Archive for March, 2009

One reason many people do not learn to truly appreciate wine is because of the appearance of “wine snobbery” that exists in the world of wine. It’s unfortunate as wine can be appreciated in many different ways. When I drink a glass of wine, I don’t always stick my nose into the glass and then stick my nose into the air and with flourishes of my hands, try to come up with grandiose words to describe what I’ve just sensed. Although, it can be fun and interesting to learn how to detect various aromas in wine – but it’s not necessary in order to enjoy it.

Another attitude that sometimes comes across as “wine snobbery” is that which suggests only some types of wine should be eaten with some types of food. While I agree that the right choice of wine will compliment dinner, I also know that sometimes, I can enjoy any type of wine with whatever food I happen to be eating. Interestingly, I came across an essay in the most recent issue (Mar/April 09) of Silver and Gold magazine by Michael Pinkus, entitled “You’re Having What With That?! The ‘myth’ of wine & food pairing.” Mr. Pinkus who is the Founder of Ontario Wine Review suggests that pairing wines with foods originated with pairing regional food with regional wine. But here in North America, we don’t have the same very distinct regional dishes that the Old World, where wine with dinner first originated, has. Pinkus writes in his article,

“However, we still haven’t fully developed “regional cuisine”, beyond what’s local. We’ve become accustomed to a culinary canvas of steak and frites, Kraft Dinner and hamburgers – and what in the world goes with that? For that I will give you my standard answer: Whatever the heck you want!”

Michael Pinkus suggests that we try anything with any wine, and experiment for ourselves. I say that is good advice!

I was glancing at the headlines of one of the local newspapers and noticed one about saving money on your wedding. I had no idea that the average couple, when they got married, spent almost 25 Thousand dollars on their wedding! That’s ridiculous. Apparently more and more couples are realizing how ridiculous it is to fork out that kind of money when really, it’s all about the celebration with friends, not enormously priced flower arrangements that will wither in less than a week, and all the other accouterments that are mostly just decorative.

Another way you can save money on your wedding costs is to consider making your own wine for the event. Depending on how many people will be attending, this could be a huge savings for you, and it’s likely you can make wine that will be comparable to that which would be served if you purchased it from the liquor or wine store. And how much can you save? Well consider that many venues and halls mark up the retail cost of a bottle of wine by double or more, making a ten dollar bottle of wine cost you twenty or more dollars and multiply that by 2 bottles (one red, one white) per table. Then consider that you could make 30 bottles of either red or white wine for around three dollars a bottle. If you have twenty tables at your wedding, that’s a savings of $680.00. I can think of a lot of things I could do with an extra $680.00.

You will of course need to do a little bit of planning. You’ll probably want to start your winemaking well in advance of the big day. If you decide to go with a more expensive ultra-premium wine kit for the red wine, think at least a year in advance to give that wine a chance to develop some maturity and character (if you don’t have a year, you can still use the wine – it just won’t be as great as it has potential for). You will also need to think about where you are going to store the bottles of wine you have made. This may also have a bearing on the type of closure you choose for your wedding wine bottles: Bottles that are sealed with real cork should be stored with the bottles laying down so that the cork does not dry out. The newer synthetic cork closures do not require this way of storage.

You could think about spending some of the extra money you’ve saved on unique bottles for your wine, and even your own custom labels. So not only might you save money on wedding by choosing to make your own wine, you can make the event even more personal by supplying your guests with something you’ve made yourself.

Many of the stores and shops that provide winemaking supplies and a facility for making wine on their premises also offer Wedding Wine Packages and can help you plan ahead and choose the right wine for your wedding day. They will have more information on any legal requirements that you might need to meet in order to provide your own wine at your wedding, and will know more about the venues in your local area that will co-operate with you should you decide to serve your own wine at your wedding.

I grew up in a tradition that some may know or understand, where on the 1st day of the week, bread and wine had much significance. I find it interesting that some that grew up in similar traditions used grape juice instead of wine and have such an intolerance toward anything with alcohol. Some years ago, I even heard a preacher rail against alcoholic beverages, claiming that “alcohol” was the excrement of yeast. Funny – he didn’t seem to mind eating bread with his grape juice on Sunday mornings – bread that had been risen with the use of yeast. And of course, one wonders how the disciples and apostles back in the day were able to preserve grape juice and keep it from turning into wine in the first place.

