It’s the first of the year and for the past several years I’ve made some winemaking resolutions. Last year I was three for four only failing on the resolution to harvest grapes grown at my house. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong including birds and rain prior to, during and after harvest [...]
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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 [...] It took longer to drive to Vint Hill Craft Winery than bottle our barrel of 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon. DJ, Vint Hill’s winemaker, had the bottling machine steam cleaned and cooled by the time we arrived. Our wine was racked into a stainless steel tank that was connected to the bottling machine. The first task [...] I took a chance and carted off a few bottles of my Illuminatus Two Coasts to the Wine Bloggers Conference #WBC11 held in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend. I knew that I liked the wine, but would it stand up to wine writers? Several writers tasted the wine including Richard Leahy (Richard Leahy’s Wine Report), [...] At last year’s Wineries Unlimited I had the chance to spend a day at the Trade Show. I learned a lot about closures such as the Zork (great commercial), barrels, winemaking materials such as those by Laffort and many other things from interesting vendors. This year I’m going to devote two days to the [...] January is a great time to make resolutions even about winemaking. I did this at the beginning of 2010 and thought I check to see how I did before making 2011 winemaking resolutions. 1. Bottle a Cab/Tannat blend. This will be an east meets west wine: Virginia Tannat and California Cabernet Sauvignon. Did this [...] While racking the Muscat and Petite Sirah from the fermentation bins into carboys, I decided to rack the Niagara. Since I have less than a gallon of Niagara, I racked it into a ½ gallon and 1 quart jugs. While racking I tasted the wine. It is golden in color and has a very [...] Perhaps it was because the Petite Sirah juice was beginning to ferment or some other reason, however, when I added just the beginning of the 2.5 pounds of sugar to the Petite Sirah juice there was an immediate reaction. The juice was filled to almost the top of the six-gallon container. As soon as [...] Two years ago I made my first wine from a kit. I religiously followed the directions often reading them several times before following. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t follow the wine kit’s directions. Last week this started me thinking that since I had empty carboys perhaps I should fill [...] |
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2011 Winemaking Resolutions
After looking at successes and failures of the 2010 resolutions it is now time to be more realistic about the 2011 winemaking resolutions. After some thought, here is what Kathy and I would like to accomplish during the year.
1. Learn to clarify, filter and sweeten the Muscat wine prior to bottling.
2. Bottle [...]