What R you doing today?

[jswordy]

Rolled into Paso Robles on Monday afternoon. Have always wanted to stop in at Turley for a tasting and we finally got it on the books this trip! 300PM tasting and last of the day. Only 4 wines on the list and one was a Petit Sirah. Tasting fee was a reasonable $25. Our server was a young guy with a heavy Italian accent and he seemed at first a bit more interested in getting off work but the more we engaged with him the more he seemed to come around and the tasting got better and better. Mrs IB is pretty good about engaging people with convo. Her secret.... just ask people about themselves. Most people don't mind this approach and this worked well. He started in on the second wine and I started asking some detailed questions about wine chemistry and grape growing, pH and he really opened up and seemed to forget about getting off work. Had a really nice experience and he even comped our entire tasting fees and gave us the 10% winemakers discount out of the blue. We left with 4 nice bottles of Zin and a great tasting experience!

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(OMG, sooooo many words to say, "I'm drunk!" ) We live ONCE!!! Glad you are enjoying it.

 

[BigDaveK]

Cultured butter. Store bought heavy cream, homemade yogurt and buttermilk. Flavor? Oh my! THIS is butter!

 

[Hokapsig]

just got another delivery of Turley. The longer you allow their wine to breathe, the better and better it gets.

 

[Hazelemere]

Crushed and pressed homegrown Regent to make a Rose. Chaptalized to SG 1.085 from SG 1.073. Will ferment with 71B yeast.

Pressed my Black Iris Port at SG 1.000 through the Regent skins in my bladder press and then raised the SG to 1.030 with cane sugar (fermenting on EC-1118)

Pressed my Framboise (Raspberry) at 1.000 through the Regent skins and Black Iris seeds (fermenting on 71B)

Only grapes left to process are Marechal Foch which I'll try to leave until the SG gets to 1.090+

On Saturday we'll grind and press Russet apples together with thawed from frozen homegrown white wine grapes ~SG 1.073.

We ground and pressed about 500 lbs of apples Macintosh, Cox and Russets plus thawed crushed and pressed ~40 lbs destemmed frozen white wine grapes to make Cox Cyser Pyment, Russet Macintosh, Macintosh Cyser and Macintosh on its own. We use ~7.5 kg of unpasteurized blueberry blossom honey for the cysers and cane sugar for the apple wines. No water was added. We are using 71B/D47 on the cysers or D47 yeast on its own on the apple wines. Everything is picked and processed except Marechal Foch which needs another 3 weeks to ripen. We'll bentonite all of the apple wines in about 8 days to remove protein, especially from the cysers.

update:

racked my Regent rose with sulphite at SG 0.996. It is clearing and smells like a combination of cranberries and red currants. Should be intense and ok as it ages from a 71B ferment with or without corn sugar sweetening to say SG 1.000.

measured SG 1.007 on my Black Iris Port fermenting with EC 1.118. Alcohol should be ~17% SG ~1.007. Flavour and smell are really good and the wine isn't too sweet at this SG. I'll make this again.

racked my Marechal Foch rose at SG 0.997 with sulphite. It tastes fine even at this stage with a 71B ferment.

racked Cyser Pyment off of bentonite sediment at SG ~1.002 with sulphite. It is slightly sweet but has a rich flavour and smell fermented with D47/71B.

racked Russet Macintosh off of bentonite sediment at SG ~0.998 with sulphite. It has a rich flavour and smell fermented with D47/71B.

Macintosh seems to be a really good apple variety for any type of apple wine with or without honey. It has less tannin than russets with good acid and a really good smell. My son in law bought 300 lbs of Okanagan Macintosh and will probably buy them again.

 

[David Violante]

7 mile hike in cave creek Arizona… astonishingly beautiful, sacredly peaceful, and wonderfully quiet~

 

[RevA]

I started my first kit wine today. I did skip the EC1118 and go for 71B. So we shall see what happens.

 

[ibglowin]

We are back at the same AirB&B as last time. It was perfect and so was the price. Less than a night at the local Springhill Suites and we have an entire house and full kitchen. We stop at the local Von's and stock up for the stay. Tri-Tip is an amazing price in this area. $6.8/lb (trimmed). We can eat off this guy for two nights plus have leftovers to make a final breakfast on the last morning before we head back. Our so-called "once in a lifetime" meal as we clean out the fridge and add whatever we have left.

 

[ibglowin]

Had a fantastic tasting experience at "Law"! Joined the club! (no surprise). Wines were all amazing. Winery is gravity fed by design so no need for pumps.

 

[ibglowin]

Next it was on to Torrin! Fall club pickup and of course tasting the latest releases! Our server was none other than Vaquel the wife of Scott Hawley the winemaker/owner. Had a fantastic time (as usual)!

 

[David Violante]

Out in Sedona…

 

[ibglowin]

Last day in Paso on this trip. Late (morning) visit to McPrice Meyers for Fall club pickups. McPrice Meyers should be on anyone's visit to the area. They make 5 Star QPR wines on all fronts. They are most famous for their Beautiful Earth Red blend that made it to WS #16 spot on the Top 100 Wines a couple of years ago. Lots of amazing wines at very reasonable prices for the region.

 

[ibglowin]

We definitely saved the best for last this trip! Afternoon Fall pickup and tasting of new releases at Turtle Rock in Tin City. Don Burns the owner was the assistant winemaker at Saxum for years and he decided to give it a go on his own. The nice thing is he is able to source fruit from the same vineyards as Saxum. We got in about 3 years ago when they only had about a 6mo wait. Now it's a couple of years. Saxum wait is ~10 years now.

Chris Burns the brother of Don always takes excellent care of us.

 

[David Violante]

At The Canyon yesterday… it is unimaginable…

 

[crushday]

It’s raining today so, making arrows…

 

[ibglowin]

Heading home with (just) a few cases of wine and a ton of family fun and memories with the kids and grandkids. Went to Santa Anita Park for an afternoon of fun betting on the ponies to win, place and show. Saw the statue of Lafitte Pinkay that I played golf with last Summer at Santa Anita GC on a random pairing. Got out on Friday to play again and somehow made back to back birdies which is a first for me. Was a warm 84 that day. Got to go to the annual car show in downtown Monrovia. Heading back to Fall for sure in northern New Mexico!

 

[ibglowin]

 

[Arne]

It’s raining today so, making arrows…View attachment 117239

Nice job on the arrows. Back when I could still pull the bow back always made my own. Arne.

 

[jswordy]

Drove the T-Bird over to a nearby town to meet up with some brand new friends at a restaurant. First meeting. Photo says it all; we hit it off really great! Spent over 2 hours just talking and having a grand ole time. So fun when it works out, and ya never know until you go!