2014 Bordeaux Blend at Tin Lizzie Wineworks

We filled the press with the must.

Our enthusiasm over making our first qvevri wine in the United States obscures the other wines that we are making with this years fruit. For the third time we are making wine at Tin Lizzie Wineworks in Clarksville, Maryland. We bottled the 2012 Stagecoach Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon […]

Discovering an Aging Wine

Wine that can age continues to surprise. Last night we had dinner with family at The Hill in Grosse Point. My brother likes this restaurant in part because he can bring his own wine to the restaurant. While in his cellar I spied a bottle of the 2009 Illuminatus Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot that Kathy and I […]

Pomace Idea – Make Wine Jelly

We went to Tin Lizzie Wineworks this weekend to punch down our wine. While we were there, other clients were pressing their wines and racking to barrels. When the press was taken apart to clean, the pomace was placed in a bin to later take to a compost pile. Kathy and I filled a few […]

Punching Down our Fermentation Bin

Punch down is a winery task that is done three or four times daily while grapes are fermenting. The idea is to mix the juice with the skins and seeds. During fermentation, the skins and seeds float to the top of the fermentation bin or tank. They form a cap. This cap can be several […]

Punch Down and Adding Tartaric Acid and the Malolactic Fermentation Mixture

Kathy and I went to Tin Lizzie Wineworks late yesterday afternoon for a couple hours. During the time we punched down 12 fermentation bins, mixed tartaric acid to add to most of the bins and added the malolactic fermentation mixture to each bin.

There wasn’t much going on with fermentation. The yeast was added about […]

Winemaking Yeast Selection: Not as Simple as in the Kitchen

Our must was rather cold yesterday so we decided to hold off adding yeast until today. A winemaker has a vast selection of yeasts to chose from. In the kitchen, Kathy usually has a choice of using Red Star yeast or Fleischmann’s yeast for her baking. That’s not much of a choice. Winemakers on the […]

Destemming & Crushing Atlas Peak Cabernet Sauvignon

Our grapes arrived from Stagecoach Vineyards in the Atlas Peak AVA of Napa Valley. They were harvested last week and were in pristine condition. There were 23 lugs of grapes awaiting Kathy and my arrival early Saturday morning. The first thing we did was to taste the grapes. They were very flavorful with seeds that […]

Small Vineyard Takes Root in Howard County, Maryland

Although Tin Lizzie Wineworks in Clarksville, Maryland is a custom crush facility where anyone can craft a barrel of wine, the winery is venturing into a new area today. Behind the present winery facility, farmland was plowed. Today we start planting grape vines. Kathy and I will be there to help. Not that we have […]

Winery Task: Racking Barrels

Winemakers do not often get a vacation. In the winery, there is always something to do. One of those tasks is racking the wine. Kathy and I helped winemaker, David Zuchero, at Tin Lizzie Wineworks rack the wine in seven barrels. It took the three of us about five hours, although I do […]

Tin Lizzie Wineworks Pressing the Must

A week after crushing the grapes and adding yeast to the must, it was time to press the mixture. The liquid is now wine. In order to extract more wine from the must, rice hulls were added to the must and stirred. Buckets were used to transfer the must from the fermentation bin […]