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We have been opening some of the bottles that we bottled in August after spending 20 months in French oak. How do we know if the wine is good? Taste is obvious, but are there other external factors that may indicate that you have a winner or plonk?
I took several cases to my brother in Michigan. Tim is into drinking wines based on ratings from Wine Spectator and others. He has a tasting profile that he seeks in a Cabernet Sauvignon. Many people agree, that have a similar profile that aligns with a 100 point system, that they will probably like a wine in the 90’s. So how did our Cabernet Sauvignon stack up with someone that enjoys Roy, Caymus Special Select and Shafer Hillside Select? The first reaction was, “not bad.” It helped that the fruity aroma reached one’s nose while the glass was still sitting on the table. My brother thought the wine resembled many wines he had in the 90 – 92 point range.
The Michigan part of the family tasted the wine and liked it. The wine ended up in a restaurant and Chef Sal liked it. The chef even borrowed the bottle and used some of the wine to make a glaze for lamb. That had to be a good omen. The owners of the restaurant also thought the wine was good.
With only a barrel of an obviously well like wine, I don’t believe in sending it to contests to see if it medals. My opinion of wine medals is similar to my opinion of elementary school science fair medals. I heard to many laments by winemakers who gather gold in one contest and nothing in another. Did their wine suddenly go bad or do contests lack validity and reliability? For me, it is better to listen to comments and count the number of empty bottles at the end of dinner divided by the number of people who drank the wine (this at least gives quantitative data). Last evening six wine drinkers emptied 4 bottles of the Illuminatus. A few weeks ago seven drinkers also emptied 4 bottles of wine that included all Cabernet Sauvignons including a bottle of Dominus. A very slight edge goes to the Illuminatus.
Now the challenge is to make another barrel that aims a bit higher. What can Kathy and I do that would make a better wine? We are thinking of seeing if we can buy a Taransaud French oak barrel and sourcing ultra premium grapes. That’s a start, I also want to double sort the grapes, once before destemming and again after destemming. These are just some early ideas. At the moment there is time to research and plan.
Cheers,
Terry
Kathy’s peach wine has been sitting quietly clearing nicely. We decided to rack it off the lees today. The aroma prior to racking reminded me of aromas in the kitchen when Kathy bakes bread. There was an yeasty aroma from the wine. Later we place a small amount in a wine glass. At first the aroma wasn’t pleasant. However after a few minutes it changed and you could notice the peach aroma and taste. The wine is quite dry and will need to be back sweetened prior to bottling.
After racking we added potassium metabisulphite and potassium sorbate to the wine. The combination of the two should deliver a knock-out punch to the yeast stopping the the yeast from reproducing. I don’t want the wine to begin refermenting in the bottle after adding a sweetener. We’ll let the wine continue to clear for a few weeks and then back sweeten it at the end of the month.
It is a bit difficult to appreciate a peach wine at this time of year. I have to remind myself that this wine is meant for next summer when the temperatures sore to the 90’s and higher. We’ll chill the peach wine and serve it in a wine glass with a frozen peach slice to keep it cool. Right now, with frost clinging to the house roofs, I’m more inclined to drink a red wine.
Cheers,
Terry
I am in no rush to bottle the Sauvignon Blanc made from a kit. For the past several days the wine was clearing as the sediment dropped to the bottom of a six-gallon carboy. The bottom resembled a lunar surface. Today was time to rack into a sterilized carboy. I sanitized the equipment with a solution of potassium metabisulfite. The solution didn’t use to bother me, however recently it causes me to sneeze several times and I had to go outdoors for some relief. It didn’t bother Kathy at all.
I tasted the wine before racking. It had a gold color and aroma and taste of lemon grass. They may have been some tropical notes but my sense of smell was off due to the sneezing and congestion. I did not notice any “wine kit” taste that I’ve experience with other wine kits in the past. The racking went slowly and I came up short about a gallon of wine. Off to the wine shop I was looking for a Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough to top off. I settled on a 2011 Babich.
Since I plan to keep the wine for a couple years, or at least until next August, I added a quarter teaspoon of potassium metabisulfite to the wine. I’ll let this wine settle for a month and plan for bottling at the end of November or beginning of December. So far I like the way it is turning out.
