Archive for April, 2006

Tomorrow morning, I’m supposed to be waking up bright and early to enjoy the “Opening Day” of Trout Season with my 14 year old son. I fear I am not in bed as early as I hap hoped to be though. But we’ve got a couple of days to spend together, and perhaps Sunday will be the best, as that is the day Colin will also be getting some fly casting lessons and pointers from one of the top Canadian fly fishing guides and instructors, Ian James.

In the meantime, I did start a new kit this evening, which I’ve begun a review on. The kit is a “Fontana Premium” 10 litrie juice, apparently of Valpolicella variety.

If you are interested, you may read my review here: Fontana Valpolicella.

Yup, more wines to discuss.. but this weekend.. I’m waving a stick in a river, chasing trout with my son.

As has been too common for me lately, I’ve been very busy with a bunch of different things – some good, and of course some activities to ensure the bills get paid. But do not fear, I am still passionate about my winemaking hobby! This past week, I spent some hours on racking wines and getting a “quick taste” while starting the syphon for each of them.

So some notes, which include comments on taste, where it was noteworthy, according to me, to pay attention to that:

1. Blueberry – On November 15, 2005 I started 5 gallons of blueberry wine according to this recipe – but I used DV10 yeast. The specific gravity this past week was 0.990 – very dry – and I’m not sure I’ll use this yeast again for blueberry wine, but we’ll see how it turns out with more time.

First, the bouquet was not very attractive. Admittedly, I only had a quick, little taste – not a mouthful – but I did not enjoy it nearly as much as I did this blueberry wine. There was something I liked about it, but it didn’t beg for more, if you know what I mean. Perhaps this will be an acquired taste? Perhaps I should try a batch where I stop fermentation before it dries off so much?

Other notes – the wine is very clear, and this IS notable in that no clearing agents were ever used. As well, the wine is still with virtually no indication of any remaining CO2. I’ll take the pro’s advice though, and not even think about bottling for several more months.

2. Dry Mead: I started 5 gallons of dry mead according to this recipe on February 5, 2006. One interesting observation about this is the amount of CO2! Incredible. Tiny little bubbles when attempting to degass with a Fixx-X – that result in something similar to a head on a beer. In fact, there was so much CO2, that after a few seconds of Fizz-X use, the carboy overflowed so much, that I ended up racking into a 4 gallon carboy with just a little bit left over from the 5 gallon. The floor was a mess.

3. Gooseberry: Readers will know that I started Gooseberry wine on November 28, 2005. This recipe was used. When I racked this past week, the sediment on the bottom was like a very fine dust, although there was quite a lot of it. I had to be careful during the racking to disturb it as little as possible. The wine itself is crystal clear however.

I tasted a small amount, and yes! This wine DOES taste like more. I didn’t sample enough to come up with any tasting notes, but this wine will be wonderful with some curry dishes.

4. Parsnip Wine: I started my parsnip wine on December 10th, 2005. I used this recipe, based on the one found in Making Wild Wines And Meads (book review here). This is another crystal clear wine without the use of any clearing agents. At this point, it has what I would call an interesting bouquet – not overly attractive on the nose, but not repulsive either. The very small sample I managed to taste in order to get the syphon going suggested a bit too much “bite,” but at the same time pleasant tasting. Perhaps I’ll experiment a bit more with this, try a different yeast and perhaps not let it dry off so much. The specific gravity of the parsnip wine is 0.990.

5. Blueberry Melomel: Ah, now this had a very pleasant, “drink more of me” taste. My paper notes in front of me don’t make mention of the specific gravity of this and the log card is over on the carboy – but regardless, I started this melomel in January of 2006, so it really has not aged at all. I used this recipe. This racking, I added a 1/4 teaspoon of sulphite and topped up and of course, will let it age a while before racking again.

So that was my week. I also did some racking of some wine kit wines as well, but I’ll save those for another day.

Every hobby has some task that is not quite as enjoyable as the other tasks. For me and my home winemaking hobby, it’s the cleaning! In fact, knowing I have to clean up afterwards, sometimes puts me off doing some part of my hobby. This evening, I’m going to rack some wine from a primary into a carboy. I should have done it last week. But with company staying from out of town, and the job of cleaning out the pail afterward put me off.

How about you? Are there any tasks in particular you don’t enjoy?