Do you like your own wine?

[Smok1]

Fortunately I am not blessed/cursed with a wine connoisseurs palate. I'll never be able to describe wines like you see on TV or in their advertising.

Haha ive been blessed/cursed with the same palate, we actually try and do blind taste tests quite often to see if we can decifer which wine is which, basically at this point i can tell you if its been oaked or not and if its a bold red vs a light red.

 

[Kraffty]

Good Thread. I started making wine in 2012 from kits. I progressed to grapes and juice in 2014 and now I'm doing just grapes. I'm just starting to get a clue about how much I really need to learn about the process itself and expect that to continue. I also expect my wine to continue to improve as I learn more. I also agree most of us are very critical of ourselves.

I truly enjoy about 50% of what I have on the shelf now but try not to compare it to commercial wine. My main reason for avoiding that comparison hasn't been mentioned here yet BUT I can buy 6 bottles of Merlot (for example) either in similar price range or in a wide price range and would probably really like 2 or 3 of the bottles, find 1 or 2 acceptable and find 1 or 2 terrible. We need to remember that we've all had $20-50.00 bottles of wine that can leave you wondering what other people see in them. If you're comparing your wine to a tried and true brand you already like you'll probably have a tough time.

@JohnT remarks about really working at what you don't like about your wine makes perfect since. I always seem to be shy on acid and tannins and have been working at stepping that up a little at a time. Time will tell.
Mike

 

[ibglowin]

So here is a pretty tried and true test to see if a wine is well made and just what type of longevity it has in store for it. This is especially useful for young wines to see how they will hold up over time. Its simple. Lots of variations on the scheme but open a bottle of one of your wines that is young but maybe you are still not sure about. Drink a glass the night you open it. Stuff the cork back in it and place the wine back in the cellar (not the refrigerator unless its a wine fridge). Next night, repeat by pouring another glass and stick the cork back into in. Make sure and take notes each night. A well made wine will improve from that first glass to last. It will keep expanding and the tannins will soften little by little. If you like what you have on night 3 of the trial you are going to like what this wine grows up to be over time without a doubt.

I just did this with a bottle of my 2013 Tres Rojo's red made from fresh grapes from the Lodi AVA. Opened a bottle mid week and had not one but two glasses with dinner, then stuffed the cork back in it and back into the cellar. The wine on the first night with dinner was good but not out of this world great. Still a little harsh but still improving and showing lots of promise. Well I forgot about that bottle until Sunday so it was in the cellar half empty for 4 days when I went in to look for something for dinner and saw it back in the corner. I was smoking a Tri tip on the Weber and thought that would be a perfect wine to sip on while grilling.

In short the wine not only held up incredibly well, it was leaps and bounds better than the first night. Was it perfect? No! This process exposed that I had added a little too much oak along the way. This is not very evident when the bottle is first opened as it is masked by the tannins etc.

Overall the wine held up incredibly well however and was much better on day 4 than on day 1. Good thing because I have about 100 bottles left of that wine!

 

[bkisel]

So here is a ...

Mike, I've noticed that. I think the same improvement can be enjoyed with the very first glass if it has been aeratored while pouring. Is the same kind of thing happening to the wine? [This is for my reds, haven't tried it for any whites.]

 

[ibglowin]

You bet, your adding air and starting the process of oxidation which when controlled is what makes a red wine age and improve over time. Whites, not so much!

Mike, I've noticed that. I think the same improvement can be enjoyed with the very first glass if it has been aeratored while pouring. Is the same kind of thing happening to the wine? [This is for my reds, haven't tried it for any whites.]

 

[Donz]

You say that you make a big quantity. I am willing to bet that you share a large portion of that wine with others. Well, I would think that they should return the favor by helping to sort your grapes. Many hands make light work..[/QUOTE]


Here is the thing, we sort the grapes before putting them in the destemmer and take out any leaves, bad clusters etc. however - we do not do as they do in decanted. Have a look at how they do it... Literally check every berry it's ridiculous.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cICs3EGoeQs[/ame]

 

[Donz]

Have you seen the movie? They are pulling individual berries off of the conveyor belt after destemming. If you can do that you have a lot more time/friends/resources than I do.

