Fun way to get into Winemaking

Yesterday the wife and I were doing some shopping and stopped for a coffee. Right next door there was a place called Vintner's Circle. We spent about 20 minutes chatting with the owners Stan and Joanne and I was impressed.

Here's how it works: You pick a style of wine from an array of available kits. You pour the juice in the primary fermenter, add any ingredients suggested, the yeast, and let the wine ferment. About a week later (and my timetable may be wrong) you'll return to put it into a secondary fermenter (awesome carboy cozy included!!!) On your next trip you'll stir up the wine to release CO2 and add your clarifiers. About a week or more later you'll go back to bottle the wine.

The prices are fair...it's a business so he has to make money. You'll end up getting close to 30 bottles, and spend about $10 a bottle. That includes your kit, the bottles, personalized labels and the use of their equipment.

For that price, how is the wine? The wines I tasted there (made on the premises from the available kits) were better than anything I've made at home from grapes. I would pay $10 or more for a bottle of these wines in a store. They were really, really good.

Here's the lowdown: If you like wine and would like to try it out; this is for you. If you want to make your own wine but don't want to invest in all the equipment at first; this is for you. If you'd love the idea of showing up on a friends' deck with a bottle of wine, oh and it just happens to be one you made, and it just happens to be delicious; this is for you.

Blog note: I know I keep saying I'm going to post more often. I'm not promising anything, but I have a few wine things going on, and have recently started making beer. I expect I'll have more blogging material.

It's nice out...grab a glass and head to the porch. You'll be happy you did.

2009 Gowden Winery Gewurztraminer

There's some concern in my cellar today...

Pressed my Gewurztraminer this afternoon. It was cold pressed, just like yesterday's Riesling, and 108 lbs of juice easily gave up 7 gallons of juice. I saved some must for testing and put campden tablets in.

Sugar content was very good, 1.9 or 23 brix.

My acid was way, way low...coming out at 2.0. I have to figure out the amount of acid to add back to the must, but I'm not happy that the acid is THAT low. 4 or 5, I can expect that. This is just wrong.

I rechecked the Riesling and it was still around 6.1. The pinot...more concern: 2.8.

For the record, I'm lousy in math and chemistry, so it's a crapshoot from here on out.

This can go either way.

2009 Gowden Winery Johannesberg Riesling

Got an unexpected, yet pleasant email today that the grapes were in a few hours early. That meant the crush could begin today!!!

The Riesling grapes were plump and ridiculously sweet. They tasted like candy, with bitter little seeds. Chucked them right in the press for what's called a 'cold press' and 2 hours later I had a 5 inch ring of pressed grapes and 7 gallons of juice.

Checked the sg: 1.100. The acid level is 6.1. I added 7 campden tablets to the must, along with Premier Grand Cuvee yeast and 2 nutrient tablets.

And now I wait.

The plan for tomorrow is to press the Gewurztraminer. The Pinot Noir was crushed today, and I'll talk about that in a few days, when there's something to write about.

Yeah, this weeks posts will be dry, I'm using it as a way to track my wines' progress, since I'm terrible at logging this stuff in a notebook.

See you tomorrow.