But that’s a matter for another blog of a different topic. Maybe I’ll start one day on Theology. This evening, I baked bread, racked wine and took specific gravity readings. It was time to add the sulphite and sorbate to the Old Vines Zinfandel that I racked back on March 6 from the primary. As I expected, there was no change in the specific gravity of this wine: 0.996.

I really like the Mexican 6 US gallon carboys. They are stouter than the other carboys I have, and seem to take about a half cup or so less in quantity so there is rarely a need to ever top up after racking from the other type of carboy. Such was the case this evening.

The Zinfandel does contain a lot of Carbon Dioxide. Part of the routine of stirring in the sorbate and sulfite includes lots of vigorous stirring. I cannot completely fill the Mexican carboy when I do this – I need to remove a good cup of wine in order to have lots of space for the inevitable foaming. I will add the fining agents that the kit came with, but not until I’ve done lots of degassing and promote the release of the CO2.

While all this was going on, I was baking the No Knead Bread. The kitchen is filled with the wonderful smells of bread baking! Perhaps tomorrow I will break bread and drink some wine. I’d have a slice tonight, but the loaf is still crackling as it cools.

Prior to all of this, the “wee man” and I recorded some specific gravity readings on a piece of paper, which I then promptly re-recorded in my log book. It will be nice to save the “wee man’s” printing and numbers though and I’ve kept copies inside my log book.

But for anyone interested in following along:

Cru Select Old Vines Grenache:

March 23/09 – Starting SG: 1.106
March 26/09: 1.054
March 27/09: 1.031

California Connoisseur Liebfraumilch:

March 25/09 – Starting SG: 1.080
March 26/09: 1.072
March 27/09: 1.060

Mystery Wine:

(Ahh.. this one is screwed up because of the stuck fermentation which I unstuck),

March 11/09 – Starting SG: 1.104
March 13/09: 1.092
March 19/09: 1.054
March 20/09: 1.046
March 21/09: 1.042
March 23/09: 1.030
March 25/09: 1.028
March 26: 1.021
March 27/09: 1.019

One of these days, I’ll start plotting these values. Might be interesting to see this graphed out.

So how was your home winemaking day?

Finally, the “Mystery Wine” fermentation has become “unstuck.” Reinoculating it much earlier is probably what I should have done in the first place. At the first sign of sluggishness, opening a one dollar pack of yeast would have been the best thing. But I also wanted to see what would happen with this wine and the yeast I had initially inoculated it with.

I’m curious as to how it will turn out in the end – perhaps like other things in life, that which has challenges can end up being the very best with some tender loving care. Something I have to remind myself – time is often the best way to overcome issues, with just a little bit of a catalyst, and then some patience.

I realized the other day that although I had several red wines on the go, I had no whites! And summer is coming, and on a warm day, it’s nice to sit back and sip on chilled white wine. I also like Liebfraumilch. I haven’t made one in awhile. When I was at the local shop I frequent (too often), they had a Liebfraumilch available in a “California Connoisseur” series by Vineco. So I decided to pick it up and at least have some white wine on hand from my home winemaking activities for the summer. I’ll probably have to make more if I really want enough to last the summer though!

I’m not all that impressed with Vineco calling this a “Premium Wine Kit,” but it will make a decent wine. Anyhow, my review of the wine kit is here.

I have seldom had a stuck fermentation. When it happens, it can be a bit annoying, to say the least. I’ve written a few times about my “Mystery” Wine that I’m not exactly sure what the fruit berries are. The other day, I mentioned that the fermentation was sluggish, so I added some yeast nutrient. That seemed to get things going for a day or so, but the past two days have shown no movement on the specific gravity scale.

So I have a stuck fermentation. I don’t know why. It’s not from unsanitary equipment. I know that for sure. It’s not because of any temperature extremes. Other wines I have fermenting right beside it in the same room, and that room is about 70 F. The only concern I have about it is the PH is at the low end of the scale – 3.1 – but that should have nothing to do with the fermentation.

