Archive for April, 2009

I very much enjoy reading “Luc’s Wjnlog.” Luc provides some really interesting information and I enjoy some of his experiments, tests and ideas for winemaking tools and accessories. If you don’t read Luc, you should. Visitors to his site the first time might not realize at first that although his posts appear to be in Dutch (I think that is the language but I’m not sure. Maybe it’s Fresian. Or German.), he always posts an English translation below.

The other day, he posted some information about making a Dandelion and Strawberry Wine. For strawberries, he has chosen strawberry jam which is an interesting idea. Jam is already loaded with lots of sugar, and he provides his calculations for any additional sugar required to make the wine based on the amount of sugar in the jam.

In my part of the world, it will be another month before the dandelions come out and one has to be careful about picking them. Have they been sprayed with weed killer?

If I can find a field filled with dandelions that I can be assured have had no poison sprayed on them, I might give Luc’s wine a try. It sounds very good!

I have finished reading a book I started a few weeks ago. I know I will be returning to this book many times as it is a source of enormous and helpful information. I’ve posted my review of Techniques in Home Winemaking: The Comprehensive Guide to Making Chateau-Style Wines here.

Go read the review. Then go buy the book.

Yesterday, I wrote about sharing a couple of bottles of Zinfandel that I had made three years ago over a Leonard Cohen concert broadcast on television. A few weeks ago, I was at the local LCBO (for those readers who do not live in Ontario, that would be the Liquor Control Board of Ontario store) where I found a “staff pick” – bottles of Cline Zinfandel. I knew that I would be opening up one of my bottles of Zinfandel (that cost me about $4.00) and wondered how it would stack up against this one that cost $14.00.

Well, the $14.00 bottle definitely was better than mine. The most noticeable difference was that the Cline had more “mouth feel” whereas mine in comparison was flatter. The aromas from the Cline were also stronger, and there were very nice vanilla notes that my Zinfandel did not have, probably due to no oaking. On the other hand, the colour of mine was exactly the same as the Cline Zinfandel, and the anise and blackcherry were a bit stronger.

All in all, I wasn’t disappointed in mine at all. I knew it hadn’t been fermented with the skins, had little exposure to any oaking, and when I was younger, I had drunk far worse stuff that cost me $4.00. I can’t afford to regularly buy $14.00+ bottles of wine, and my Zinfandel had the same gentle intoxicating effect I’m sure, as the $14.00 Cline.

But I think I am going to experiment more with oak in some of my wines that I plan to age awhile.

It’s April Fool’s Day. Did you have any pranks pulled on you? I didn’t! I’m sure if my older sons were around, I’d have been the subject of some foolish prank or three. I can remember the first time I ever heard about April Fool’s Day. I was about four or five years old, and my mother told me something or other – I can’t remember what, but it was outlandish. She then smiled and shouted, “April Fool’s Day!” Then she explained the best she could to a four year old what it meant. I’ve been known to have pulled a few pranks myself on this day in history. And admittedly, I’ve been the victim of quite a few too. When you’ve spent a lot of your life working shiftwork, it can be easy to not remember what day exactly it is.

Anyhow, I’ve been degassing my Zinfandel. It continues to release lots of carbon dioxide when I vigorously stir it for five minutes, a few times a day. This evening, there was not quite as much foaming so I know I’m getting there. I would use the Fizz-X tool, but the carboy is filled to within an inch and a half of the mouth, and I’d have to siphon out some of the wine each time and then pour it back in. It’s been my experience that the Fizz-X tool does not help to release CO2 as fast as some claim. I should try it more often, perhaps.

Primary Fermentation

I’ve got a RJ Spagnols Cru Select Australian Bush Vine Grenache that I started on March 23. Seven days later, the SG is at 0.096. The wine is still in the primary fermenter. The instructions say to rack from the primary to the secondary on Day 14. That’s the longest I’ve seen a kit say to leave wine in a primary. I am thinking the extra time is to get as much extraction from the grape skins. I read somewhere that this also greatly aids with degassing the wine by leaving it in the primary for 14 days. I’m not sure about that. Part of me does not like the idea of leaving the wine in a primary for so long especially when I’ve been taking the lid off and stirring to get the grape skins below the surface every day. We’ll see how it goes, I guess!

Leonard Cohen

What’s Leonard Cohen got to do with winemaking? Not much exactly – but I have always enjoyed Mr. Cohen, and many a bottle of wine has been enjoyed while his songs have played in the background. This evening, CBC Television broadcast a one hour portion of Leonard Cohen Live In London. If we could have, Colleen and I would have watched it together but circumstances did not permit that (I’m in jail as I write this. Kidding). So, I sent Colleen a bottle of the Zinfandel I had made three years ago, we both opened one, and watched Mr. Cohen together at the same time. I guess you could call it almost a “virtual date.” Sometimes, you just do what you have to do, although I would have preferred to sing to her in person along with Mr. Cohen, “I’m Your Man.” I couldn’t really sing it over the telephone because our televisions sets seemed to have a gap of about 2 seconds. I’m quite uncomfortable as it is with my singing voice – I think in my entire adult and teenage life, the only people who have ever heard me sing before are my sons – and that’s mostly to fun Irish Rovers music. Thankfully, Colleen graciously does not laugh at me when I sing “I’m Your Man” to her.

If I get out of jail in time, we’re hoping we can take in Leonard Cohen live, together. In London. Ontario. I don’t think I’ll be able to sneak in a bottle of Zinfandel though.