Deck the Halls

Good Sunday to you...

Heidi and I got home today from a crazy 24 hours in NY's Finger Lakes region (Seneca Lake to be exact.) I have to say it was a good time, and even hardcore wine fanatics like our merry group reached their limit.

The Seneca Lakes wineries run an event called "Deck the Halls". You purchase your ticket and choose a winery to begin at. You get a wreath made of dried grapevines, an ornament from the winery, and then a food and wine tasting. With the serious exception of the bus trips and party limos, this was fantastic. We tasted some amazing wines (Arcadian's Cafe Noir knocked my socks off and will get a blog post of it's own) had some pretty good food (folks, next year, don't all rush for some kinda' pumpkin loaf..please) and a really cool wreath.

Now to find some room in my cellar...

Sean

Puddles

Did I tell you how tasty the Diamond is? It's reeeallllyyy tasty. A few bottles also decided to ferment. We've lost 3 (on the tile or hardwood, fortunately), but fortunately the rest are in the cold cellar where they will stay for the winter.

I'm at a loss as to why they popped. Yeah, the sugar content is high, but I added extra sulfite to prevent re-fermentation.

There is quite the silver lining though: The Diamond Champagne is even better! Makes me look forward to New Years Eve!

If I don't blog before then (and come on, it's likely I won't) have a happy Thanksgiving. There's a new poll up about what wine you'd like best with Turkey. Let me know.

Go Buy Some Wine...in a few months

Wine is just one of my interests. I'm also something of a tech geek, and try to follow where the "Tech Industry" is going. Lately, it hasn't been doing that well, thanks to some economic forces that we're all feeling.

I've mentioned Gary Vaynerchuk a few times. Not a huge fan of his podcast (love the idea, don't like the delivery) but he's out there trying to get more people to enjoy and appreciate wine. I send out mega-props to him for doing that. Earlier this week he lost a distribution deal for his show. Check out his comments on it here.

Guys like Gary are doing good for wine drinking. They're taking away the snootyness that is too often associated with it. Look around, everyone is drinking wine! Women in bars gave up Cosmos for Merlot. Single guys are now going for varietals other than Cab, Chard or Merlot and not just when they have a woman over for dinner. Even my Dad has switched from beer to wine!!!!!

But I can't shake the feeling that wine is to today what cigars were 10 years ago. Remember that? Remember when every celebrity was on the red carpet with one? Remember when people talked about Cohibas, Macanudos and Don Diegos like the secret to life was wrapped somewhere in that overprices stick of leaves? Wine is cool for the moment and if the economy doesn't improve $30 bottles of Shiraz are going to be left behind. People gotta pay the bills, you know? Expensive wine is a luxury/

And I don't think that's a bad thing. I think a lot of wine out there is overpriced. I think a lot of people saw Sideways and decided "there must be something to drinking wine..I'm going to be a wine drinker." Sigh... Yes, there is something; when you share your wine with friends and family.

I think in the next few months, wine fans are going to have a great time. A lot of wine has been ordered, and it's going to sit on the shelves. Retailers are going to want to get rid of it, and there might be some fantastic bargains out there. Do some homework, see what your local wine shop has and check back, see what's getting marked down. You probably wont find the really snooty stuff, but I'll guarantee you'll find the faux-snooty stuff, cheap.

It is my firm belief that there are a lot of fantastic sub $15 wines out there, for $30. I can't wait to be able to try them.

Or, maybe I'm just 'whining'....AH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!

Wine Bottling Night...

We're bottling tonight, should be a great time.

I have a ton of wine that's ready, but I have empty bottles for maybe 15 gallons. Having an issue with some labels. If the adhesive remover I got works it's magic, I might get upwards of 100 bottles and be able to bottle more.

What's on deck? All from last fall: Chardonnay (came out awesome...I can't believe it), Diamond (It will be great once sweetened) and the Backyard Blush, the concoction I made last year from the concord, catawba and niagara gapes in my yard. We'll see about that.

I'll post the pics when the hangover is gone.

Sean

While I was out....

So, yeah, I haven't been good with the updates. Sorry, I'm a bad blogger. I haven't been writing about wine..guess I'll just have to have my nose rubbed in wine to make sure it doesn't happen again.

What has been going on???

Winemaking has NOT been fun this year, and it bother me to no end.

I had planned on taking a week off when the grapes came and taking my time with crushing, destemming, measuring, etc. That could not happen for reasons beyond my control. So when the grapes came, I had that night to crush the reds and press the whites.

Every year Tony and I have a crushing party. I was leaving for a business trip on that day...which meant having to press on Saturday morning, by myself. There was some frantic racking to get room for the new carboys, and the red are still sitting in plastic buckets as I type this (I ran out of carboys and haven't had the time to bottle.)

It was all very rushed this year. Family and work come before winemaking, so what can one do?

But now its all turning around. This coming Saturday I'm bottling and I'll have the room for my Sangiovese and Zin.

How DID everything turn out? Not half bad! The Chardonnay tasted good after the primary fermentation. The Zin had great color and tasted about the same as every other week old Zin I've ever had. The Sangiovese was thin...we'll see how it goes. Might end up being mixed with the Zin to be a Chianti...we'll see. I didn't get to start the malolactic, and I have to order the cultures tonight. Sigh.

I'll post the pressing pictures soon, and will have a rundown of pressing night next week.

And...with the rush to get clean carboys, I racked the blueberry wine into a 5 gallon carboy and got 1/2 gallon left over. It's like blueberry flavored jet fuel, but in a good way. It's settling now, can't wait to taste it once it's cleared.

Go drink something...

Sean

The Crush...Day 1

Got the grapes today. The plan was Monday, but plans go awry.