Cheers,
Terry
We returned from Washington and Oregon to find our peach wine and Sauvignon Blanc clearing nicely. However the directions for the Sauvignon Blanc had us stir the wine including the sediment. During this stirring there was a lot of dissolved carbon dioxide that foamed up. When we made our less than a gallon of Niagara wine two years ago I never stirred it. Perhaps that was the reason it is slightly carbonated in the bottle.
To the Sauvignon Blanc I added 4 g of potassium metabisulphite and 5.5 grams of potassium sorbate. I am not a fan of the sorbate and I hope the Sauvignon Blanc doesn’t develop a kit wine taste something I dislike and consider a fault. I also added chitosan. The sorbate and metabisulphite should stop the yeast from reproducing. The chitosan should help clarify the wine. After I added these products the wine was cloudy from the stirring. Within a day, there were noticeable deposits on the bottom of the carboy. By the end of two days the cloudiness began to clear. I’ll let the suspended particles settle to the bottom for another six days then rack the wine into another carboy.
My plan is to also rack the peach wine at the same time and add potassium metabisulphite and potassium sorbate at that time. I’m not as worried about adding the sorbate to the peach wine because we plan to back sweeten it. The sugar has a tendency of masking the effect of the sorbate taste.
Cheers,
Terry
Since we are going to travel for a few weeks we decided to rack the peach wine. The wine was in a 3-gallon carboy, a half-gallon carboy and a 750 ml decanter. Both the decanter and the half gallon carboy had about an inch of sediment and dead yeast cells at the bottom. The 3-gallon carboy had about 1/2 inch of sediment and dead yeast cells. We racked into another 3-gallon carboy.
While racking we were careful not to get much if any of the muck from the bottom. As a result we were able to fill a different 3-gallon carboy to within an inch and a half of the airlock. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough wine to fill another half gallon carboy so we had to make a decision about the extra wine. We filled the decanter and froze the left over wine. I don’t know if freezing the left over wine was a good idea or not. It seemed to make sense at the time.
Before racking, we measured the specific gravity at 0.990. When tasted, the wine was quite dry and had noticeable dissolved carbon dioxide. There was a slight peach aroma and taste. Kathy didn’t like the dryness and added a bit of sugar to her glass. The result increased the peach taste. We’ll let this wine take its time and let the solids settle on the bottom. Meanwhile we have a debate on how to back sweeten the wine. There are several options.
Cheers,
Terry
Since the bubbling in the airlock was significantly slower than a couple days ago, we decided to rack the peach wine into a carboy. First Kathy gathered the floating peaches and put them in a cheesecloth. I’ll get back to this later. Then we measured the specific gravity of the wine at 1.010. It has about another potential alcohol of 1.5 percent. We racked the wine into a three-gallon carboy and a 1/2 gallon decorative wine bottle. There was enough left to rack into a 750 ml decanter to which I can attach an airlock. We’ll use that for topping off. All three containers had an airlock placed in the opening. All three vessels are now still bubbling a bit and we’ll let them be for another ten days or so.
There were two cups of wine left in the primary fermenter so we tasted the wine and will use the remainder with the wine that drips from the cheesecloth. The wine we tasted was quite cloudy, but still had a golden color with a red hue. It had the color of pink grapefruit juice. You can pick up the peach on the aroma and taste. There was also yeast on the taste and just a tad bit of alcohol on the finish. Since it tasted like peaches we must have done something correct.
The wine from the peaches in the cheesecloth dripped into a pan. We added this mixture to the leftover wine. From this juice we made peach wine jelly. We experimented with wine jelly a couple years ago and had success. We have two wine jelly recipes on the Wine Trail Traveler site. We followed the one for wine jelly from fermented must. The peach jelly also had a red grapefruit juice color. Following our recipe we ended up with seven cups of peach wine jelly. People in the past have asked if there is still alcohol in the jelly. Unfortunately no, the alcohol evaporates during the boiling process.
Cheers,
Terry
Both the peach wine and Sauvignon Blanc are in primary fermenters with an airlock. It’s interesting to note that I’m drawn to observe the bubbling in the airlock. One might think that is a boring activity, however, I find it fascinating to stare at bubbles being released. The Sauvignon Blanc was the first to begin bubbling. On Tuesday morning there was a bubble every four seconds. By Tuesday evening the bubbles were every two seconds. For the past three days the fermentation bin has been happily bubbling every one to two seconds. The peach wine was a different story though. It took longer to begin bubbling and by Tuesday evening it was bubbling once every four seconds. By Wednesday it bubbled about every three and a half seconds. By Thursday it was back to every four seconds and by Friday morning every five or more seconds. It seemed to me that the peach wine was fermenting a bit sluggishly.
