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TallTexan

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Hi everyone, here is my introduction. I found this forum while doing a search on cleaning/sanitizing agents. What a great group you are!

I consider myself a novice home vintner. I am Texan by birth, but was a Calgarian by choice for about a year...the price of commercial wine in Calgary, along with a wonderful wine-making neighbor and an empty wine cellar in the house that I was leasing, drove me to try my hand at winemaking. My neighbor invited me to attend a winemaking class with her, and in the ensuing days when I was trying to decide whether or not to invest in the start up supplies she found an add in our neighborhood for FREE winemaking equipment offered by the widow of a winemaker. My friend procured the supplies and I no longer had an excuse to procrastinate. I thank her to this day.

I have only made wine from kits...Winexpert California Trinity Red, Winexpert Chocolate Raspberry Port, CellarCraft Yakima Valley Reisling, Kenridge Founder's Showcase Brunello, and Cheeky Monkey Pinot Gris all made while living in Calgary.

After returning to Texas I waited a couple of years and recently resumed the hobby. So far I've bottled another WE California Trinity Red and WE Chocolate Raspberry Port, a WE Vintner's Reserve Angel Blanco , a WE VR Australian Chardonnay, and a WE VR Diablo Rojo. I have a WE Selection International Italian Brunello, a WE Eclipse New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and a RJSpagnols Chocolate Orange Port all in their respective carboys, with bottling for all three projected the first week of December. The newer Trinity Red does not taste as good as the kit that I produced in Calgary; perhaps the difference in ambient temperature has some bearing, but this current kit seems more watery and lacking in complexity compared with my first attempt at this particular wine. Or perhaps the difference from year to year of harvesting the juices affects the final product. The newer kit tastes good, but by comparison it is lacking. The Angel Blanco, Diablo Rojo and Chocolate Raspberry Port all tasted good at bottling and I am certain will continue to improve. The jury is out on the Chardonnay...did not taste appealing at bottling, but I will try it again at 3 months. I do also have a few more kits waiting in the wings...WE Blackberry Port, WE Eclipse Lodi Ranch 11 Cab, WE Selection Argentinian Malbec and WE Selection Italian Pinot Grigio. I am anxious to get the reds started so they will perhaps be ready to drink by next year's holiday season.
 
Welcome! Sounds like you will have quite the party the first week in December!

I like the WE kits myself and I have just started my first Danger Dave's Dragons Blood.

I'm curious to know how your Argentinian Malbec turns out. That is one I might try myself.

Tim
 
Welcome to the group. I am in Georgia but my wife and I go to Dallas every other Thanksgiving for the week to visit her brother and family, heading that way in a couple of weeks. You can get a lot of help here but it sounds like you are already rather experienced.
 
Welcome to the forum!

I started with and still mostly do kits but, thanks to this forum, now have four non-kit wines under my belt. If you hang around you'll notice reference to DB wine. DB is short for Dragon Blood. Do a search on it and check out the easy to follow recipe. You can expand your horizon into non-kit wines. Another wine recipe that is very popular here is for Skeeter Pee. Do a search within or outside this forum to learn more.
 
Welcome. You will like it here and I look forward to your input/questions/etc.
 
Welcome to WMT. Sounds like you are pretty well-versed already!

BTW, my WE Argentinian Malbec is still pretty young, but it was oh-so-good at bottling, perhaps the best of any I have made so far.
 
Thank you all for the warm welcome! I look forward to being a part of this community.

I will definitely do a search on DB and Skeeter Pee. I would like to try my hand at producing a non-kit wine at some point.

Tim, I will post my impressions when I get the Argentinian Malbec to bottling. Paul, will you continue to share your take on yours as it ages? If I remember correctly, this Malbec should not require a lengthy aging period as compared with a Cab...do any of you know if this is true? I have a daughter and son-in-law who loved the Brunello that I produced a few years ago, and they are eagerly awaiting another good red. Hopefully I can stave them off and resist my own temptation to drink this Brunello and the Malbec too early. I plan to set several bottles of each aside to age at least a year...should I age a few even longer than that?
 
Tim, I will post my impressions when I get the Argentinian Malbec to bottling. Paul, will you continue to share your take on yours as it ages? If I remember correctly, this Malbec should not require a lengthy aging period as compared with a Cab...do any of you know if this is true?

I don't think there is any reason to think that, in general Malbecs take less aging time than Cabs. Funny you should ask that about this kit, however. I plan to age almost all of my wines for 18 mos. before drinking. However, due to how good this one was at bottling, I made a snap decision to only wait 12 mos. before putting this one into my drinking rotation. Yes, I will let you know how it goes. (2 more mos. to go.)
 
Paul, I am curious to know your impression of your Argentinian Malbec (is the 2 months past?). I finally have my Malbec in the primary, ready to rack to secondary, and it smells amazing! I have a WE Eclipse Lodi 11 Cab in a carboy, and in my opinion this Malbec smells even better than the Lodi 11 Cab did at this point.

Just an update on the whites that I mentioned in my Howdy post. The Eclipse Sauvignon Blanc is about 3 months, and it already is my favorite of any white I've ever made. The jury is STILL out on the VR Chardonnay. The Angel Blanco is going to be a nice off-dry summer sipper, but is just a bit too sweet for my taste in general. For whatever reason, it tasted a little drier when it was younger. If someone appreciates moscato, they would probably enjoy the Angel Blanco. I have a Piesporter style riesling in the carboy right now; will see how it develops.
 
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Paul, I am curious to know your impression of your Argentinian Malbec (is the 2 months past?). I finally have my Malbec in the primary, ready to rack to secondary, and it smells amazing!

This is extremely ironic/coincidental. I opened a bottle of my WE Malbec yesterday (as part of my normal rotation). It is doing just fine -- a bit sour, a bit of KT, but overall very enjoyable. However, tonight was bottling night for a different batch, namely, a Cellar Craft Argentinian Malbec. Very funny that these come to the fore on the same night.

I got to compare then back to back. They were both pretty good, and had a similar taste profile, but I definitely preferred the CC wine.
 
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This is extremely ironic/coincidental. I opened a bottle of my WE Malbec yesterday (as part of my normal rotation). It is doing just fine -- a bit sour, a bit of KT, but overall very enjoyable. However, tonight was bottling night for a different batch, namely, a Cellar Craft Argentinian Malbec. Very funny that these come to the fore on the same night.

I got to compare then back to back. They were both pretty good, and had a similar taste profile, but I definitely preferred the CC wine.



That is too funny...wine minds think alike, eh? It is encouraging to learn that the WE Malbec should be a good one.

I am planning to procure some CC kits next. I initially had a problem finding the brand here in the states, but recently discovered that George carries it so I plan to place an order with him; waiting to see if he offers a promotional discount anytime soon. The CC Yakima Riesling that I made a few years back was excellent. I am anxious to try that one again and I have the Red Mountain Cabernet in my sites as well. I will add the CC Argentinian Malbec to my wishlist.

Have any of you fellow forum members tried the CC Yakima Valley Viognier? If so, what are your impressions?
 
Hi and welcome.

There are quite a few of us around that are in Texas.
 
Thank you all for the welcomes! I am currently living in west TX, in the Midland/Odessa area.
 

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