Things went smoothly when I crushed the reds. 20 minutes and I was done. Moved the inside, added some potassium metabisulfate and pectic enzyme. I'll let them sit till Friday, then add the yeast, and all should go well. I'll get to the testing in a minute

The Chard...that wine and I are going to butt heads, I know it. Started pressing at 6:30, 2 cases into the press (doing a whole cluster press to see how it turns out), then adding one case at a time as they juice runs out. I ended up being able to press 6 cases into the space of one 6 gallon primary. Got 16-17 gallons of juice, so I'm happy.

But, it took me 3 hours to get that juice. When I went to test it, well it didn't go as planned. I used the test kit with the blue liquid and test tube. I couldn't add enough blue stuff for the juice to change color. Lovely. Tried the litmus strips....chartreuse isn't on the chart.

I tested the red and they seem a little low on acid. I'm going to test everything tomorrow with a clear head.

till then...

T-21 hours an counting

It's 8 pm on Sunday night as I write this. I will be picking up my grapes at 4:30 Monday afternoon. This is a big year; trying several different things.

1: A white wine from grapes. Yup, doing a Chardonnay.
2: Using my own press for some of the grapes. Will press the Chardonnay on Tuesday, not sure when the reds get pressed.
3: Whole cluster press: Going to toss the Chard. grapes right in the press when I get home on Tuesday and squeeze the juice out. No crush, no nothing...just pressing.

There are a few other things I'm going to do in order to get a good product. For the Sangiovese and Zin, I'm going to sulfite them right after crushing and chilling them with ice bags for 2 days. Then I'll let them warm up and begin the fermentation. They're going to do their full primary fermentation on the skins. This should be interesting, as we usually press about 1/2 way thought.

Trying a malolactic on the reds too. I'll probably begin it next weekend; let the yeast take hold before I add the bacteria. Of course, if the acid levels suggest otherwise, I'm open to change.

Still haven't decided if I'm going to add wood chips to the Chard. during fermentation. I'm reading things both ways.

Gotta go make a shopping list of stuff I need for tomorrow. I'll post day 1 results tomorrow night.

Take care.
Sean

PS: Since people have been asking, I'm not making Merlot because I'm not a fan of it at all.

Battle Plan

Good evening,

Getting my grape list together, and that also means getting my recipes and techniques together.

The wines I'm planning on make this year (and this is subject to change) are:
Chardonnay, Muscat, Sangiovese, Syrah and Zinfandel.

So what's my plan?

I'm still working on the details.

I want to make some cool things happen with my Chardonnay, and that means malolactic fermentation and careful selection of the yeast.

I want lots of grape flavors in my wines this year...and I want the phrase 'jammy' to apply. "Chewy" would be nice too.

I want to enter one or more of these in some contests next year and win.

So how will I go about all this? I've got basic recipes for each of these. I'm learning that winemaking is a lot like cooking: the quality and type of your ingredients matter. Fresh herbs taste better than dried herbs, tomatoes from your garden taste better than the ones from the store, and, does it matter that other companies make ketchup? With wine you can take your grapes (whose quality I don't have much control over, sadly) and control flavors with temp, yeast strain, when you chill the wine, when you rack the wine and even see huge differences from minor variations of pH!

Gotta go do my homework.

Sean

Tuesday Roundup

No coherent theme...just some updates.

The blueberry wine was at 1.125 brix this evening. Probably be straining it in the next 48 hours. I HAD to taste it...and it's going to be good.

Bought the wine press; it's really cool, if you're into that sort of thing. If you're not, it's a lot of metal and wood.

Had an acid problem with last year's Ruby Cab. Tested the wine (something I should have done with the 'must' or freshly pressed juice/wine) and the acid was a bit high. I adjusted 2 gallons, both fizzed up the second the calcium carbonate hit the wine. Vast improvement on the gallon that for 1 tsp, mild improvement on the gallon that got 1/2 tsp. I'll give both a few days and taste again.

Starting to get prices for grapes. It sucks...prices are up big time from last year. I'd love to see $30 a case...add that to the list of things I'd love, but ain't likely to happen.

Mike Rowe is shaving Bison. That has nothing to do with wine, but I'm in a stream of consciousness kinda' mood.

Happy Labor Day.

Sean

2008 Blueberry Wine: Part 1

Big day for the blog...first batch of wine being made here!

I HAD to have had one of the more interesting grocery carts today. I need a few items to make the wine tonight: 6 lbs of raisins, 12 lbs of sugar and 3 pts of blueberries (to bring me up to a total of 12 lbs). Add to that the box of cat litter and the nondairy creamer Heidi wanted, and I was almost nervous about getting in line. No good could come of this combination, right.

So, the wine:
Specific gravity was off the chart..or at least off my great-grandfather's hydrometer that I think saw more moonshine than wine. I broke my wine hydrometer while carrying it up from the cellar.
Acid was 2.9-3.0. I had the test strips and it was in that neighborhood. Going to get a real acid test kit on Friday and do it right.
When the must cools off I'm going to add Pasteur Red yeast.

The recipe (Full Bodied) .

We'll see how this turns out.

Till then.

Payback was pretty sweet

I worked with Jeanne for roughly 10 years. This past Thursday was my last day working near her (I've taken a new job in the company) and I guess you could say I left a parting gift...winemaking.

Jeanne and her husband Peter have several blueberry bushes on their property. I'm not aware of how many, just that they have enough to give to everyone who asks, and then some. They have so many, in fact, that Jeanne asked me on Thursday what she needed to buy to make blueberry wine. I gave her a recipe and a shopping list of equipment for her first 6 gallons and sent her excitedly on her way.

Today I stopped by to ask how it went.

Five gallons of wine did not claim enough berries (10 lbs) and Peter bought another primary to get another five gallons going. She asked 'do you want any berries?' Do I want berries? Of course.

Tomorrow I get to pick up 10 lbs of blueberries. I'll add 2 lbs of my own to fill our the 12 lbs/6 gallon fermenter. I can't wait.

Free berries, and I passed the hobby onto another unsuspecting victim. Heh Heh Heh.

To be continued on Tuesday...

The Press

It's looking like I found my press.

When it comes to home winemaking, there are really 4 kinds of presses.

