Rethinking my entire operation!

[Elmer]

So last night as I was 1/2 way throught a bottle of Skeeter Pee (sooooo goood, cold with pizza!) and my wife was drinking a Mark Davis Pinot Noir, which she discovered in Napa!

I had an Epiphany!!!!
Why am I making kit wines that no one drinks. Sure my uncle and a few non-pretentious friends drink my kit wines.
but my wife and close friends would rather go buy a bottle of $10 wine and drink that then ever open up a bottle of my homebrew!

So I think I decided I am going to dump my entire stock, which consists of about 50 bottles from the last 8 years of wine making. Now most these bottles never really cleared that well to begin with, because I racked twice and rushed to bottle. Also during this time I did not make wine make a priority and was most likely lazy on the process!

So I am going to dump the junk wine I have and concentrate on making Dragon Blood and Skeeter pee! SIMPLY because I drink this stuff by the bottle. That and my funky experimental wine, but those are made in 1 gallon portions!

I myself never open a bottle of merlot or malbec or chianti. I either drink a beer, whisky or is I have a open bottle of DB in the frindge drink that.
My wife is the wine drinker, but she likes her Pinots noirs & shiraz, but she just likes store bought!

I will buy my self a nice wine rack and populate it with what I like.
For the holidays I will have out either DB or SP!

However I currently have 2 carboys of kit wine - Cab Franc & Chianti, which will cover the next 2 years of holiday giving.

Although I am considering making 1 more kit wine and this time instead of making the entry level Mosti Mondale kit ( which I can not seem to get to clear without Sparkalloid), I will go all out and make one of the super high end kits.

it seemed like a grand plan last night, and during this mornings haze!

 

[djrockinsteve]

Turn it into red wine vinegar. Don't dump it.

 

[Rocky]

Exactly what I was thinking, Steve. Elmer can make some very good vinegar and give that as gifts. Some of the really great flavored vinegars (e.g. garlic, basil, oregano, etc.) sell for more than equal amounts of wine and just about everyone uses vinegar. You can also use the wine in cooking. I always use about a cup of red wine in my pasta sauces. Don't dump it. That is a sacrilege to winemakers!

 

[chrisjw]

...or make some Sangria. If you like DB and Skeeter Pee then you should like Sangria. I don't like the club soda versions but there are some great Sangria recipes for both white and red wines.

 

[Elmer]

My biggest problem with alot of my older bottled wine is that I did not clear it before bottling.
So it is murkly and since it was cheap kits and racked only once it was not great to begin with.

However if someone can point me in the direction of making vinegar I will give that a shot.
Because most this stuff wont get drank!

 

[djrockinsteve]

Here is a tutorial I did on making vinegar.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f6/making-red-wine-vinegar-14218/

You can degass it, add sparkolloid even some pectic enzyme. It sould clear. I have 3 year old vinegar in my attic. Wasn't bad last year but had more to go. Should be done now.

 

[TommBomb]

Why would t u just buy the premium kits that are much more comparable to store bought wine? Rather than wasting money.

 

[Elmer]

Why would t u just buy the premium kits that are much more comparable to store bought wine? Rather than wasting money.

When first starting out, and had little money that was all I could afford.
It is tough when you are starting out and have young kids, to tell your spouse that instead of diapers I am buying wine kits.

I am not saying I have made the best purchases or put in my best efforts over my 1st eight years of wine making.
But I am trying to right the ship and be better moving forward.
Part of that is dealing with the aftermath and product of the last 8 years!

 

[jswordy]

I'm gonna say filter it and blend it. Make a very high quality wine of complimentary nature (like if your bottled stuff is dry and acid, you make a complimentary base wine; or if your bottled stuff is tannic, you make a complimentary non-tannic wine) and blend it with your other wines.

The right match in the right proportions can make 1 + 1 = 3 when it comes to blends. Plus, the older wine gives you an opportunity to learn blending skills. If it doesn't turn out, toss it or make vinegar then.

I really like that you are moving toward making wines you like, rather than striving to make wines for others' tastes before your own. It could be a first move in finding out what core group of wines you make best and moving toward a certain goal from there.

 

[JohnT]

I am so sorry.

I think that you are missing out on one thing.

In the 25+ years of winemaking, I have taken my failures as lessons. I always made it a point to find out exactly why my wine did not turn out well, then took steps for improvement. Even though you may stick to pee and db, the priciples of winemaking are still the same.

The only thing I see that you list as wine faults is clarity. Just because the wine is not clear, dose not mean that your wine is beyond hope. You could always let the wine settle and then decant it, or even return the wine to a carboy, use a clearing agent, and re-bottle.

