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?
Our book, A Wine Journey was published last month. Our first book signing event takes place on Saturday, December 15th at Pearmund Cellars in Broad Run, Virginia from 2:00 – 5:00. We are looking forward to our visit and book signing at Pearmund Cellars. A Wine Journey has four chapters about our journey making wine, including making wine at home as well as at Vint Hill Craft Winery in Virginia and Tin Lizzie Wineworks in Maryland.
It seems fitting to have our first book signing event at Pearmund Cellars. We met Chris Pearmund in January 2007, just as Wine Trail Traveler was starting. Chris liked what we were doing and offered his encouragement. Pearmund Cellars was the first winery to advertise on the Wine Trail Traveler site. Chris is also one of the principles at Vint Hill Craft Winery. We followed Vint Hill’s story as it was under construction and made wine there the first year the winery was open.
In the four chapters about our winemaking journey, there are many stories of trials and successes. Both the home winemaker and commercial winemaker will enjoy reading our stories. They will probably nod and smile while doing so. Winemaking experiences are universal as are winemaking successes and failures.
In addition to the book signing at Pearmund Cellars, A Wine Journey is available online at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, Books A Million.com and Powells.com. Check out our book purchase site.
If you are interested in having a book signing event at your business and are located within two hours of metropolitan Washington, DC and Baltimore, contact us at terry (at)winetrailtraveler.com or call 410-402-0217.
Our first white Cabernet Sauvignon needed to be racked. With only 1 1/2 gallons, by the time I finished racking I had 1 1/4 gallons and a little to taste. The aroma and taste reminded me of red berries. This is a different tasting profile for the Cabernet Sauvignons that ferments on the skins and sees oak contact for months to years. The color of the white Cabernet Sauvignon is a light salmon and seems to be lighter than it was a couple months ago.
Now that the turkey vacated the refrigerator and Thanksgiving left overs have been handed out to family or frozen, there is room on the bottom shelf to place a carboy. The airlock required the removal of one shelf in the refrigerator. My plan is to cold stabilize the wine. Since I don’t have to rush, I’ll let the wine in the refrigerator until it gets very clear. I’ll rack one more time and add potassium metabisulfite. Then I can filter and bottle. I expect to leave the wine in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks minimum. When I remove it depends on when I need extra refrigerator space.
This white Cabernet Sauvignon was made from Cabernet Sauvignon juice from Virginia. We were visiting Chris Pearmund at Pearmund Cellars while he was destemming and crushing some Virginia Cab. He offered a couple gallons for us to experiment. The juice had about 30 minutes contact with the skins. Fermentation was finished in October and the wine has been racked twice. In contrast, I am also making a white Cabernet Sauvignon with juice that I bought from Thanksgiving Farm in Maryland. I started fermentation in the beginning of November and have been fermenting it in a cold room that maintains 59º F to 62º F temperature. It is still fermenting so I’ll let it go a little longer before racking it. Besides, I don’t have the refrigerator room at the moment.
The last time I used the refrigerator for wine cold stabilization was a Niagara Kathy and I made a couple years ago. The wine was hazy when it went into the refrigerator. Three weeks later it was crystal clear. I’m hoping for the same with the Cabernet Sauvignon.
Vint Hill Craft Winery in Warrenton, Virginia is beginning another program for wine enthusiasts to make wine. The winery is offering home winemaking classes. Participants will work one-on-one with winemaker Ashton Lough for four classes to make wine. Each class lasts for two hours. By the end of the last class, participants can take their wine home. The cost of the four classes and supplies is $399.
The first class, on December 1st, includes an introduction, terminology, overview of winemaking, and preparation of musts and juice for primary fermentation. The class meets again two weeks later on December 15, this time to rack the wine from the fermentation container to a carboy. A month later, on January 12 the class involves racking again into another carboy. During the fourth class, participants will bottle their wine on February 9th.
These classes and the couple cases of wine that participants make are an excellent introduction to winemaking. Sure, one can purchase a wine kit and make the wine at home. Kathy gave me a wine kit for Christmas in 2007. It remained unopened for six months. There was the apprehension that we would do something wrong and ruin the wine. Even the directions were intimidating. Try reading a hydrometer for the first time on your own. Making wine as a class with a winemaker that can tell you what to do eliminates the intimidation and apprehension. Furthermore the winemaker can answer questions and address why you are doing what you are doing. After these four classes at Vint Hill Craft Winery, participants can purchase wine kits and make wine at home, knowing what they should be doing to create a successful wine.
At Vint Hill, participants may choose between making a Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec from Argentina. Sign up for the home winemaking class by Friday, November 23rd.
Some do. Some don’t. We did. A week after pressing our Cabernet Sauvignon, we racked the wine off the gross lees (dead yeast cells). We actually racked into a stainless steel tank. Then Terry rolled the barrel to a barrel stand that has wheels on it. Kathy and Terry turned the barrel with the bung hole down and watched as the gross lees poured into a bucket. The gross lees looked like a strawberry milkshake. Then we washed the inside of the barrel several times until the water ran clear.
After the barrel stopped draining water, it was rolled back to the stand. We then racked from the stainless steel tank back into the barrel and topped off with one and a half gallons of our wine that was in carboys after pressing last week. While we were cleaning the barrel, Dave went into chemistry mode and checked the sugar levels and the malolactic fermentation. The sugar was down to 0.25% and the malo test indicated that the malolactic fermentation was complete. It’s time to put our barrel of Cabernet Sauvignon to rest.