First: your hands and a mesh bag. I've actually done this, and it's messy, but good for small (1-2 gallon) batches.

Second: Tabletop presses. These are small presses, usually about 1-2 gallons in size, and great for making jellies, and small batches of wine. They're sometimes called screw-presses because you're just turning a handle to lower the block the presses the fruit.

Third: Ratchet Presses. These are kinda like a reverse car jack, a handle on top, attached to a ratchet that pushes down wooden plates, forcing the juice from the fruit. The ratchet mechanism means you can generate a lot more pressure on the grapes.

Fourth: Bladder Presses. These are hydraulic presses that have a bladder inside that fills with water, applying pressure to the grapes, and out comes the juice. These are supposed to be the most gentle on the grapes, while still getting a lot of liquid.

I'm taking option 3. 1 and 2 aren't reasonable, and bladder presses start around $900. So that means I have to determine the size of the ratchet press I want. They come in a variety of sizes. If you look at the pictures on this site, the press in them is a #45. I was looking at a #25 or #30, but am finding that the price difference is usually only 50-100 dollars.

I plan on buying one press to last me the rest of my home winemaking life. The #45 will hold enough grapes to press out one demijohn, but I only make on demi per year, and like to experiment. I don't see me needing something that big. Plus, Tony has the #45, and there's no way I'll miss 'Pressing Day' at his house.

So I settled on the 40. It's a bit more than I need right now, but show me a winemaker who ever got 'smaller' over the years. Holy crap do the prices vary wildly! I got prices from $400 up to $800 for the press, and the more reasonable the price, the more unreasonable the shipping! I lucked out, and it looks like I'll be able to get it locally for a great price.

If I get it from this place, I'll be posting a link to their site and asking you to do business with them.

So, one item is about to be checked off my list for the fall.

Two weeks. I have a busy first two weeks of August, but once the 15th arrives, I really have to get things in gear.

Just sipping some of 2007's Zin. Lot of acid, should have done a malolactic fermentation. Won't make THAT mistake again.

Till then...

Sean

Two months to go

Hello everyone,

It's July 27th, that means within about two months, I'll be knee deep in winemaking.

This is going to be a big year for me. I'm buying my own press and am trying several small batches of wine from grapes, instead of just one big batch and several gallons of juice.

That's not to say the traditional Sunday afternoon pressing at Tony's won't happen...it will. I'll just be doing some pressing at home as well.

So, I have 2 months to accomplish the following:

Find a press. Easier said that done. Plenty are available online at good prices, but I want to see the press before I buy it, and I can't imagine what some of the shipping would be.

Find a supplier. We've been using one place locally, and I have no complaints, it's simply that I want to see who has what grapes, so I can pick and choose.

Decide what I want to make. I'm definitely doing Zin, Sangiovese and Chardonnay. I'd love to try a Syrah/Shiraz, a Riesling or Gewurtz, and maybe a Pinot Noir. I have a few books with tips for making wine from several types of grapes, so I'm open to more varieties. IN the end, I'd like to have one demijohn of Zin, and 5-6 carboys of something else.

Decide HOW I'm going to make them. Holy Crap! If you pick up 3 books or magazines with 'recipes', you'll have 3 different ways to make any given wine, and even within those recipes there will be subtle variations.

Bottle what I can of last years vintage. The Ruby Cab and Zin are ready. I'm hoping the Chardonnay is as well.

Finally, I have to brush up on my chemistry. When making wine from juice, the acid and sugar levels have already been set, taking a lot of the work out of the process for you. No such luxury this year.

I'll be posting what I find in a press, what recipes and techniques I use, and how last years vintage turns out. Bear with me.

Happy wine drinking!

Sean

Lively

Google created a new Avatar Chat application called Lively. Read about it here.

Gowden's Wines has a room...calling it G's Wines for now.

Stop by...chat, see who's visiting.

See you there!

Wine Festivals

Hey everyone,

It's been about two weeks...sorry for the time between posts.

We went to a wine festival a few weeks ago. A co-worker is going to one next weekend in NY. It's July, and in Pennsylvania that means air you can drink (like that rat in the Abyss who was breathing liquid). Is an outdoor wine festival a good way to open yourself up to new wines?

Watch Gary Vaynerchuk (HERE. He signed with Rev3. I fear maybe 2 of my readers know how cool that is.) He doesn't swallow the wine, he spits into a Jets bucket. Say what you want about his choice of teams, but he knows something important; If you drink the wine you will get drunk and that will dull your taste buds. It's the law of diminishing returns.

When you taste wines, where do you start? A good winery will list their wines red to white, dry to sweet. The sweeter whites can overpower your taste buds, and change the flavor of a drier red, or even a drier white. It's kinda like drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth.

Right now I can safely say NONE OF YOU are spitting your wines at a festival, and most places are so crowded, you might try to work your way from dry to sweet, but if something out of order comes by, you'll grab if.

So you're getting drunker and ruining your taste buds.

Then, like I said, deep breaths in a PA summer can be like waterboarding. How much do you want an oaky cab while standing in the hot sun? No, you want something sweeter that can kinda' quench your thirst. I wrote it before, and a wiser winemaker once told me 'Sweet sells' and that's what they have there. Doesn't hurt that the sweeter wines are best served chilled.

These festivals can be a great place to explore wine, but too often they're more about getting drunk and wineries getting some exposure and profit from their sweet wines. I see the same thing with wine buses, driving a load of people to get liquored up and have a designated driver.

It's all one huge mixed message. Winemakers have to make money, but they're also (usually) proud of their good stuff. Sometimes you can ID one of the owners and ask them what they suggest, and get a special treat. More often than not they've staffed the place with friends and family who by the 4th hour are hot, tired and fed up with the drunks. They just want to pour you the 1/2 ounce and get out of there.

I'm all for more people discovering wine. It's one reason I'm doing this blog. I would never look down on someone for liking a particular style of wine. My question to you: Have you ever gone to a wine festival with the purpose of broadening your horizons? Have you ever said 'I'm going to see what the big deal is about Cabernets?'

