Archive for August, 2005

Tonight I racked the Liebfraumilch and also started a red currant wine. As part of the “Getting Started” series, I wrote a third article about racking wine from the primary fermenter to the carboy. I’ve given this article an exciting name: Getting Started – Part 3.

I also started a red currant wine, and have written an article including the recipe right here.

The specific gravity of the Liebraumilch I started on August 22 was at 1.010. Time for racking. Sterilized a glass carboy and the siphon hose/tube, and transfered the wine from the primary.

Of course, it looks nothing like it will look when I’m done. Very cloudy, almost a full yellow colour. In another week or so, I’ll rack it again as this one I want to bottle in about three weeks. Then I’ll stop the fermentation process, degass and add a fining agent. After two weeks of sitting, the wine will clear nicely.

Using this method I’ve never filtered my wine. No, it won’t win competitions for clarity, but some say that filtering also removes some of the subtle tastes in a wine.

For some reason, I always have a difficult time degassing Liebfraumilch. I don’t know if it is just me, or if there may be some other reason why. Something to look into.

As I wrote just over a week ago, I started some ginger wine using this recipe. Tonight, I racked the two gallons into separate one gallon carboys. I was quite curious about how this would taste, so I snuck a wee sip after measuring the specific gravity, which was 1.010. Perfect for racking into the secondary fermenting vessels.

Well, it certainly isn’t like any fruit wine! It has a very unique taste as far as wines go that I’ve tried, and not disimilar to ginger beer. I suppose that shouldn’t be unsurprising as real ginger beer likely has the same base. We’ll just have a drink that doesn’t feel carbonated.

I used a little extra ginger, so the taste was quite lively. I could see this being a wonderful beverage for a cold winter night. As mentioned previously, I’m going to make a gallon of dry ginger wine, and another gallon sweet. In one of the secondaries, I will add a half cup of sugar every so often until no further fermentation takes place.

I can see myself making more of this, trying some other ingredients as well as I think it will be popular among my ginger loving friends. I don’t think a gallon will last very long.

And it’s going to be at least a year before this is ready.

Ah, Valpolicella. One of my favorite varieties of wine. I like it so much, I think have two more Valpolicella wines on the go right now. Tonight was a good night to rack one of them, and I managed to have a wee taste at the same time.

Yes, it was “young.” Yes, it did not have a full Valpolicella taste, which I find hard to describe. But it certainly was Valpolicella.

I also racked and added sulphite along with potassium sorbate to another red, Shiraz. In a couple of days, I will add a fining agent to the Shiraz as it’s not meant to bulk age for very long. I’d like to have it available for drinking soon.

I also started the Festa juices I picked up yesterday. The red wine started at a specific gravity of 1.082, and the red Granache at 1.090. These two are wines I will age for at least six months, maybe a year, before bottling.

Tomorrow, I plan on starting my red currant wine.

For now, I’m off to bed. One more glass of Valpolicella though!

As promised yesterday, I finally got to the photos I took while on the road trip with my son James. The camera I had with me was a spare – my business partner having taken the good Nikon with her to Edmonton. I apologise for the poor quality of the images. Here they are:

As we drove along the Niagara Parkway between Niagara Falls and the Town of Niagara-On-The-Lake, there were signs like this identifying the various winery estates. Most of these wineries are relatively small and family owned. I passed a number of wineries along the road, but on a whim, decided to visit this one.

The above is an image of the Riverview Estates store and facility. As well as two wine tasting rooms, stocked with a variety of their wines, Riverview also has a small area at the front where fresh local fruit may be purchased. As well as the wine I purchased, I also bought a pint of delicious blackberries.

Shortly after arriving, we discovered owner commencing a guided tour of the operation with guests. James and I kind of snuck up to listen while taking photos of the area. Both ____ and his tour guests graciously invited us to continue with the tour if we wanted. And of course, we wanted!

This is an image of a bottling machine. This particular image was taken while visiting the Lakeview Estates vineyard, but Riverview has exactly the same set up, only less cluttered. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see this machine in action, but it fills the bottles, corks them and seals them.

These are the stainless steel holding tanks for wine as it ages. Temperature may be controlled with the use of an external device that is placed against the tank. I didn’t get all the details on this, perhaps next time.

Another tank that is used for holding wine.

Riverview Estates ages their red wine (and one of their whites) in these oak barrels. Although they are not cheap, the barrels are replaced every three years. Perhaps one day, I’ll have the room to have a couple of these babies in my wine making area!

While exploring the vineyard, these are the grapes we came across that were closest to us as we walked a bit. These are Pinot Noir varietal grapes. Between now and harvest time, they won’t get much bigger than their present size.