Exactly what I was thinking. It's like they check every single berry.

 

[stickman]

I've been making wine for 27yrs and I like what I make now, but I've made plenty of less than desirable wine in the past. Everyone has to decide what style of wine they like, and then determine what winemaking decisions drive that style. I've used different grape sources, various maceration lengths, different yeasts, carboys, and oak barrels etc., and the challenge is making the decisions on the fly as the fruit is different every season. The variables are endless and it can take years to see the results, but it really is a pleasure to open a bottle and understand how it has evolved (good or bad, hopefully good) throughout the years.

 

[meadmaker1]

@Norcal, @Boatboy24, @meadmaker1, are you by chance an INTJ?

I dont see how I can deny it.

 

[rustbucket]

At the risk of appearing ignorant, not much of a risk in my case, what does INTJ mean?

 

[GreenEnvy22]

I love the muscat we make from our backyard grapes. I made a Riesling in 2015 which wasn't my favourite but has improved with time.
Just bottled 2016 dornfelder and really like that.

I made like 6 or 7 wines this year so next year I'll have a better idea of how I like what I make.


I've made 3 beers, liked 2 didn't like 1.

 

[sour_grapes]

At the risk of appearing ignorant, not much of a risk in my case, what does INTJ mean?

There is an attempt to categorize types of personalities along 4 different characteristics, or "axes." This is called the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator.

Each axis ranges along a spectrum between two extremes, and the extrema are labeled with letters. So the "I" in INTJ means "Introverted," as opposed to a type starting with "E" for "Extroverted." The axes are not "orthogonal," however, and there is a lot of gobbledy-**** I don't understand about the supposed interplay between these axes. You can read about the typical characteristics of INTJ here, for example

It's fun and interesting, and I believe there is a lot of truth in it, but it is not exactly a scientific test with a definite outcome.

 

[rustbucket]

Thanks for taking the time to update me, Paul. In 1980, I participated in a program at the bank where I worked that tested us using the Meyers-Briggs scale. As I recall, I came out as introverted, but highly adaptable, I didn't realize that the group here was referring to that scale and am surprised that psychologist haven't come up with a newer measure over the intervening years.

 

[lilvixen]

I don't believe this part from the INTJ page:

According to Myers-Briggs the INTJ represents "The Mastermind". INTJs are one of the rarest of the 16 psychological types and account for approximately 2% of the population. Women of this personality type are especially rare, forming just 0.8% of the population.

If it's true, I have found the niche in the work world and online forums where INTJs congregate. I'm a woman INTJ with fellow INTJ friends and coworkers, my husband works in a bullpen office with five INTJs (he's the only non-INTJ in the room), and I'm on another forum community where this topic came up, and the most common type was INTJ, and it's skewed towards women (60/40 maybe? 70/30? I don't know).

However, I do agree with the described characteristics of an INTJ.

 

[lilvixen]

So here is a pretty tried and true test to see if a wine is well made and just what type of longevity it has in store for it. This is especially useful for young wines to see how they will hold up over time. Its simple. Lots of variations on the scheme but open a bottle of one of your wines that is young but maybe you are still not sure about. Drink a glass the night you open it. Stuff the cork back in it and place the wine back in the cellar (not the refrigerator unless its a wine fridge). Next night, repeat by pouring another glass and stick the cork back into in. Make sure and take notes each night. A well made wine will improve from that first glass to last. It will keep expanding and the tannins will soften little by little. If you like what you have on night 3 of the trial you are going to like what this wine grows up to be over time without a doubt.