Okay, so they can also be about hanging with friends, hearing a few good live bands, and tasting some delicious beverages. Not everyone has a desire to expand their wine library...they like Concords and that's it.

Maybe the real magic comes later, when you open a bottle you bought and share it with someone. We come home with at least 24 bottles every year, and I don't take notes. Every bottle I open can be a surprise. Had a heckuva surprise with a whole case (see my last blog.)

So, to get back on track, is an outdoor wine festival a good way to expose yourself to new wines? I think it can be. If you research the wineries, find what they'll be bringing, and what might be interesting...then make your way to them. Ask if the owner is there, and what they suggest. But that sounds like a lot of work to me.

What about you? Have you found any 'gems' at a wine festival? Something that shocked you, in a good way?

And that's Sean's stream of consciousness for today.

Hippie Wineries

What the @!#&@! is a Hippie Winery?

Seriously, go to any wine festival and you'll hear people saying "oh you have to try Hairy Frog Winery...they're a hippie winery." Why????

What makes people thing a hippie winery will make better wine? Because in my experience hippie wines taste AWESOME at the tasting, then not unlike wet dog from the bottle you bring home.

Couple of years ago we went to the Finger Lakes and were told we had to try the wine at one winery, because "they're a fun, hippie winery." We got there, and they were racing their Coleman Coolers in the driveway. No, I'm not making that up.

They were closed, but with some cajoling, they agreed to open up for us. They opened gallon jugs from the fridge and poured liberally as we happily tasted their wares. They drank some along with us, laughing and joking...we had a ball and had so much fun that we bought a whole case of their wine!!! Were they real hippies? They dressed the part, and they all had that half-baked look...so they were at least trying.

We ended up drinking 2 bottles of that wine...the rest tasted like a locker room smells.

This past Saturday at the Wine Fest we tried a hippie winery...or at least a winery staffed by people in tie-dyed clothes. Their wine had a head on it!!! It didn't taste too bad, but I want to know why there was a layer of bubbles in the bottle. Their drier wines were very acidic, their sweet wines were better, and obviously what they expected to sell.

There were a few other stands that purported to be hippie wineries; again, loads of tie-dye, Bob Marley posters, and 'fun' labels and names. None of their wines were anything to write home about either.

Is the hippie winery a marketing ploy?

I've done a little research and found 3 kinds references to hippie wineries.
The first is recipes for wine in a jug using baker's yeast and grape juice concentrate.
The second is a winery that's organic, possibly going back to the 70's.
The third is a winery that proudly proclaims their hippie status.

So I have to wonder if the second type of reference is the source of the 'myth' of their wines being something special, or is the third the real source; painting a mental image of happy hippies making great wine, all naturally.

Anyone have any ideas or answers? Contact me at the link in the right column.

Winefest!!!

Every year a bunch of us go to a resort about 45 minutes away for the Great Tastes of PA Wine Festival.

Yesterday was the day...and what beautiful weather we had. Sunny, warm (but not oppressive) and a slight breeze keeping the bugs away. Despite some crowded places at the start, we were able to spend about 5 hours tasting, along with time for chatting, eating, and one trip to the car to unload our wine booty.

A few years ago a local winemaker told me he wasn't sure if he was going that year, because "sweet sells...that's it". After yesterday, I'm inclined to agree with him.

I tasted some good wines. There were a few spectacular Traminettes, and Chambourcins. I helped a friend drink a bottle of Cab Franc that was smooth as silk and made me crave steak (I'm a med-med well kinda' guy, but I wanted rare meat after drinking that.) One treat there is the abundance of fruit wines. If you're an elderberry wine fan, there's a lot to love here. We have a bottle of plum wine I can't wait to drink with some spicy Asian food. The there was the mint wine that could have tasted like mouthwash and did not. Not quite sure when the opportunity to drink it would be though.

Last year a young lady at one of the stands convinced myself and few of the guys to taste the garlic/pepper wine. That was not pretty, and had we seen her yesterday, there would have been a scene.

But this festival is all about the sweet wines...the Concords, Niagaras and blends. Its hot, and you can't really expect anyone to spend the day fighting crowds to drink a teaspoon of Merlot. I try a drier red if they have them, or if I get a tip on a good one. Generally, I go for the medium wines, then try a sweeter blend and maybe a fruit wine.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the 1000 Flushes blue stuff my wife and friends were sampling. Wine should not be that color.

In the end, it's a good time. You spend the day with friends, feel pretty good, and hopefully buy some wine to extend the good time to another weekend (or five.) You can buy a bottle of something good and grab lunch at one of the vendors, find a shady spot near the stream (The porta-lavs were next to it this year!??!?!) and listen to one of the bands. It's not a bad way to spend a weekend afternoon.

I want to talk about some of the trends there, the intentions of some of the places, and if something like this is really good for wine appreciation. I'll save those topics for later posts.

Have a great week!

Miscellaneous Monday

Good evening everyone,

Not much going on wine-wise at the moment. Searching online for some good prices on a wine press. Getting a list of wineries that ship grapes here as well.

The 6 vines in the backyard have a ton of grapes on them already. Granted, they look like empty grape stems, but they will have grapes, someday. Will I make a backyard wine again this year? We'll see.

Had our first night on the deck of the season this weekend. Drank some Red Cat from Hazlitt's, and Banty Red from Bully Hill. I've spoken fondly of these before. It was a warm night, and anything drier would not have been enjoyable at all.

Mike Rowe is shaving a yak as I type this. Is he a genius or twisted in ways a team of Mental Health Professionals would be shocked at?

David Beckham bought Posh Spice a vineyard in Napa Valley as a birthday gift, and possibly to give her something to do. Heidi, if you're reading this...

There's a new poll up: White wines this time. Merlot was the clear winner of the last one.

Final note: Blogger's spell check says Merlot should be spelled Mer lot. What's Mer lot?

