Intro- Midwest Vitnor

[Midwest Vintner]

Intro- Midwest Vintner

Hello all,
I figured i might give some background on myself as i probably will post up here alot (fast typist ). Over time I have become more fond of wine. My father started making wine after a trip to France. Within two years, I became involved. Now I have been making wine for almost 4 years and he's coming up on 6. We are hopefully going to be opening up a winery, so I am pretty excited. Anyhow, we like to make oddball wines that no one has made or is rarely made.

Here is a list of what we've made so far (some many times over):
Strawberry
Raspberry
Raspberry-Merlot
Blackberry
Blackberry-Merlot (one of my fav's)
Pecan
Jalepeno (for cooking, but it will cure stuffiness )
Apple-Jalepeno
Raspberry Chipotle
Apricot
Peach
Watermelon (<spoiled due to lack of alc and no chilling during fermentation)
Eldeberry
Blueberry
Pineapple
Pineapple-Orange
Pineapple-Tangerine
Tomato
Green Tomato
Apple
Kir
Cherry
Gooseberry
Pear
Cranberry
Black Current

^there's probably more, but i can't think of any and my dad's working

We have also dabbled in wine-liqours such as:
Pecan Maple Bourbon (<the best stuff ever!!)
Chocolate Raspberry Merlot (vodka based)
Apricot Brandy

We continue to diversify our wine and try to improve on the recipes. With any luck and hard work, we might open up a fruit based winery!!

I look forward to helping and learning from the community!!

 

[St Allie]

hello and welcome..

we like to see lots of posts!

question?

how did the two tomato based wines turn out?

Allie

 

[Tom]

Some damn interesting fruit wines. Do you make 6 gallon batches?

 

[Midwest Vintner]

how did the two tomato based wines turn out?

Allie

well the regular tomato tasted entirely too strong from the recipe we had. the taste wasn't terrible, but it was too similar to a pizza sauce than a wine.

the green tomato was good! it ended up tasting like lemonade, with an after taste of tomato. it was very surprising. i would recommend trying it as it's cheap if you grow tomato's and at the end of the season you always have extras. this is why we tried it out.

we make 5 gallon batches of most, but the jalapeno, raspberry chipotle and a few others such as black currant (forgot to list that one) use a 3 gal carboy. IIRC, the black currant comes in a kit, vintner's harvest and supposed to be used as a 5 gal batch. we concentrate it to add more flavor.

 

[Wade E]

Vintners Harvest Black Currant has recipes for both 3 and 5 gallon batches and 3 is best. Ive used that a few times and its awesome. Now I buy them frozen from a farm near me that sells it as a fresh juice to many local stores. Hopefully in 2 years Ill have quite a few plants and be growing my own.

 

[smurfe]

Welcome aboard. Sounds like you are off and running full steam. Do you live in the part of Mo. where Norton/Cynthiana grapes grow? That varietal makes a great wine. Good luck and start posting up. We have a lot of fruit wine makers that can benefit from your experience.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

Welcome aboard. Sounds like you are off and running full steam. Do you live in the part of Mo. where Norton/Cynthiana grapes grow?

yep, we are just out of the Hermann AVA. My parents house actually has alot of wild grapes that grow on the property. I would like to splice in some other varieties on the vines there, but my dad doesn't want to mess with them.

I can't share all my secrets though

We trimmed up around the vines. the whole property was not taken care of, so we are in the process of landscaping it.

 

[St Allie]

Finally,

someone who has wine labels just like mine...

Allie

 

[Wade E]

Are you using tasting corks?

 

[Tom]

Sure looks like it..
I hope they drink it fast...

 

[Midwest Vintner]

Are you using tasting corks?

only for the liqours

most are screw caps, but we have switched back to doing corks. they are the larger #9, 1.75". italian floor corker ftw!

the smaller short bottles use a #8, 1.5", IIRC. we haven't made much more raspberry chipotle or jalapeno since we made ~100 bottles in the last 2 years. we don't use them often (marinades and sometimes to drink).

as i've said, we are all about trying different things. bottle colors, corks, caps, labeling, etc.

allie>>we started with those clear labeling strips, but they got too expensive real quick!!! they work great, are cheap and stick well. only issue, our new cellar is humid and the ink blur's on ones outside a box. other than that, great. my dad prints them up in different colors, so even blurred we know by wine color/ label color / length of blur

more pics when i go back out there!

 

[St Allie]

How big is the property?

would love to see more pics too.


Allie

 

[Midwest Vintner]

How big is the property?

would love to see more pics too.


Allie

only 4 acres. we are planning to get juice/fruit shipped. only issue with that is we are worried about ripeness and variety/quality of said fruit. we have been able to create good wines thus far with this setup, but not as good as is possible. we are atop a hill with rolling hills in every direction. trees block alot of the view, but not all.

 

[St Allie]

We have 8 acres, running a few steers, but I keep stealing bits of paddock to plant fruit trees and extend the garden. We'd like to put some grapevines in too, have been hunting for muscadine vines.. but don't think there are any available here. I know pinot and chardonnay grow well here.. it's just a matter of tracking down good local rootstock. I will hunt out a few photos..

we have rolling hills around our place too.. we live on the top of a hill.

Allie

 

[Midwest Vintner]

I know pinot and chardonnay grow well here.. it's just a matter of tracking down good local rootstock.

we have rolling hills around our place too.. we live on the top of a hill.

Allie

my dad says you can splice different grape varieties onto wild/ prevalent grapes of the area and possibly give another variety a chance in your climate. as long as it's not too different. we have alot of wild grapes, but they are just in a bad area. there in a huge patch of wild black raspberries and poison ivy. i look at poison ivy and itch. gotta figure out how to get rid of the ivy and reak the rewards!!!

 

[Midwest Vintner]

this is a view off the back porche

 

[Drunken Midget]

OK...I'm intrigued by the apple/jalepeno listed....going to try a small batch of Jalepeno/pineapple, also by your dabbling...I love my kenmore model #34481 for all those wines that are ok but not good enough to bottle ( this happens more often than I want to admitt )

 

[Midwest Vintner]

OK...I'm intrigued by the apple/jalepeno listed....going to try a small batch of Jalepeno/pineapple, also by your dabbling...I love my kenmore model #34481 for all those wines that are ok but not good enough to bottle ( this happens more often than I want to admitt )

the apple/jalapeno was ok, but the combo isn't my "cup of tea," so to speak. others liked it alot. i think you have an idea with that pineapple/jalapeno. maybe i will try to open both of those and mix it and see what it's like!

we rarely have bad batches. out of probably 100+, i think 10 were bad and 6 of those were because our acid tester was broke and we made a bunch of batches in a row. 1 was watermelon, which needs to be refrigerated, while fermenting....and we didn't do that, oops! the others were the exploding bottle issue. those are not so fun. we poured out the tomato just because we needed the bottles and it wasn't to our liking. some1 may have liked it

failing is one of the best ways to learn!

 

[Drunken Midget]

I've only thrown away a few batches ..one was yellow watermelon for same reason..good idea handled poorly on my part...I never bottle all I make, only what I consider good..the rest goes through the kenmore 34481, sooo many options...

 

[Tom]

Where did you get the Wine Banner?