I tried this with a midlevel Malbec that I made last year, which has the same weird taste I don't like, and the weird taste did go away, so I have hope for red wine batches that are sitting in carboys. Now I just need to exercise patience and let it all age long enough for the flavor to dissipate. We'll see how well I do.

Edited to add: Although the weird taste was gone, I wouldn't buy the Malbec again if it were a commercial wine, but I could detect the oak and tannin I added, so that was neat.

 

[dcbrown73]

So far the best wine I believe I've made was a off-dry Washington Riesling. Though it's definitely not in the class of some really good Reislings I've had. Though it makes me smile every time I open one and have received a lot of positive reactions to it at our wine tastings. (and not just them being nice as they've had some of my other wines with that type of reaction)

That said, I have a few wines that have a good flavor, but lack the body, creaminess, perfect acidity, etc.

Though like many. Some are just "ok". I had really high hopes for my Eclipse Barossa Valley Shiraz as I've had so many Barossa Valley Shiraz that are just fantastic. Clearly my winemaking skills are lacking at producing those types of characteristics within wine. I need to go to a Wagner Winemaking Class! It seems like everyone in their family has those skills!

 

[sour_grapes]

I don't believe this part from the INTJ page:



If it's true, I have found the niche in the work world and online forums where INTJs congregate. I'm a woman INTJ with fellow INTJ friends and coworkers, my husband works in a bullpen office with five INTJs (he's the only non-INTJ in the room), and I'm on another forum community where this topic came up, and the most common type was INTJ, and it's skewed towards women (60/40 maybe? 70/30? I don't know).

However, I do agree with the described characteristics of an INTJ.

Hmmm, but wouldn't an INTJ, instead of dismissing the assertion based on anecdotal evidence, start calculating the likelihood that certain forums and workplaces disproportionately attract certain personality types, skewing the statistics compared to a random draw?

(Of course, I do see that you have included that scenario as an alternate explanation. Just having fun with our INTx characters.)

 

[lilvixen]

Hmmm, but wouldn't an INTJ, instead of dismissing the assertion based on anecdotal evidence, start calculating the likelihood that certain forums and workplaces disproportionately attract certain personality types, skewing the statistics compared to a random draw?

(Of course, I do see that you have included that scenario as an alternate explanation. Just having fun with our INTx characters.)

You'd get a kick out of my [unscientific, because it'd be creepy if I interrogated everyone] attempt to wrestle with hubby's workplace figures. How can a room of 6 software engineers have 5 INTJs and 1 ESFJ?! That defies logic and holds no semblance to a random sample. Granted, the people in marketing and sales are mostly Exxx's, and they probably should be.

Hubby is the newest addition to his work group, and I told him that he's comfortable with all the INTJs because I've taught him how to deal with me

Engineering disciplines do play to those with analytic skills, so it makes sense for people to congregate into what they do well. It also makes sense for me to gravitate towards forum communities with like-minded people and avoid the social venues of one-uppers and trolls, because those places aren't having rational, experimental, helpful conversations that aid me in finding efficiency in my own endeavors and processes, and thus, are a waste of my time and energy. (I say knowing that it could be construed as cold, but whatever, because I don't have to tap into the Feelings side in a forum post about my INTJness.)

 

[Steve_M]

I am giving my wine 4 out of 10 right now. If I allow a bottle to open for a good deal of time it then gets a 7.

 

[balatonwine]

Hmmm, but wouldn't an INTJ, instead of dismissing the assertion based on anecdotal evidence, start calculating the likelihood that certain forums and workplaces disproportionately attract certain personality types, skewing the statistics compared to a random draw?

As an INTP type, I would wonder if maybe the data for your calculations may be biased or otherwise not reliable......

For those that do not get the joke.... from the above link: INTPs are often haunted by a fear of failure, causing them to rethink solutions many times and second-guess themselves. In their mind, they may have overlooked a bit of crucial data, and there may very well be another equally plausible solution.