First Wine, First Taste

My first wine was a pinot noir kit that I got for 20% off when I got my equipment.  I started it in February and bottled it in June.  At bottling, I described it as an anonymous California AVA pinot (which is not a flattering description).  I opened the first bottle yesterday, and it has matured into a passable pinot.  I am not yet ecstatic, but the prospect of 30 bottles of it no longer frightens me.

I also opened the first bottle of my 2010 chardonel.  At bottling, it was flabby and looked like a disappointment.  A few months in the bottle and It matured into a decent wine.

I am now looking for a few pails of frozen must to hold me over till next harvest.  Surprisingly, they are not easy to come by.

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Wine press update

Well it’s been a while (I’ve been voluntarily unplugged).

The wine press is basically finished…my buddy just has to finish sealing it.  It went together fairly well, although we did have to make a couple of trips to the hardware store to pick up screws that the kit was missing.  We deviated from the instructions a little because my buddy had a better way to to do it.  As soon as it’s fully done, I’ll post a pic.

I’ve bottled my Pinot kit.  I don’t think it’s my kind of Pinot, and I’m afraid that I’ve got 30 bottles of wine that I’m not going to like.  Right now I’m hoping for a cellar miracle.  I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, “Never again”.

I have a batch of sauvignon blanc and a batch of buckwheat mead clarifying.  They should be ready to bottle in a month or so.  I also have a batch of sauvignon blanc just finishing up MLF.

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Wines Update

Last week I racked off my Sauvignon Blanc. I think I may have stunted the fermentation for the non-MLF portion. Racking it off the sediment and adding meta is a sure-fire way to stop the fermentation. I transferred some of the wine and lees from the MLF-to-be portion, and it seems to have restarted (I hope). Yesterday, I inoculated the MLF portion with the MLF bacteria. The instructions say that it can take 1-3 months.

When I did my daily check of my Pinot Noir batch, I saw that the wine was moving into the airlock (pressure changes I guess). I drew off a small portion and installed a clean airlock. I tasted the wine and, OMG was it bitter. I almost have enough bottles, but there’s no way I’m bottling it like that. I’ll let it age a little longer, and taste it again.

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Sauvignon Blanc, Day 1 & 2

Well, I pitched the yeast for my Sauvignon Blanc batch Friday night. Saturday morning the must was at 66deg F. At 2:30 that afternoon, I agitated the carboy and an inch of foam rose to the surface. I replaced the cheesecloth “lid” with an airlock. A couple hours later, the airlock was bubbling about once every five seconds. The temp was 70deg F, which is higher than what I want (and above the manufacturer’s suggested range), so I moved it to a cooler location.

This morning, the must was at 65deg F, while the ambient temp was 57deg F. It’s good to see the must get above ambient temp. My first batch, the Pinot Noir kit, never did.

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Clarify (Take 1)

It’s been two weeks since I added the meta, potassium sorbate and chitosan.  The instructions said to check the clarity today.  I put some into a wine glass, and it was far from clear.  In that case, the instructions said to give it another week.

I hadn’t sanitized the wine glass, so I couldn’t really put it back…so I gave it a taste.  It smelled strongly of fruit and had a harsh taste (I dumped most of it out).

Well, I went back and gave it a good stir.  I’ll check it again next week.

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Broiled Tuna & Zucchini with Apricot-Cinnamon Glazed Carrots

I started some water boiling in a skillet for the carrots, and sliced and salted the zucchini.  Once the water was boiling, a threw in the baby carrots and put on the lid.  I put a little oil in two cast iron skillets, put the tuna steak in one and the zucchini in the other.  I broiled them while the carrots were pan steaming.  When the carrots were done, I put them in a glass bowl, added a spoonful of apricot fruit spread and some Ceylon Cinnamon.  I put the lid on the bowl and shook it to coat the carrots.  I put some lemon juice on the tuna and plated it with the zucchini.  I transferred the carrots to a regular bowl and served it all with a Mendocino Castle Rock “Pinot Noir”.  Pinot Noir is in quotes because I have doubts about whether it is actually Pinot Noir.  I’m quite the Pinot fan, and this doesn’t taste like any other Pinot I’ve ever had (it reminds me of a Merlot).

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Wine Clarification

Well I was waiting for the wine to have a specific gravity of less than 0.996, unchanged for two days.  On Sunday and Monday, it was 0.990 so I was ready to proceed.  I mixed the potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate with a little water and added it to the carboy.  Mixing a six gallon container thru an opening about 1.5 inches wide was not exactly easy.  What I ended up doing was using a long wooden dowel and using one hand on the opening like a fulcrum and stirring with my other hand.  After mixing that for 2 minutes, I had to add the chitosan and mix for another two minutes.

The last step was to top off the carboy.  Since fermentation was complete, there would not be any CO2 to insulate the wine, so I couldn’t have a large air space at the top.  The instructions said to use water, but I could not bring myself to add that much water.  I added a partial bottle of Pinot Noir that I had on hand (about a glass full) but that didn’t even put a dent in the headspace.  I checked my wine rack, but my winemaking adventure had left me a little understocked.  I had a classified Bordeaux, but that wasn’t happening.  The only only suitable red that I had was a Pinot Noir that I had been looking for for some time, so no to that one as well.  I ended up going to the store and picking up a magnum of reasonably priced French Pinot Noir.  It took the whole thing.  I couldn’t image adding 1.5 liters of water at that point.

I’m supposed to let it clarify for 14 days and then it’s ready to bottle.  Although I’m planning on letting it age for awhile before bottling (at least until I scrounge up enough bottles).

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Change of Venue

Well, I had my fingers crossed while secondary fermentation was going on and was working on collecting enough bottles to hold all the wine.  Then I read in The Art and Science of Wine by Halliday & Johnson, and it said that Pinot Noir must reach 86deg F (30deg C) during fermentation.  86 DEGREES!  The only place in my house that reaches 86 degrees in the winter, is my oven.  Yesterday, I read a suggestion online about fermenting in your water heater closet.  My water heater shares a closet with my furnace.  I checked the temperature and it was about 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the house, but still not 86 degrees.  Still, I’m sure any little bit will help, so I moved my carboy into the closet.  I would be leery of doing this during primary fermentation (since the wine isn’t sealed) but now the airlock should keep anything from contaminating the wine.

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Wine progress

My wine-to-be is showing a specific gravity of 1.028, and a little bit of foam.  I need an SG of 1.000 to 1.010 before proceeding.

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Wine update

My PC has been down, so I haven’t posted an update.

I started my batch of wine on Saturday morning.  The instructions say that primary fermentation should take 5-7 days.  I just checked it, and the must is at 68deg F (1 degree above ambient) and is showing a specific gravity of 1.034 (down from 1.074 when I started).  The instructions say that it should drop to 1.010 before proceeding.  There’s no foam but it’s fizzing pretty good.

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