Iced Wine

Happy Saturday everyone!

Crazy day. Planned on doing a bunch of stuff outside, but Mother Nature had other ideas, in the form of rain and a really wild thunderstorm. As I was cleaning up after dinner I noticed Heidi putting something into the fridge and said "Why don't you put that Riesling we got 2 weeks ago in for tonight?" She slyly replied "Because I put the Bully Hill Riesling in." It warm and muggy, a great night for a cold, sweeter wine, and I was looking forward to it.

Move ahead a few hours, we put Giada to bed and I was finishing up a project in the kitchen. I go to the fridge to get the wine, and it wasn't there. Checked out the door...nothing. Checked the crispers...nothing. There's Sean, scratching his bald head.

About to ask Heidi, when something said "check the freezer" and my heart sank. Four hours had passed, I was going to open the door to find a burst cork, maybe Riesling slush on the frozen peas...a real mess. Nope...just a very cold bottle. The lovely wife had figured we'd be opening it earlier than we did...I sidetracked her with other things.

Poured two glasses, handed one to her and took a sip. WHAT A SURPRISE! Bursting with pineapple, almost like a Traminette or Ravat, but not quite. Still some spice, and as my glass warms the pineapple is fading in with the rest of the flavors. But that initial taste...that's one I'll remember.

So, now the big plan is to play some Wii; Super Mario Galaxy was obviously designed by individuals under the influence of something much stronger than wine, but it's perfectly enjoyable with this icy treat.

I enjoy nights like this...simple nights. A tasty bottle of wine, silly activites with loved ones, and no time limit (got a nap today, I'm good till all hours of the night.)

Gotta go help her find a Power Star now....

We're like Crack Dealers...

The first taste is free, the second is going to cost you...

Every year a local town has a huge bash to celebrate a relatively obscure religious holiday from Italy. Given the large population of folks from Italian descent, it's not surprising that the homemade wine (or Dago Red as it's known around here) flows freely.

Two years ago I brought a bottle to a party, and the host said 'I want to do this! What do I need?" This year he greeted us with 4 gallons of his own wine.

As we sat around the yard talking, another party-goer began asking what went into making wine, how hard it is, how expensive, time consuming, etc. Tony, the guy who hooked me on winemaking, and I worked our magic on this unsuspecting individual. I'm of the belief that you start with something simple, and a small investment; no more than $100 to $150, starting with one of my sponsors' starter kits. Tony goes big "You need a few demi-johns, we'll call you when the grapes come in and we'll get you 5-6 cases of grapes. Then you'll need..."

By that time our wives and daughters were ready to leave and pried us away from the oenological seduction of poor Patrick. I promised him I'd send him some information, links to kits and supplies.

This is how it starts, you spend the money, have all the equipment for 6 gallons and make 30 bottles of perfectly tasty, enjoyable wine. You think you're done, but those bottles go quickly, and the equipment calls you. Only now, it appears cheaper to make the wine; 50 bucks for a wine kit, who can't manage that? (Especially since the equipment is sitting there.) So you go shopping for another kit...and there's 2 you want. You buy equipment for that second kit. Then the wheels start turning, and the lure of making your next batch from grapes becomes stronger.

We've all be through it.

Have a great Memorial Day!

Like mixing paint, but without the aftertaste...

When you browse your local wine shop, you might notice a few things. First, the same wines over and over; Cabernet Sauv, Merlot, Shiraz, Chardonnay and White Zin. Second, lots of 'jug' wines, wines that call themselves 'Table Wines'. Third, if you're lucky, you'll find some wines in regionally labeled sections, called Burgundy, Chianti, or Rioja.

I want to talk about the last two.

Ever have a Burgundy Grape? Go to your local garden center and say you want to grow Chianti grapes. Yes, they'll laugh at you. These wines are blends, mixtures of local grapes that carry a regional name. That Burgundy could be a mix of Cabernet, Foch and Merlot. That Chianti; Sangiovese, maybe some Trebbiano for color. Those table wines? Same thing.

Vintners blend their wines to achieve a particular result. It's like mixing paint to get just the right color. Maybe the Shiraz just wasn't up to snuff this year, so they add some Cabernet for body. Maybe that Chardonnay is a little too powerful, and they add Pinot Gris to mellow it out.

Some of my favorite wines are blends. Banty Red, Coho Red, Tears of Gettysburg, the list goes on, more than you'd want to read here. Chances are that jet fuel your grandfather brought out around the holidays was a blend. A 'table wine' is just a blend of other wines, each bringing something to the mix that the others are lacking.

The good news is that you don't need to be a professional, and you CAN try this at home. The Zin we bottled 2 weeks ago; I mixed it half and half with a sweet white made from Thompson grapes. The result? Not half bad, more than half good. I've got a dry chardonnay in the cellar I can't wait to blend. Wonder how it would go with the Zin?

Yeah, I'm blending across color lines! You don't have to mix reds with reds and whites with whites. This isn't Communist Russia, you can do whatever you want! the best part is you can drink your mistakes, and your successes!

Go buy some cheap wines and have a blending party. Lay out a few shot glasses to measure, some large glasses in case you make a lot of one, and have a fun night with friends. Do your best to note how much of what wines you mixed, in the event you get a really good one. Just make sure you have designated drivers, or plenty of space for guests to sleep.

Now I'm thirsty....

Pleasant Surprise

Doing some research on the net about wine, and I stumbled upon a website for a winery in the Scranton, Pa area: Cartegna Family Wines.

On our usual Friday night out, Heidi and I stopped by. This place is nestled in one of the most hidden spots of a local mall, down a wing that holds a hair place, and a discount clothing store. In the 9 months it had been there, we'd never seen it, and had never heard about it from any of our wine drinking friends.