I hate to see a winemaker defeated. Seems to me that the whole purpose of this forum is to prevent that from happening.

 

[dangerdave]

Elmer, Elmer, Elmer...

I've only been making wine for two years. I'm currently processing my 74th and 75th six gallon batches (in my DB yeast comparison study). The first kits I made were cheap. Shoot, I didn't want to waste money if I couldn't get the hang of this hobby. Now, I only make (when I make kits) high-end kits and whole juice buckets. The price very much dictates the quality of a kit. And the more juice, the better. The Chilean juice buckets I got this past spring have spoiled me. Better than any kit I have made. But like you, I have very few people who will drink them. Most of my friends and family (including my wife) want the cheap sweet wines. The few of us who will drink the "good stuff" have a lot to enjoy.

I drink it all, depending on my mood. Sometimes I want a nice glass of Petit Syrah. Other times, I want a big tumbler of Dragon Blood poured over frozen fruit. There are advantages to not being picky!

But I digress. I can understand your desire to dump the old for want of the new, but I think (like some of the others) that you could do something with that older wine. It can still be cleared; it can still be tweaked; it can still be vinegar; it can still be good. This is an chance to learn. I know I'm rambling, but here's what I would do. Dump the wine back into a carboy and get it cleared up (Sparkolloid, pectic enzyme, whatever it takes). Then check the taste/feel/aroma. Is it flat, featureless, bland, lifeless? If it's a red wine or red blend, add a couple pounds of your favorate fruit...blueberries, blackberries, raisins...and maybe some oak chips or tannin powder. Maybe add a bit of sugar and make it a semi-sweet. That can change the whole character of a wine. You could learn something you can share with all of us.

Don't give up. A failure is just another form of opportunity.

 

[UBB]

I may be biased but my recently bottled kits are every bit as good if not better then most $8-10/bottle commercial wine I regularly buy.

 

[bkisel]

I may be biased but my recently bottled kits are every bit as good if not better then most $8-10/bottle commercial wine I regularly buy.

+1

My feelings as well.

 

[jamesngalveston]

hold the phone maggie, dont you guys know what shrubbing is....jeez h.
shrub it....elmer, shrub it....
none of you older winers do shrubbing....
elmer heres a link to some shrubbing.

http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2011/06/cocktail-101-how-to-make-shrub-syrups.html

 

[dangerdave]

He could make a massive amount of shrub with all that vinegar!

 

[DaveL]

I am yet to make a good kit or better yet from grapes but I am starting. Whemn they are ready I am going to have a blind taste test for all my snooty friends and their wives. I will only do this once as I wont force them to be smart.
My wife doesn't drink anyway

 

[GeoS]

I have found kit wines, especially the cheaper ones, to be flat. I did a Merlot kit that I was not impressed with. I checked the pH and it was 3.8. That seemed high. I did an experiment and added some acid blend to the bottle. It helped a lot. What I now believe is the kit wines are over compensated for and over balanced, its like a damping ratio, under damped, critically damped, or over damped....... Think shock absorbers in a car...... In an effort to ensure anyone can make a drinkable wine from a kit they over balance it.

The moral is, I now "adjust" the pH and SG of kit wines ever so slightly to get a flavor I like.

 

[Billberry]

I like your idea on re-thinking things Elmer. Especially the idea of the high end kits. I have no doubt you can make wines with those that will blow the doors off of the ones your wife likes to buy from the stores.
Most of my life I have been a beer and mixed drink person with a few periods of wine drinking when good wines were cheap and readily available when I was living in California. I just started making wines so I'm open to trying all kinds in order to expand my horizons. Will I make wines that others enjoy more than I do? You bet I will because I get a personal satisfaction out of people enjoying something that I created myself. But my hobby is MY hobby and I will never sell myself short in making what pleases me as well. And I'm sure there will be others around that have similar tastes to mine that will enjoy my faves.

 

[chrisjw]

I may be biased but my recently bottled kits are every bit as good if not better then most $8-10/bottle commercial wine I regularly buy.

I would agree with that for my fine wines but I bet none of your newer kits were a MM Vinefera Noble. IMO it is not as good as a Vino Italiano but is $30-40 more expensive. Very watery.

It might make a good vinegar but it probably does not need as much water added as a normal wine would to make vinegar.

 

[Boatboy24]

You need to make what you like. Otherwise, you probably won't be in this hobby long. Well, make the stuff your wife likes too - that'd help. It sounds as if a couple nice kits and a bunch of DB and country wines is what you need. Try a high end kit out and give it a year to really come around. Two years if you can wait.