Archive for November, 2005

So, you’ve made a few five gallon batches of wine from kits, and you’re starting to really enjoy the hobby. The wine you’ve made is not half bad either! And of course, it is considerably cheaper, and if it means anything to you, you’ve also by-passed the taxman and are enjoying wine that has not had the theft of duties or taxes added to it.

You run into someone else, and during a discussion, find out that he/she also makes wine. You’re excited to find others that share your hobby, when the other person asks, “So, what have you made wine from?”

You respond excitedly, “Well, I’ve made Pinot Noir, a few Valpolicellas, Liebfraumilch, Chamblais, and my favorite right now I think is the six week Pinot kit from RJ Spagnols. And yourself?”

You get a dirty look. And then, “Oh, you’re making wine from those wine kits?”

“Uh, yeah,” you say.

And then it comes. That arrogant voice. “Well, that is not really making your own wine, you know.” And he or she sniffs with their nose in the air. “The real way to make wine is to start with grapes or fruit. Kit wine is well.. just.. not the real winemaking at all.”

You feel disappointed. The excitement you felt at first, meeting another winemaker, and hoping to share some thoughts, or get some advice is blown out of you.

Yes, wine kit snobbery does exist. And you may run into it from time to time. But don’t let it get you down at all. In fact, you are likely to learn more over the next year by using wine kits then the snob did in his or her first year, and first attempt at making wine from the grapes or fruit.

And guess what? You didn’t need to wait a year for your wine to age before you could sample it. And it wasn’t half bad at all, was it?

Yes, you will come across this. But don’t let it bother you in the least. Of course, there are differences in making wine from a kit, where everything has been done for you initially, including ensuring the “balance” of the concentrate you buy is what will produce a nice wine.

But so what? Drink it and be merry, learn if you wish, expand your winemaking skills only if you want to. Snobs are among us, regardless of what we do in life – perhaps it’s a good time to ask yourself, “Am I snobbish about anything I do that I think is the right way to do it, and thereby turn off someone else’s quest for learning more?”

And then get on with your own hobby. Whether you decide to go from handy kits that will make you very nice wine in 8 weeks to making it from grapes or fruit that will take a year to age well, it matters not. This is the only life you have, it is not a dress rehearsal for something else, and you do deserve to enjoy your own fruits of your labour – whether it is from a kit, or berries you’ve hand picked.

If you decide to carry on, keep in mind that snob though. Someday, you may be able to retort right back, “Well, did you actually hand pick those grapes yourself? Use a machine? I handpicked my own blueberries, and I know exactly what blueberries I discarded and that which I decided to keep for my winemaking.”

Don’t worry about snobs. Life is too short. Enjoy what you enjoy, and make no excuses for that which YOU enjoy.

Back in August, I started a red currant wine using this recipe. Today, I racked that wine, and had a wee taste of it. That is some tart stuff! They say it can take up to two years for a red currant wine to taste good and lose that extreme tartness, so I’m not surprised.

I did notice that there was still a lot of CO2 in the wine so I’ll spend some time over the next few days shaking the carboy in an attempt to help get rid of that. Then I’ll set the carboy down in the basement and just leave it there while it ages.

Of course, I’ll have to remember to check the water level in the airlock every so often, but if I’m convinced it’s completed degassing, I may just seal the bottle while it ages.

… he racks wine.

Couldn’t sleep the other night, because of excitement about a bunch of different things, and even though I was sipping on some wine, was wide awake and wanting to do something.

So I racked some wine.

First, I racked the Granache I’m ageing in bulk for a few months. I am however, out of red wine that I can drink (well, that’s not totally true – I have some bottles, but committed myself to ageing them for a year before drinking), so I’ve thought about bottling the Granache to consume.

The juice only cost me $40.00, and it was pure juice – not from concentrate – and their’s about 19 litres which will net me 25 .750 ml bottles – $1.60 a bottle – so I’m tempted to stock up again on my “for immediate consumption” red wine.

But then, Granache can age so well! Decisions, decisions.

I also racked the two carboys of Reisling. The specific gravity of both was about 0.998 – so it will be a slightly off dry wine as I stabilized it at the same time as racking. The lees in both were heavy so I ended up filling one 5 Imperial (6 US) gallon carboy, a 4 Imperial gallon carboy, and 1/2 gallon jug. I’ll use the 1/2 gallon jug for topping up the other carboys.

At the moment, I’ve got about 90 bottles of white wine – Gewurtztramiener and the “Festa Juice” blend I started back in August, as well as Liebfraumilch.

And all this red beer too! I think I need to have a party or something. Anyone in for a blogging get together party in Orangeville anytime soon?

Fatemeh has begun the wrap up for Wine Blogging Wednesday #15, and some really interesting and yummy sounding wines have been reviewed. If you’ve been following along, this month the instructions were to find a wine of which only 250 cases or less were produced.

Fatemeh hasn’t been able to complete the wrap-up and has chosen to do it in two parts – I’m sure trying to read and list 29 different reviews is a task in itself, best done over a glass or three of wine!

I’m looking forward to reading the whole list and hopefully there will be some interest in Jens idea on trading some of these micro winery offerings.

This month’s edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday is being hosted by Gastronomie and what a challenge this was for me!

Find a wine of which only 250 cases are made, and better yet, from a winery that produces less than 1,000 cases in total.

Well, I found all that and more!

First, let me tell you about the wine:

It’s called Divine Gooseberry, which may seem like a bit of a corny name for a wine, but we’ll discuss how “divine” it is shortly. It is made by Scotch Block Country Winery in Halton Hills, Ontario, about a 4o minute drive from my home.

When the theme for this month’s WBW came up, I had thought it might be time for my first visit to Scotch Block. I headed down there last week, and when speaking with winemaker Fred Bulbeck, he laughed when I asked him whether any of his wines were made in quantities of less than 250 cases. He pointed to the small number of shelves in the shop, and exclaimed, “They’re ALL under 250 cases!”

In the end, I purchased three different wines. Fred advised me that the gooseberry wine went very well with spicy food. I have not made curry in a while, so I thought it would be the perfect wine to feature on WBW, along with spicy East Indian ginger and curry chicken dinner (yes, I can cook as well).

I poured the wine into our glasses, and was impressed with the colour – a sort of translucent golden or peachish colour with a watery rim (after writing this, I visited the Scotch Block website where they describe the colour as “deep almond with just a hint of copper.” I’m not sure about the “deep almond” part).

On the nose, there was really not much there – almost like the smell of a spritzer – tonic or mineral water and white wine. We really weren’t expecting very much as far as taste goes after that.

However! It was quite delightful. It has a bit of an effervescence on the tongue (although the wine is most definitely a still wine) which passes with enough “bite” on the tongue to create a lot of interest. What is this exactly? I’ve never tasted anything quite like it, but there was a nice hint of apple aftertaste.

But we weren’t done yet. Wine and curry… I’ve never really had a wine that seemed to compliment curry before so, let’s dig into our spicy curry chicken and rice. Another sip of “Divine Gooseberry,” and we both exclaimed, “Wow, is that ever good!” Indeed, the curry almost seemed to make the wine taste better.

There is also a hint of Chamblaise in this as well, but you know you are not drinking a grape wine. It’s quite a remarkable as well as unique taste, and I’m grateful to Gasteronomie for such a challenging theme this month that introduced me to this fruit wine. Now I plan on trying to make my own homemade gooseberry wine – it’s sure to be a favourite around here.

Details
Divine Gooseberry
Alcohol: 11.5%
Cost: $12.95 Canadian (a steal really).

If you enjoy curry, I’d highly recommend you try to find a gooseberry wine to go with it.