My son James is about 5′10″. The grape vines are quite a bit taller than he is! It was quite interesting to see how grape vines are cultivated, and the description of harvesting provided by Mike was very interesting. I hope I can get back there during harvest season to see how it is done, without having to use my imagination.

And for those that want to see what Niagara Falls looks like on a windy day with lots of mist in the air:

I have more pictures, but they turned out worse then the ones above. Next visit, I’ll be sure to take along the better camera, or have figured out how to use this one!

As I mentioned earlier in the day, I decided to head out early with my son James towards Niagara Falls which would also provide me the opportunity to visit some wineries and either pick up or order some juice for my own winemaking. Please bear with me if there are many grammatical or spelling errors – it was a strange idea to go for a road trip after already being awake for many hours! Needless to say I’m tired. But it was worth it.

If you ever decide to take a drive through Ontario’s wine country in the Niagara region, be forewared: Drivers on the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) heading to Niagara are probably the worst in the world. I stopped counting the number of times some bozo nearly sideswiped me while they were trying to cross two lanes at once.

Forewarning finished.

Before we left, I found a website for a vineyard and winery that seemed to have juice for sale already. So locating this winery was my first goal. Of course, a couple of wrong turns, and ending up being a bit lost necessitated the need for asking for directions. We took the long way to get there, but after going through Beamsville, we found the sign for the Eastman Vineyard only to be told when we arrived that the grower was no longer doing any growing this year. Turns out the prices on the website were for juices a few years ago. Of course, I didn’t notice that detail when browsing the site this morning.

We were also given some discouraging news that coincided with the report at Vinography suggesting that grape harvests this year in the Niagara Region were substantially lower this year. Staff at the various wineries we visited reported between 1/3 and 1/2 below typical harvests were expected this year.

We didn’t give up though. One of our next stops was the Thomas & Vaughan store. A very nice shop, with friendly staff, and a wide variety of wines available – but they could not help us directly in our quest for juice. However, they did suggest that we try nearby Lakeview Cellars Estate Winery.

Sure enough, Lakeview was taking orders for some juices that would be available in September. Unfortunately, they were not offering juice from their Gewurztraminer which is what I was really interested in. Apparently this is one of the grapes that is suffering badly from the drought conditions on the Niagara Peninsula this year.

However, they were offering must purchased for Baco Noir! One of my favorite reds. I reserved 40 KG of Baco must, along with 24 litres of Reisling juice. So I shall await my phone call and head back down in late September to pick up my order.

I was still hoping to try to get some pure juice somewhere though, and came across the Magnotta outlet in Beamsville. They had pure juice available, in 21 litre pails – although the selection was not the greatest, the prices were great! I picked up one pail of Grenache (red) and one called “Festa White,” apparently a blend of a variety of grapes.

At $38.00 and $34.00 respectively for pure juice, this seemed a good deal, being about half the price I’m paying elsewhere for pur juice.

From there, it was onto Niagara Falls! That was enough time for James to be spending on my hobby, so we headed to Niagara – and perhaps I’ve never visited the Falls on a Saturday before, but I cannot remember ever the crowds that were there today in the past. Walking along was like being in exhibition midway. The traffic was crazy, and we had to park in the town itself. It was nice for James to see the Falls though, and feel the mist as the strong winds picked it up and dropped us, soaking us wet through our clothes.

We likely would have stayed longer if it were not for the crowds of people. Instead, we decided to head to Niagara-On-The-Lake and see if we could visit Fort George.

Along the way though, I had a hunch that it would be interesting to pull into the “Riverview Cellars Estate Winery” located on the Niagara Parkway. We had a very enjoyable tour, our guide being Mr. Mike Pilletteri – the owner himself – and as with all of his staff, was very friendly and helpful in answering questions and sharing his knowledge.

Mike told me that there was no way he could sell juice this year because of the drought conditions (again, I was after some Gewurztraminer) due to the drought conditions. It was interesting to see their operation, and I had the opportunity to sample some wines – but by that time, I was getting very tired, with a two hour drive ahead of me, and thought that sampling wine might best be done on a trip that was better planned in advance. I declined his offer, but purchased a bottle of Riverview’s 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon.

In my next post, I’ll upload some of the pictures I took along the way on this trip with my son today. James told me after that he really enjoyed it – he originally thought that checking out wineries might be “boring,” but instead, he found it all quite interesting.

I have great kids! James even thanked me for taking him and making him come along on the trip! Several times, in fact.

So all in all, it was a great trip and James and I spent some quality time together ever since he woke up this morning until bedtime, just a few moments ago.

Now it’s my turn to get to sleep. Tomorrow, I will be start fermenting the white and red that I purchased today. We also picked a couple of quarts of red currants, so I’ll be looking for a recipe for red currant wine as well.

