On the second Sunday in April, Kathy and I racked our wine from its earthen qvevri. Our first task was to remove several cubic feet of sand covering the qvevri. The qvevri is buried below the ground level. When it was sealed in December, we filled the area with sand. Once removed, we inspected the […]
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In early October we had an offer to harvest Vidal grapes at Harvest Ridge Winery in Marydel, Delaware. Vidal was one of the white grape varieties that I had wanted to try in our qvevri. Previous vintages includes Muscat from Lodi and Rkatsiteli from Central Virginia. We did not harvest those grapes. Jason Hopwood, vineyard […] Early spring marks the time when a white wine made in a buried qvevri is opened. This week we opened our 2015 Rkatsiteli after macerating on the skins and a few stems for six months. For a bit of a recap. We sourced the grapes from a Virginia winery in September. Fermentation was robust overflowing […] Sealed with a glass top, with a sample of the qvevri wine I waited to the last day of December to seal the qvevri and cover the area with several inches of sand. We had a very warm December with 29 of 31 days recording above average temperatures. Ten of those days, temperatures were […] The primary fermentation in the qvevri completed a few days ago. Yesterday I took the specific gravity reading and it measured below 1.000. After cleaning the qvevri’s lip and a few inches down with a paper towel and a bit of potassium metabisulfite, I sealed the qvevri with a ring of clay and a lid […] Candle light and a barrel room provide a romantic setting. Some people associate wine and winemaking with romanticism. It is not difficult to imagine why a romantic vision is painted on people’s minds. Picture a candlelit barrel room. A small table with white linen has two red wine glasses with a dark ruby colored […] This morning the grapes rose to the top of the qvevri. Punch downs were every three hours. I wrote yesterday that we filled the qvevri to within two inches of the top or surface of the marani. Big mistake! In going to punch down early Saturday morning, I discovered that the fermentation was rather […] Kathy and I acquired some Rkatsiteli grapes yesterday from our friends at Bluemont Vineyards in Bluemont, Virginia. Arriving home, we began to process the grapes and prepare the qvevri. Qvevri winemaking is an ancient winemaking method and the only winemaking process on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Cleaning the Qvevri I had learned […] My first qvevri wine is a 2014 Muscat. Fermented and aged in qvevri for six months. My first qvevri wine made in Maryland is not what I expected; however, it definitely was worth the wait. Besides the color, the wine is great. I did not expect the light yellow color. After all, maceration on […] This photo was taken of the wine and the qvevri. The wine spent the last two weeks in a carboy settling. Two weeks ago Kathy and I racked our wine out of our buried qvevri. The wine was cloudy and the skins had not dropped from the surface. My theory was that the wine […] |
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