On Friday we decided to test the specific gravity of the peach wine and add some Superferment to the fermenting mixture. The beginning peach specific gravity measured 1.084. Today it measured 1.030. That meant that the wine was at about 7.1 percent alcohol. It still has a way to go so we added the Superferment at the rate of 1/4 teaspoon per gallon. By afternoon the rate of the airlock bubbling was once every three to four seconds. There is a bit more fermentation going on now than earlier this morning.
On Sunday we’ll read the specific gravity again. I’m hoping that both wines will be around 1.000 or lower. If so we’ll rack into carboys.
A year ago we had the Muscat and Petite Syrah, both made from juice sourced from Lodi, fermenting. Both those wines fermented at a quicker rate. The temperature in the house was warmer a year ago than it is now. Another noticeable difference is that a year ago there was more of a fermenting wine aroma in the house. It is hardly noticeable this year with the peach and Sauvignon Blanc wines. When fermenting, keep an eye on things and record data. It is interesting to compare years.
Cheers,
Terry
After making wine from juice and grapes both at home and at wineries, making another wine from a kit seems like a step backward. On the negative side, I don’t like the “kit wine taste” that I often pick up. So I decided to only look at higher quality kits. Since I only want to make a small amount, 2 – 3 cases, a kit wine can meet that criteria. I also had the possibility to get a kit with grapes sourced from the Marlborough area of New Zealand.
The Winexpert kit Selection Estate New Zealand Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc was suggested. The grapes are sourced from the Wairau Valley, Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand. We visited wineries in the Wairau Valley in November 2010. Our visits included Brancott Estate, Cloudy Bay, Delegat’s Wine Estate, Fromm, Nautilus Estate, Saint Clair Winery, Seresin Estates and Villa Maria Estate (Marlborough). The Sauvignon Blancs were enjoyable and hopefully we’ll like the wine from this kit.
I recorded some data prior to pitching the yeast. The brix was about 21.2 and SG was about 1.090. After using the lab at Vint Hill Craft Winery in Virginia, anything I record at home is going to follow the word about. I just down’t have the expensive equipment that the winery has. The TA was about 0.70 and the pH was about 3.5. The sugar levels were a tad low. Most of the Sauvignon Blancs we tasted from the Wairau Valley were in the 13 percent alcohol range. But I could end up with between 12.5 and close to 13 percent alcohol so I didn’t feel the need to add sugar. The yeast that came with the kit was the Lalvin EC-1118. Kathy added the yeast and I closed the primary fermenter. Now it is wait and see time.
If this kit wine tastes like a kit wine, I am going to give up on kit wines. I wonder what will begin fermenting first the peach wine started a day ago or the Sauvignon Blanc.
Cheers,
Terry
 Ever since we started making wine in 2007, Kathy has wanted to make peach wine. Finally we decided to just do it. Our first decision was how much to make. Since we have two empty 3 gallon carboys we decided on three gallons. Next we needed to find a recipe or two to follow. Unfortunately, there are recipes for one-gallon peach wines and recipes for five-gallon peach wines. We settled on a five-gallon peach wine recipe and I converted the measurements for everything except the yeast.
One of my conversions was to convert Campden tablets into potassium metabisulphite. I should probably just buy the Campden tablets, but would still rather use the potassium metabisulphite on hand. Our next decision was how much of the directions to follow and when to follow them. We have read many directions and picked up things from different sets of directions. Many of the directions called for letting the peaches, sugar, water and potassium metabisulphite rest over night. Our set of directions didn’t have us doing that. Since we have to read the specific gravity and TA before correcting, we thought we’d let it set a few hours before taking those readings. Another directional change we made was to peel away the red meat that touched the pit. Those two and adjusting the ingredients for three gallons instead of five were the only changes made.
Of course we discovered that the list of ingredients called for acid blend. We have citric acid on hand but not acid blend. So that required another trip to Maryland Homebrew which isn’t a bad thing. They just moved into a new location that opened on Wednesday and it is interesting to check them out to see their progress. Their new facility is two and a half times larger than their former location.
