Hello from Montebello, VA

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Oct 28, 2020
Messages
10
Reaction score
1
Hi all,

I found this forum via "Artisanal Small Batch Brewing," and I'm glad I found it because I have been having continual problems brewing just about everything I've been trying. I've been making various fruit wines for about 3 years now -- maybe 10 batches in all -- and I've had continual problems with 1) H2S formation and 2) 2 batches of concord grape juice wine that tasted like a wet dog, and 3) off-tasting wine. I have yet to make a batch that I'd share with anyone. So I have a lot to learn.
 
Welcome. Nelson County? You aren't far from Rockbridge Vineyards. They make some good Concord wine. I'm sure Jane and Shep would give you some pointers. You aren't too far from Hill Top Berry Farm and they have a ton of fruit wines. Time to make friends.
On this site you will get a lot of information. Folks are going to ask about your processes, recipes and such. I've never had H2S formation; I've probably been lucky. The only failure has been some batches of peach wine and a zucchini wine that I probably should not have dumped. I'm not following all the advice and probably not adding enough k-meta (Campden).
 
Welcome! I've been greatly helped by reading through the past threads, even very old ones. You could start by searching here for your fruits, yeasts, particular off-tastes, etc. Believe me, you are not the first with any problems. Once I learned which yeasts gave issues without enough nutrition, most potential problems were taken care of. Start a thread in the beginning winemaking area with the details of your wines, you will definitely get hints on how they went wrong and how to start a good batch.
 
I'm in two locations in Virginia; Caroline County near Fort AP Hill (20 miles east of Fredericksburg) and our homeplace/farm/vineyard is in Washington County (16 miles north of Abingdon). I went to UVA in the dark ages and we travel I81 and 64 between our houses. Before the pandemic, I was taking viticulture and enology courses at Piedmont VA CC. We hang out in the Harper's Ferry area and Madison County. We have a ton of great wineries in the Piedmont and most folks are really willing to help. Once they start again, think about the enology classes at PVCC.
 
https://www.pvcc.edu/wineGreg Rosko is the program director and his email is on the page. I'm sure he will reply if you have any questions. I was taking classes ala carte. Several Virginia vineyard and winery owners/operators are alumni.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top