It’s Saturday morning, I haven’t slept all night, but I just had a great idea. First though, why I haven’t slept: I drove into Toronto last evening to attend a Toronto “blogfest.” Not much wine was drunk I don’t think at “The Bishop & Belcher,” but a lot of beer, including Guiness by me, was had. Actually, I didn’t drink much at all as I knew I would be driving – so three pints over four hours. A good time was had by all – beautiful women, interesting conversation, and it was nice to put a face to some of the blogs I read.

But when I got home, I simply wasn’t tired! I ended up doing some things, and the next thing I knew it was 6AM. My 15 year old son is visiting with me, and I got to thinking that it would be nice to take him to Niagara Falls as he has not been there in sometime.

And of course, that’s a great excuse for me to visit some of the vineyards down in the area. I’m hoping to also pick up some juice as well. Of course, I’ll be taking my camera so I shall have some pictures to post for all three of my loyal readers

Have a great day yourself!

As I wrote in an earlier entry, the Liebfraumilch kit that I recently purchased had no dried eldberberry flowers. Well, I found some, and I’ve added them to the wine as it ferments. I added half the 15 gram package to the primary, and will add the other half to the secondary when I rack it later this week.

Leibraumilch must have elderberry flowers added. At least mine must have them. I am trying to figure out if there is a way to get to Madeira Island to meet a friend of mine, and sip my Liebfraumilch on the beach. I’ll have to come up with a creative label as well, just for me and my friend to enjoy.

I’ll also have to learn more about this Romanian drink called Tuica, apparently distilled from plumbs.

So much to learn and try! So many grandfather’s to meet throughout the world, that have their own ways of making wonderful drinks to enjoy, and taste.

And of course, beaches, and fine women to enjoy the fruits of the labour, while watching the beautiful unique sunsets of each day – knowing that tomorrow, the sun will rise and set again – a constant cycle, but each moment providing it’s own wonderful sensual experiences and pleasures for those that take the time to enjoy.

And isn’t that truly what it should be all about? Who cares about the price of the lovely liquids that grace your lips and tongue? Aging of course, is wonderful, but even new wine.. young wine.. and middle aged wine has it’s own wonderful characterisitics that should not be missed. Or not enjoyed.

A good wine is just like a good human.. as it ages, its characteristics may change, but the enjoyment thereof never changes. A new wine, although missing the aged and delicate notes of spending time, becoming better in some ways, stilll has its own youthful sensuality, a delight to the lips and the tongue, that in some ways, an aged wine cannot provide.

Both are good. And what is even better is to have the ability to taste that wine.. or that woman.. at varying stages of life. And enjoy each stage for what it is.

I shall drink some of my Liebfraumilch young. And I will drink her when she has aged as well.. as I will age. And she will be free at all stages to take on that which she wants, but at all times, I shall be her master. And gladly, as she ages, she will share her notes with me at her various stages. Never demanding anything from me, other tham my enjoyment of her regardless of her age.

Wine making is quite the sensual art and hobby. I hope the women I know in my life will agree as well with my metaphor. Perhaps some are best had aged a bit. Some, when young. But the best are those that can be tasted, young, middle aged, and older.. and at any given point of time, are always magnificent.

At least those are my thoughts for the night.

Finally bottled the batch of beer. It was my first attempt at beer making, and so I was unsure of how the final results would turn out. For around $18.00 worth of ingredients, and probably 90 minutes in total time, I ended up with 47 half litre bottles of beer.

I’m not much of a beer drinker although I do like a good cold one on hot summer days. My friend Roy came by after the bottling was done and he was the first one to give it a try. After the first sip, in his Cape Breton accent, pronounced the beer, “hey, that’s pretty good stuff!”

I guess that’s not really saying all that much for a guy that drinks regular Canadian brewed swill, but at least it passed the test of being a bit better than swill .

I’ll have to make sure there are some bottles left so that when Wendy gets home next week, she’ll be able to try it.

I’ve punched down the lid on the primary fermenter which contains the batch of ginger wine I’m making. I had a peek inside, and the yeast is quite active, and the stuff has an interesting odour as well.

The Pinot Noir that I racked the other day seems to be going through a vigorous secondary fermentation. It’s been a couple of days since I racked it, and the bubbling activity appears to have increased. The escape valve inside the airlock is popping up and down once every couple of seconds. I like watching it. There is something slightly hypnotic about looking at the bubbles rushing through the wine towards the top.

If I can get enough work done today, I have to try to remember to go and get some bottles for the beer – that should have been done a few days ago. I haven’t tried the beer, but it smells like beer. Roy keeps asking me when it will be ready. I think he’s looking forward to a few cold ones.