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The question is . . . are you talented enough to press the correct buttons with your "shapely abdomen"? Now that would be an exhibition of mad skills.

Saturday was the annual volunteer Riesling picking day at Keuka Lake Vineyards (Finger Lakes). Volunteers show up at 9AM to pick grapes all day with a break for a delicious lunch. This year we were fortunate to be part of a fun and enthusiastic crew. The 15 of us picked 2 blocks, somewhere...

My wife snuck behind my back the other day and opened ceeaton's Raspberry wine. Fortunately, she saved more than half the bottle to share with me last night. Truly delicious. Not near as tart and berry-ish up front as mine and much deeper color. Really nice mouthfeel and the refreshing berry...

I'm not sure what the product actually is, but the description "Good Feeling Excellent Function" tells me I need one. Probably not the German version.

Yes . . . but aging in the carboy forcibly curbs any temptation to open a bottle prematurely now and then. This is a great deterrent to the pilfering of young wine.

Opened an Eclipse Stag's Leap Merlot last night at the 15 month mark. So far I think I've done pretty well at avoiding temptation. This is only the 3rd bottle out of 30. I know this kit supposedly hits its stride at the 24 month mark, but it sure tasted good last night. Pic is a little...

Same story at a winery in the Finger Lakes. They monitored a block of Vignoles closely to get the pick date just right. The owner checked the block one afternoon, coordinated the pick for the next morning and came out to find a nearly empty field. Turkeys had come through and in one evening...

Gotta love the commitment of the vineyard owner to the quality of the harvest. While concerned about the loss of fruit, he seems equally concerned about ripeness and quality of the resulting wine!

Last weekend the cook (I happen to be married to) made a baked goat cheese dip with garlic and red pepper flakes. Paired up with some herb toasted tomatoes. The heat from the pepper helped to tame some of the barnyardiness (totally made up word) of the goat cheese. We'll be making this recipe...

I made a 3 gallon batch of Concord from grapes in 2016. I did not have a press at the time so it was a very light hand pressing through a mesh straining bag after only 5 days on the skins. I finished the ferment out to fully dry, back sweetened lightly and bottled just off-dry. It had a...

I have not gotten to the barrel stage yet, but the ratio of oak to wine in a 30L barrel is going to be w a a a a a y more than 4oz. of cubes in 6 gal. I'd be real careful about leaving it in very long. Of course, tasting frequently is never a bad thing. Good luck . . . I hope it comes out...

I'd be interested in the Sc-300. I'll follow up with a private conversation.

If your SG has stabilized below 1.000 (hopefully closer to .990) then the yeast has done its job and there's no sugar left to ferment. When the yeast first interacts with the must it colonizes itself before setting to work on the larger task at hand - converting sugar to alcohol. Thus, a small...

I would agree that it would be nice to see skin packs in all the red kits, but I really don't think the pricing is too bad. All 3 red kits offer interesting grape combinations and come from (fairly) renowned areas. After you get past the manufacturers advertised price, LP is selling the...

I have not made that particular kit, but have made a few whites that came with F-Pacs. The first time I reserved the whole F-Pac for secondary and found that I only needed about 50%-60% to get to the maximum sweetness desired. Going forward I put 1/3 of the F-Pac in primary (which should give...

Cooling is not necessary. If the wine you are sweetening will be consumed at room temperature then by all means conduct your tests at room temperature. I only back sweeten whites and we drink them chilled. This, my recommendation. I think you'll be fine. No worries about spoilage as long as...

Room temp is fine for blending and aging. Only needs to be cooler for the tasting. You want the wine to taste as you expect when you pull the finished bottle out of the fridge and pop the cork. The more similar the conditions during bench testing are to the final consumption, the better the...

I would add a couple items. 1) when bench testing it helps to allow your test mixes to sit a little while to allow the sugar to blend in fully and 2) the wine should be the temperature at which you plan to drink it. Perceived sweetness can change depending on the temperature of the wine. We...

AJ knows how to win friends and influence people!

I believe that the oak mellows and integrates over time and that the naturally occurring remediation is more pronounced the younger the wine is. At only 3 months old you have plenty of time before you would naturally bottle it anyway (assuming a longer bulk aging for a LE kit). I'd follow a...