The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the packet of yeast I used was just not up to the job. I had some fresh packets (always, always, always have fresh packets of Lalvin EC-1118 yeast on hand!) of yeast, so I have reinoculated it, and we’ll see what happens. Before reinoculating, I did rehydrate the yeast first for a couple of hours and hopefully get a head start and get this thing going again.

More on this one in a couple of days. Ah, the joys of home winemaking!

Ever had one of those days where things went really well, you were very productive, and not only that, some hard work over the past several weeks was starting to pay off? Those who own their own businesses will probably know what I mean – sometimes, you can work very hard at a project or an idea, and nothing much comes of it – other times, it can be very exciting to see that an idea and then implementing that idea shows a heck of a lot of promise!

That was my day today, and another reason why we should always be optimists no matter what. Examine what things don’t work, change them, adapt, and try again when you believe in something. Sort of like home winemaking!

A couple of things – I took another specific gravity reading today of the “Mystery” Berry wine that seemed to have a very sluggish fermentation. Two days ago it was at 1.042, today it is 1.030. It’s probably a bit lower in reality as there is still bits and pieces of the berries in the juice, which will affect the reading. I had a thought – not sure if it was a good thought or not – but I decided to make up a bentonite slurry – just under a 1/4 cup of boiling hot water and 3 teaspoons of bentonite stirred in, and added that. Perhaps it will help some of the pulpy bits to settle over the next few days, when I hope to rack it.

The other thing I did was start the second part of the “Special Wine” that I wrote of previously. As I mentioned, I’m planning on blending a KenRidge GSM with a Cru Select Australian Bush Vine Grenache.

This evening, I started the Grenache kit. Interesting kit – lots and lots of oak! A little bit different than the KenRidge GSM – and here’s my review of the Cru Select Premium Australian Bush Vine Grenache.

You’ll note there are a couple of minor issues with the instructions that come with the kit, but overall, a good kit – and at $110.00 retail, here’s hoping it will turn out superb!

Happy Home Winemaking to you!

I just came across this very basic recipe by John Gorman. Mr. Gorman says that maple wine tastes like “ambrosia.”

Thought I’d post this here for future reference. My bookmarks folder is quite disorganized and I likely wouldn’t find the link again.

The sun is shining brightly outside, and the other day I heard geese flying north. Although it’s still below freezing, warmer weather is sure to arrive. We’ve already had a number of days where the temperature rises to above freezing during the day, but drops below at night. Perfect weather for collecting sap from the Maple trees.

I’ve been thinking of purchasing some maple syrup to try making wine from that, but the price of the stuff is getting out of hand! One litre sells for $29.99 retail. When I was a young boy living in what is now industrial and residential but then was maple trees and farms, we had gallons of the stuff from our neighbours. Those were the days! It was fun to see the sap boiling outdoors in big cast iron cauldrons over an open fire that would be kept going 24 hours a day.

My potato wine has the appearance right now of a medium maple syrup. Not very appetizing as far as wines go. But it will clear eventually. I racked it into a 3 gallon carboy yesterday – it had been 7 days since I started it, and the specific gravity was 1.020.

The “Mystery” wine is showing much better fermentation signs now, although I did forget to take an SG reading. I’ll have to do that later today, and crossing fingers that it will be showing a considerably greater fermentation rate that previously.

Ah, the adventures of home winemaking!

I’ve been monitoring closely my “Mystery” wine that I suspect the the majority of the berries were dark gooseberries, but possibly something else mixed in. It was started on March 11: Ten days ago. At the time, it had a starting Specific Gravity of 1.104. I used Lalvin EC-1118 yeast.

Several days later, I started the Potato Wine. Again, I used Lalvin EC-1118 yeast. It had a starting SG of 1.128. Yet within six days, it was down to 1.026.

After ten days, the “Mystery Wine” SG is 1.042. The fermentation seems sluggish to me. I think it should have been down to this SG several days ago, at least. So I added a 1/2 teaspoon of yeast nutrient, dissolved in about an 1/8 cup of water, to the five gallons of fermenting wine. About four hours later, there is obvious improved activity going on with significant more Carbon Dioxide being created. Was it the yeast nutrient?