After letting the juice set a few hours we added the yeast energizer, acid blend and tannin. We then let it set a couple more hours and took the sugar levels. The juice measured about 15.7 brix and 1.060 SG. Noting a chart, at 16 brix one needs to add 0.6 pounds of sugar per gallon to raise the brix to 21. That came out to 1.8 pounds of sugar. We added a bit at a time and took brix and SG readings. Our final reading was 20.8 brix and 1.084 SG. Based on these readings we have the potential for an 11.8 to 12.0 percent alcohol wine. We decided to leave well enough alone.
Next we used an acid testing kit to test for total acid titration. Our juice measured about 0.40% TA. We read that we should use 0.65% TA as a goal for peach wine. We added a total of five teaspoons of acid blend to the must.
We waited until the next day to add the pectic enzyme since the directions on the bottle said to add it one hour before adding the yeast. We waited an hour and then added the yeast. Again we strayed from the directions. We hydrated the yeast according to the directions on the yeast package. We used the Lalvin ICV-D47 yeast. Now we’ll wait to see what happens. Meanwhile its off to start some Sauvignon Blanc wine.
Cheers,
Terry
Things don’t always turn out right. We’ve made some good wines and some wines destined to end up mulled during the winter or in Sangria during the summer. Perhaps one of the wines may be turned into vinegar. Other than those few tribulations, the other wines are good to great. So we had some confidence in trying our hand at making cheese.
We were told at a creamery to make Mozzarella cheese because it is so simple. It was suggested that we try the recipe called Instraella Mozzarella. We did OK until direction #8. The cheese never stretched. A comment from a different set of directions suggested that the cheese needs to reach a temperature of 130º F to 140º F in order to begin to stretch. I don’t believe we managed to get the cheese to that temperature. So it looked like our first attempt to make cheese failed.
It didn’t take long to learn that misery enjoys company. Several people have had trouble making Mozzarella especially at the stretching stage. Even the winemaker at Tin Lizzie Wineworks said he tried to make Mozzarella five different times without success. We found a different set of directions and will try it again.
I did have success making Ricotta with the leftover whey but then learned that some do not consider Ricotta a cheese. So back to the drawing board. Not every wine turned out as hoped. We keep on trying. We’ll do the same with cheese. Eventually we might get it right.
Cheers,
Terry
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How Do You Know if Your Wine Is Good?
We have been opening some of the bottles that we bottled in August after spending 20 months in French oak. How do we know if the wine is good? Taste is obvious, but are there other external factors that may indicate that you have a winner or plonk?
I took several cases to my brother in Michigan. Tim is into drinking wines based on ratings from Wine Spectator and others. He has a tasting profile that he seeks in a Cabernet Sauvignon. Many people agree, that have a similar profile that aligns with a 100 point system, that they will probably like a wine in the 90’s. So how did our Cabernet Sauvignon stack up with someone that enjoys Roy, Caymus Special Select and Shafer Hillside Select? The first reaction was, “not bad.” It helped that the fruity aroma reached one’s nose while the glass was still sitting on the table. My brother thought the wine resembled many wines he had in the 90 – 92 point range.
The Michigan part of the family tasted the wine and liked it. The wine ended up in a restaurant and Chef Sal liked it. The chef even borrowed the bottle and used some of the wine to make a glaze for lamb. That had to be a good omen. The owners of the restaurant also thought the wine was good.
With only a barrel of an obviously well like wine, I don’t believe in sending it to contests to see if it medals. My opinion of wine medals is similar to my opinion of elementary school science fair medals. I heard to many laments by winemakers who gather gold in one contest and nothing in another. Did their wine suddenly go bad or do contests lack validity and reliability? For me, it is better to listen to comments and count the number of empty bottles at the end of dinner divided by the number of people who drank the wine (this at least gives quantitative data). Last evening six wine drinkers emptied 4 bottles of the Illuminatus. A few weeks ago seven drinkers also emptied 4 bottles of wine that included all Cabernet Sauvignons including a bottle of Dominus. A very slight edge goes to the Illuminatus.
Now the challenge is to make another barrel that aims a bit higher. What can Kathy and I do that would make a better wine? We are thinking of seeing if we can buy a Taransaud French oak barrel and sourcing ultra premium grapes. That’s a start, I also want to double sort the grapes, once before destemming and again after destemming. These are just some early ideas. At the moment there is time to research and plan.
Cheers,
Terry