We were very pleased with their wines. They have a variety of reds, whites and fruit-based wines. Their 2 blends, based on family recipes were tasty, not for someone who likes sweeter wines, but pretty easy going drinking wines. Their Syrah was delicious; with a buttery feel I was assume came from malolactic fermentation (something I'll be trying this fall.) We tried their Gewürztraminer; they let it go very dry, and to me that ruins some of the character of the grape. But, that's my opinion, and you may love it. The real treat was the late harvest Riesling. Holy Cow! This was absolutely delicious, very much a dessert wine, but holding all the traits of a Riesling.

We left with a few bottles, a blend, the Syrah and the Riesling. Can't wait to share these with some friends or family. Thinking the blend is coming out the next time we have homemade pasta and sauce for Sunday dinner.

The lesson today? Google your area for wineries. Make some time to go check them out, you might be really happy with what you find.

One last note: I love Google! Gewürztraminer came up in spellcheck!

Bottling Night Pictures

As promised, some pictures of bottling night....

2007 Gowden Winery Zinfandel

A few years ago Heidi and I had a few friends over the night we were bottling our Elderberry and Lambrusco wines. We had such a good time we decided to make it a tradition, have a small gathering for 'Bottling Night'. We put out some snacks, invite a few wine loving friends and family, and make a night of it. OF COURSE you have to sample the wine, liberally.

We set up an assembly line. I prep the wine, the bottles and get everything in place. Heidi fills the bottles (You have to watch her though; after the first glass she tends to get distracted, snapping back to the task at hand by an overflowing bottle.) We have someone cork the bottles, another put the heat shrunk capsules on, and finally someone to label them.

We were able to bottle close to four cases of wine in under 2 hours, and have fun doing it. About 30 minutes into it we heard Giada calling for us. She'd heard her aunt, Nonna and Bapa (3 of her favorite people in the world) downstairs laughing and talking, and wanted to be a part of the action. She wanted to help, and my sister was kind enough to entertain her with her 'mad peekaboo skillz'.

How was the wine? This might be my best yet. The grapes were old vine Zinfandel, pressed in Oct of 2006. Why's it 07? I date them by year they should have been bottled...something I have to correct this year. The extra 6 months of bulk aging mellowed it out, leaving the characteristic zin taste, with plenty of black pepper and a pleasant buttery feel. This is going to be tremendous with the next big pasta dinner.

I'll be posting some pictures of the event tomorrow...stay tuned.

"Green" Wine

No, the wine itself isn't green.

I recycle wine bottles. Our friends save their bottles, knowing we'll return a few, filled of course.

I have to admit, though, that it's my least favorite part of the process. Soaking the labels off, scraping the glue, brushing out the inside, scraping the last gummy bits of glue off, and my personal favorite, the bottles where the glue seems to be etched into the glass. Bravo to you bottlers! Well played!

But I prefer to do it. Yes, it's good for the environment, but more importantly, it's cheap. Bottles tend to run about a dollar a bottle. When I'm bottling 14 gallons (about 70 bottles) that's a big savings. Do this two or three times a year, and the night or two of scraping labels makes a lot of sense.

I cleaned 36 bottles tonight. Want to do another 36 tomorrow night for Saturday's bottling.

Checked Saturday's Zin, gorgeous ruby color, crystal clear and very tasty. Going to oak about 5 liters and bottle the rest. I'll be posting the pictures here on Sunday or Monday.

Sipping some 2006 Hazlitt's Riesling. Hazlitt's, a popular Finger Lakes winery is known for their Red Cat, but that's not to say they don't make some really, really tasty other wines. One Note, if you're going: they get PACKED on weekends with bus trips, limos, etc. Do yourself a favor and go during the week and enjoy what they have to offer.

Still looking for a good way to end these...

Multitasking Tuesday

Doing a lot right now: Checking stuff on the net, watching the Indiana/NC election results, and writing this blog. And I wonder why I can't relax some nights...my downtime needs organization.

Reading 2 winemaking books right now that I'm finding very interesting and enlightening.

The first: The Way to Make Wine by Sheridan Warrick. I've read a few winemaking books, but so far this is the most accessible for the beginner. He steps you through the equipment, the basic steps and clearly illustrates why you're doing what you're doing. The rest test will be when he discusses the chemistry of adding sulfites, raising or lowering ph, etc. I BARELY passed high school Chemistry and I tend to lose focus when any type of formula is shown. If I find it easy to comprehend, this is a winner.

The second: The Home Winmaker's Companion by Gene Spaziani. This is a cool book. I've never seen such attention given to alternate methods of making wine (such as from kits, concentrate and juice.) It makes perfect sense to cover these topics, because almost everyone makes their first wine from some kind of kit. If you can help them make that first batch something they can be proud of, you've got a new winemaker. Friends and family, read carefully: home winemakers love any excuse to share their wine with someone who likes it. Getting back to the book, it also delves in to many of the varieties of grapes, and gives instructions on making wine from those grapes and juices.

I wish I had these two books when I began my first wines. I've found a few things I'm doing wrong, got some great ideas for preparing the must, and reasons to buy some cool toys (refractometer...'nuff said.)

Not sure if I mentioned this, but there's a 'Cork'd' link next to the Digg link (I've yet to be Digg'd by the way.) It's a cool site where you can review wines you've had, and suggest them to friends.

And now I have to go, I've got several Twitter tweets waiting for me.

Sunday Night

Sunday night, just got back from seeing Iron Man (loved it), Heidi is scrapbooking on the living room floor, Giada is snoring away upstairs, I'm catching up on some news, and sipping Hunt Country's Ruby Port.

Heidi just asked for help with choosing pictures for Giada's first wine-crushing.

Life is good.

Bottling the 2006 Old Vine Zin this coming weekend...but more on that later. Tonight, I want to enjoy these moments.

Five months away

I can't wait till it's time to do this again!!!!

Racking Night

'Evening all!

Just finished racking some of last years stuff. Sadly, I'm guilty of a big no-no. This was the second racking after moving the wine to carboys. I should have done it a few months ago, but didn't. Oh well....

