend that we have in barrel. It will also be interesting to see how these wonderful grapes do creating a second run wine.
Another resolution is to open the sealed underground qvevri and taste and bottle the wine. Although I made a qvevri wine at a winery in Georgia last year, this is my first attempt to make a qvevri wine here in the States. I sealed the qvevri in early November and am quite interested in how the wine will turn out. Depending on how warm or cold our winter will be, I’ll open the qvevri at the end of March or the middle of April. I have no idea of what I will get. For 2015 I also plan to make a qvevri wine. This time, I want to get the grapes into the qvevri earlier than I did last autumn. Last year, It was October before I started fermentation. I’d like to beat that by a month this year and have the grapes placed in the qvevri at the beginning of September. This resolution is also a challenge since we are not always home when the grapes are harvested.
At the end of the year, I’ll write how I did on this list of 2015 resolutions. Happy New Year and enjoy your winemaking.
Cheers,
Terry
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