The Taransaud barrel is a joy to work with. Unlike an American oak barrel, there is room to grab the barrel that makes lifting it easy. The French oak barrel also seems lighter than an American oak barrel. I had no problem lifting the barrel, empty of course.
We have two different batches of a Cabernet Sauvignon fermenting and aging at home; however, they are not the usual Cabernet Sauvignon. We are experimenting making a white Cabernet Sauvignon. One batch is from Cabernet Sauvignon that I picked up at Pearmund Cellars in Virginia. I collected a couple gallons of juice after the grapes were destemmed. They had about a half hour of skin contact. That wine has fermented and has been racked once since the fermentation. It is presently a reddish orange color. It needs to be racked again and then left alone for awhile.
More recently I acquired some Cabernet Sauvignon juice from Thanksgiving Farm winery in Maryland. The juice had little skin contact and it had a salmon color. It fermented for a week during which time the specific gravity dropped from 1.090 to 1.010. I decided to rack it into carboys even though it still had some fermenting to do. I have about three gallons of the Thanksgiving Farm white Cabernet Sauvignon and a little over one gallon of the Pearmund Cellars white Cabernet Sauvignon.
The idea of making a white wine from red wine grapes started a few years ago when we visited wineries in Temecula, California. We came across several wineries that made a white Merlot. A year later we had a white Pinot Noir at a Virginia winery. This summer we had a white Cabernet Franc at Thanksgiving Farm winery in Maryland and a couple wineries in the Niagara region of Ontario. We also had a white Cabernet Sauvignon in Ontario. It was interesting to note these white wines had a different tasting profile than red wines made from these grapes. Curiosity leads to wine.
After a couple weeks of post fermentation maceration we decided to press our wine and put into a Taransaud barrel. Yesterday, I filled the barrel with water. Today we emptied the water. While it was pouring out of the barrel, we put some in a wine glass to observe. The water had a slight honey color and an oak wood aroma. After letting the barrel drain, it was rolled near the press and placed on a rack. Kathy sanitized the press.
We moved the fermentation bin close to the press and hand transferred the contents to the press a bucket at a time. The wine was pumped to the barrel. The free run wine filled over half the barrel. We then began to press the must and collecting more wine in the barrel. Eventually the barrel was filled with little spilled. Four additional gallons were collected and placed in carboys. We brought a final quart home to make wine jelly.
The actual process of pressing the must and transferring to barrel took less than a half hour. Another several hours was spent cleaning. This is a good reminder that much work done in a winery is cleaning and sanitizing. We hosed down the press and then washed it. We also swept and mopped the winery floor.
Our plans are to rack the wine off the lees in a week. We will rack to an empty barrel and clean our Taransaud. Then we’ll rack back into our barrel. The procedure at Tin Lizzie Wineworks parallels what we are doing at home. This is a good week for racking.
Cheers,
Terry
Kathy sanitized the press.
We used buckets to transfer the must to the press.
There wasn’t much to do to prepare one of the barrels for the journey it will take wine. We simply filled the barrel with water and let it sit over night. This wasn’t much of a task, however for the winemaker that has multiple barrels, it can become time consuming. The Tonnellerie Taransaud website had a few quotes that were thought provoking. “From the vineyard to the winery, from the forest to the barrel” was one of the quotes that makes me think that great grapes can make great wines, perhaps a great forest can make a great barrel. The other quote, “Reveal the identity of your wines.” Can a Taransaud barrel help create a wine that is superb?
Kathy and my wine journey began in ernest in 2004. It involves three wine-related areas including: learning about wine, winemaking at home and at wineries and wine travel. Our book, A Wine Journey, includes four chapters related to winemaking.
Birth of a Winemaker
Crafting Wine at a Winery
Tin Lizzie Wineworks Cabernet/Merlot
Winemaking Journey Continues
A Wine Journey provides inspiration for anyone interested in wine. Check out the book’s trailer.
In the Bible there is an account (John 2:1-11) of Jesus turning water into wine. He did this instantly without adding anything to the water. Can winemakers though turn water into wine? Yes, they can. Wait a moment, Kathy’s waiting for a lightning bolt to strike!
Last weekend Kathy and I brought home 25 gallons of pomace from the pressing done at Tin Lizzie Wineworks. We measured the pomace in gallons because we filled 6-gallon containers. We used 20 gallons of pomace to make a second run wine. To the pomace we added water that we dissolved sugar in. It didn’t take long for fermentation to begin. There were active yeast colonies in the pomace and when that sugar water hit the yeasts it was like a vacation in an ice-cream factory. Fermentation was done in a couple days and the wine was pressed. The wine went into carboys and the pomace was added to the compost pile.
My expectations, based on what I read, was that we would create a light colored and light bodied wine that would be second rate, perhaps good enough for a table wine. I wanted to try a second run wine, just to learn how to do it. My expectations were off. Quite a bit of color was extracted from the skins and the color after a second racking into a six-gallon carboy was a dark ruby. This is lighter than the first run wine that is a dark purple to black. The aroma is developing; some dark fruit but nothing that stands out. There is a discernible dark fruit and spice on the taste.
Kathy added some StaVin French Oak medium plus toast beans to the six-gallon carboy to give the wine an oak influence. We received a sample of the StaVin product at Wineries Unlimited and wanted to give it a try. At home, I have used oaked spirals in the past. Now we’ll find a resting place for the carboy and let it age for awhile. The potential wine is certainly not as complex as the first run wine. But has potential especially when you stop to consider that you are turning water into wine.