A primer on the process: Primary fermentation makes alcohol from juice. When that's done you rack (move) the wine to a secondary fermenter, let stuff settle, rack the wine off the sediment, lather rinse repeat every 3 months or so till it's clear, you're ready to bottle or bulk age.

All of these are from September and had their last racking (to the secondary) in October.

How did things turn out? Pretty well...Fate may have smiling upon me tonight.

• Red Zinfandel: Great Zin taste, still a little gassy, but that'll go away. This is going to be a good one.
• Chardonnay: Smelled great, the first part of the taste was good...the WHAM, some harshness I hope goes away. It all tasted like chardonnay, but wow...it kinda hurt.
• Diamond: Got this juice in the Finger Lakes region of NY. Smelled wonderful, very grapey, and had a definite 'diamond grape' taste, but it needs conditioning (sugar added before bottling) to get the true diamond flavor people are used to. (and by 'people' I mean my lovely wife Heidi, and our friends.)
• The backyard red: This I'm very excited about. I have 6 vines in the yard, mostly for decoration; 2 each of Concord, Catawba and Niagara grapes. Last year was insane with the amount of grapes I got. So, I made wine from them. Yep, good old Dunmore Red...hahaha. Well, the wine smells incredible...just outstanding. The taste: it's getting there. Probably will have to be conditioned, but I think I'll be happy with it.
  

In the cellar now, on top of the above, I have 12 gallons of 2006 Zin that still needs to be bottled. I have 6 gallons each of Honey Apple and Honey Grape wines from 2006 that are aging till 2009. 12 gallons of Ruby Cabernet from 2007, and the above wines.

Looking forward to a blueberry wine, and possibly a strawberry wine in the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted.

Lastly, what do you think of this? Send me your feedback. There's a poll on the right side of the screen, take it.

Till then....

Random Stuff

Some sites and thoughts today.

First up is http://tv.winelibrary.com/

I used to watch this guy's daily podcast, but I've since grown tired of it. He's a bit 'in your face' for my taste, but he's doing two really important things in wine. 1: He's blasting away the aura that wine is snooty. Thank God for that! 2: He's using tech, blogging, podcasting, Facebook, etc. to promote his love of wine.

Next up is another blogger I found. http://chezraywinery.blogspot.com

This guy is doing what I hope to be doing in a few years. Huge blog, tons of useful info if you're interested in making your own wine.

Finally there's www.the1819redbrickinn.com

This B&B is in the NY Finger Lakes region, and is our favorite place to stay when we go there. The owners, Wendy and Rob are two of the best hosts you can find. On our first stay there, we were with 2 other couples who were friends of ours. We all found ourselves in the kitchen with Wendy and Rob (where else do you end up when you're visiting someone's home?) talking and laughing till very late/early. This is not a B&B where you feel like you're staying at your grandmother's house, and everything is pristine and untouched because nobody's allowed to touch anything.

I say that wine is best drunk conversing with friends in a relaxing environment. Wendy and Rob provide the environment, and the conversation. You just need to bring the wine.

One last thing. I'm playing around with ads on the blog. I've been watching the sponsored ads for the last couple of days, and they're not shady. I'm seeing ads for wine meetups, homebrew suppliers I've bought stuff from, and wine reviews from magazines I've checked out. I'd never ask you to click on them, I'll just say I was surprised to see legitimate links.

Do I need a cool signoff?

Gluhwein

Getting a hankering to make your own wine? Try doctoring up someone else's first...make something tasty, with little, if any, investment.

It's called Gluhwein, and I thank my friend Kurt for introducing me to it.

It's easy to make and you probably have most of the ingredients in your kitchen now.

Take the bottle of red wine...the drier the better. Know that bottle you got as a gift, and have no intention of drinking? Now you have a use for it.

In a sauce pan, bring the following to a simmer:
1 cup of orange juice
3/4 cup of sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 tbl orange peel (did you squeeze the orange for the juice?)
10 or so cloves.

You want it to simmer for about 20 minutes till its a syrup (coats the back of a spoon) , then strain it into a carafe, thermos, something heatproof.
Add the wine to the syrup.
Pour in your favorite mug.

Enjoy!

Expand your Wine Horizons

I never really liked wine till about 6 years ago. Yeah, I had some on hand, gifts given when I had parties, something to cook with, and even one or two to drink, when I got around to it. I didn't dislike wine, but I did dislike (and still am not a huge fan of) Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, White Zinfandel and Chardonnay. The reds were always too dry and oakey, the White Zin left a buttery feeling in my mouth. The Chardonnay just didn't taste that good.

Then I met my future wife, Heidi, and she convinced me to go to a local wine festival. I learned about Concords, Chambourcins, Niagaras, table reds and whites that tastes like grape juice, and didn't leave me feeling thirsty! That summer we spent a weekend in NY's Finger Lakes region. I was introduced to my favorite variety: Gewurtztraminer.

The rest is history.

California does a great job of promoting it's big products; Cabs, Merlots, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Chablis....and I know several people who associated wine with those varieties. Depending on where you live, you might also associate wine with the jet fuel your grandfather made in the basement. I even know some people who drank the $4 a bottle stuff in college, and couldn't bring themselves to taste wine again.

I'm suggesting you do one thing: forget that you don't like wine. You probably do, you just haven't had one you liked. And once you find one you do, you'll find another, and another...and you might even end up liking something you didn't before.

Next time you're going past a store that sells wine, grab a bottle or two of any of the following: Red Zinfandel (drink it with a bowl of pasta), Gewurtztraminer, Reisling, Concord, Niagara, Catawba, Rioja, a decent Austrailian Shiraz (or Syrah) or any semi-dry table wine (red or white). When should you drink it? When you're looking to relax. Saturday night, you're sitting on the porch and would normally have a beer? Have a glass of wine. Cooking your favorite dinner, have it then. Just need some time to yourself (and I don't normally advise drinking alone), but pour a glass of wine, instead of having a cigarette, or scotch. The time to drink it is up to you, but open that bottle with the intention that the next 30 minutes are dedicated to relaxing.

