Great night!

[Wade E]

Had a meat and greet wit a wine maker that I met at a LHBS near me and joined here soon here soon after. Me makes wine from grapes and has quite the set up with 5-100 liter var, cap. tanks and a smaller 1-50 liter tank. I must say that most grape wines from people that I have tried where OK at the best but these make me want to jump in the tanks for a night swim. I sampled his Carigne,Grenache, Old Vine Zin and 1 more but cant recall at the moment. He also makes his own olives which were so good that Ill be trying to make these next year also. His wife also made some fresh Biscotti! He lives very close to me and said that when i want to start I can bring the grapes over as he has a brand new crusher/destemmer and press to but I dont think the press will help as that is something that is done later so I may have to get my own there. Its got me thinking but I dont think I can swing a press this year! His forum name is frankr3. He's a busy man and doesnt have a lot of time to post but does check out the site and bought Georges video as he will be teaching a class in college on wine making. Hes been it about the same time as me but has the money for all the toys as he has Hanna S)02 and Ph meters but got a great deal on the tanks brand new-$150 each for the big 1's!!!!!!!!

 

[admiral]

Sounds like a very fun evening. I am surprised you got out by midnight.

Sorry, LHBS?

 

[grapeman]

That would explain where you were last evening Wade! Sounds like you had a good time. Your new buddie is serious about his new hobby isn't he? How far from you is he? I can see you playing there more often. Has he been making bigger batches for a while now or was this the first year?


Some good grapes to begin with helps a lot and those vinifera grapes he used are great ones!

 

[gaudet]

Sounds like a very fun evening. I am surprised you got out by midnight.

Sorry, LHBS?

LBHS= Local Home Brew Store

Cool wade..............

 

[admiral]

Gaudet... thanks!

 

[Wade E]

Thanks Gaudet, Ive been busy lately. Gave blood this morning and must say that it was like the Benny Hill show in there except not funny. They were very unorganized and no one knew where anything was. It took 1 .25 hours to do this!!! Rich, this is his third year now and must say that he is well equipped and has things under control pretty well. He wants to do more experimenting with tannins now though. I will be making the olives and he has sent me the recipe. They are out of this world. I really dont want to wait till next fall for them!

 

[grapeman]

So are the olives green or ripe? I like the green ones stuffed.


It sure sounds like he is well equipped. Must be nice to have all the big toys. I would love more of them, but like you now is not a good time to get any!

 

[Wade E]

They are green olives. He gets them rock hard, cracks them with a stone, and then starts the rinsing with water for some time then makes the brine solution. They are better then any olives Ive ever had. Yummmmmmmm! He has all the toys! It will probably be 10 years before I can get into all equipment like that! Those variable tanks are awesome. I always wondered how you figure out how to know where you are and how you determine where to leave the lid. He showed me yesterday, just let down the pressure and let the lid sit right on the wine and then pressurize! Cool!

 

[AlFulchino]

tell him to call it a "Meet and Greet" or eventually the the wrong crowd will be attending

 

[jobe05]

Sounds like a great time Wade. Olive......... Hmmm.........

I see another experiment coming.

When we were in NYC a couple of years ago we enjoyed going into the markets and tasting the different olives in the open barrels........ right there in the open..... seems to taste better than when you buy them and bring them home.