You might be surprised to fine out that you really do like wine.

Lesson Learned: When Good Wine Goes Bad

The economics of making wine are pretty good. If I make a 14 gallon demijohn (a type of fermentation vessel) of wine, I'll get about 70 bottles of wine. At 150 bucks or so for grapes (enough to press and fill the demijohn), that's $2.14 a bottle!!!

I've made one or two wines that I would consider on par with a $6 -$8 a bottle wine (Pa. prices). When you realize you can do this, there is every reason to make sure your wine is good. The money you put in isn't a 'large' amount, but who couldn't find another use for $150 or so? If it's your hobby, you probably have to take time away from other things as well. So if you're going to make wine, take care to do it right, so you can fully enjoy the fruits of your labor.

In 2005 I made two wines from grapes: Zinfandel and Sangiovese (Chianti-styled wine). I took good care of both, watching, tasting, racking, making sure everything was perfect. The Zin worried me, didn't develop a lot of flavor at first, and was even a little harsh in late winter. The Sangiovese, however, was delicious right from the start.

My lovely wife, Heidi became pregnant with Giada in late 2005. Spring and Summer of 2006 was busy with preparing our lives, and our home for her arrival. This caused me to do something in haste that I now regret. I racked the wines for the last time in late Spring, and both were coming along nicely. I forgot to 'top off' the Sangiovese.

Oxygen, it would seem, is quite a nasty substance! Cut an apple, leave it out for an hour...see that color? O2 did that. Taking a multivitamin? Does it have 'anti-oxidents' in it? What do you think they're trying to prevent in your body?

What oxygen does to your apple, it did to my Sangiovese. When you rack wine, you have to make sure you leave as little air as possible in the fermentation vessel in order to prevent oxidation. When mid-summer came and I did a final tasting before bottling...well it was a sad moment. The wine was rust colored...it tasted acidic; not vinegar yet, but might as well have been. The wine I was so looking forward to handing out at Giada's birth was rotten.

Fortunately, the Zin was tremendous (in my opinion).

I had 13.5 gallons of bad wine in my cellar. I didn't know what to do. I'm ashamed to admit this, but I left it, with the airlock till this past fall when I needed the demijohn again. Dumping it was easier than I'd expected, but I learned an important lesson: Air+wine=swill.

So far this years wines are still tasty, and haven't been exposed to that much air. I plan to keep it that way. I'll keep you posted on the 2006 Zinfandel (we HAVE to get around to bottling it!) and the 2007 Ruby Cabernet, Zinfandel, Diamond, Chardonnay and table red made from grapes grown in our backyard!

Welcome

Welcome to Gowden's Wines blog.


I am a very amateur winemaker; have been one for 3 years now. There is nothing about it I don't love, and want to share my perspectives on wine with everyone. I want to talk about the process of making it; tasting the grapes, adjusting the must (the juice that will become wine), fermenting, racking, and the always enjoyable bottling. I want to talk about drinking wine, my own, my friends' and the stuff you buy at the store, winery, wherever.

I'm not a snob. I ask one thing of the wine that passes my lips: that it tastes good. I think wine is a singularly unique substance. If you sit with friends and open a bottle of wine, it will get emptied. The time spent sipping it usually involves conversation, laughter and often fond memories. If the bottle can provide that, then I am satisfied with its quality.

I began making wine about 4 years ago. Started with a must made of sugar and grape juice concentrate. I'd made beer in the past, and the two processes share much of the same equipment (carboy's, airlocks, racking hoses...) and mistakenly believed that their fermentation timelines were similar. I fermented for about a week, saw the fermentation slow (wasn't done, it was 'stuck' as they call it) and bottled it. I used leftover beer bottles from when I made beer, filled about 2 (beer) cases worth of bottles.

It tasted okay, but I wasn't drinking much wine for some reason. The wine sat in the cellar for a few months. I'd noticed, but thought nothing of the fact that the bottles I opened were somewhat effervescent. Oscar night, 2004, a few of us are watching the presentations and I hear a loud pop. I walk downstairs to the cellar to find total darkness when I had left the fluorescent lights on. I stepped into the darkness and something went crunch under my feet.

I had 48 bottle bombs on my hands. One had exploded and taken out the lights. There was sticky, green glass pieces all over. There was sticky white fluorescent tube glass everywhere. I had to don some heavy leather gauntlets, lab goggles, and bottle opener, over a metal sink, and pray none exploded in my hands.

Over the next 15 minutes I found little wine, but lots of foam. Every bottle I opened was like a Mentos in Diet Pepsi, and several actually propelled themselves from my grasp.

I returned to the group with a few cuts, pretty sticky from the sprays, and convinced I'd never make wine again. About a year later my friend Tony came over with a jug of his (delicious) homemade wine; sangiovese if I remember correctly, and I was determined to try again.

That fall I made apple wine (Gowden Winery's Apple of my Eye) and a more informed attempt at the Concord grape juice wine (Gowden Winery's Love Potion #1). In 2005, Tony showed me how to make wine from grapes; the result was Bella Giada Zinfandel (given away to celebrate the birth of my lovely daughter, Giada). Since then I've tried Sangiovese, Strawberry (Gowden Winery's Strawberry Stupor), Chardonnay, Thompson, Shiraz, Ruby Cabernet and even a few honey wines that are currently aging.

It's Spring here. That means warm nights on the deck with a glass of sweeter wine (Bully Hill's Banty Red perhaps?) and maybe pizza. Family cookouts; a great opportunity to bring a hearty red (Zinfandel, Shiraz and any table red you like) or fruity white (you CANNOT go wrong with Gewurtztraminer!!!!!) There's been a flurry of activity locally in the form of wine tastings, and an upcoming wine festival. So while there's not much to do with the wine that's aging in my cellar (other than rack it and bottle it), there's more then enough 'research' to do.

I've taken up enough of your time. Thanks for reading, now go share some wine, and drink responsibly at all times.