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For a birthday that wasn't mine, I had an awful lot of fun celebrating this weekend. Tonight was this:

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Then this:

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The port is still good, though I think just a little past its peak. For a wine I practically made on a whim that's now over ten years old, I can't complain. It was a fun and very successful experiment - and my favorite label.
 
It's not in my glass yet, but these are on the agenda.


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3 dashes each of cherry, chocolate, and Angostura aromatic bitters worked well, although next time I'll add 5 of the chocolate.

Tonight it will be black walnut, chocolate, and Angostura aromatic
 
Celebrating my buddy’s birthday.

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This 2003 was more uniform, but at the same time equal sides of red fruit and dark, earthy fruit at the same time, each definitely standing out. Never had anything like this.

The 2004 we tried last year was outstanding, instead of a front, mid-palate, and finish, the 2004 had 4 distinct segments(?). Again, never have seen anything like it.
 
Last night my wife and I went to a meet the winemaker and taste his wines at a local liquor store.

Very tasty wines from an area I had not tasted many wines from South Africa. If you get a change to try any BlackWater Wines from South Africa, I highly recommend them. Very reasonably priced, not your typical expressions of any of these wines. We went with another couple who are also amateur winemakers, but the lady is someone who has tracked the varietals she has tasted and joined the https://winecentury.com/ she has tasted something like 295 different varietals, the Palomino grape wine was a new one for her. Always fun to find a few at that level.

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Raspberry Melomel Cyser 2020

All homegrown apples, a mixture of Russets, Kings and Cox, were ground and pressed at SG 1.040 and chaptalized with un-pasteurized blueberry blossom honey to SG 1.093 plus pectic enzyme, fermented with EC-1118 yeast and treated mid-ferment with bentonite to remove protein to prevent bottle haze.

Frozen homegrown organic raspberries were thawed with can sugar at 3 lbs sugar per 6 lb raspberries per Imperial gallon of water with pectic enzyme and fermented with EC 1118 yeast at SG 1.086 to SG 0.992. The dry SG 0.992 was chaptalized with the blueberry blossom honey to SG 1.012 with potassium sorbate.

60 parts raspberry melomel at SG 1.012 was blended with 40 parts cyser at SG 1.003 to make this wine blend.

Here are my tasting notes:

Appearance - deep rose with a bit of sediment on the side of the bottles which is easy yo settle (ellagic acid from the raspberries?)

Smell - raspberry and honey smells are present but russet apple smell is dominant are dominant, Smell is decent.

Tannin - high from the russets but ok

Acid - high but suits me as a table wine. I don't like syrupy table wines.

Flavour - intense, interesting, russet dominant, complex melomel cyser. The blueberry blossom honey improves it but the raspberry flavour is dominated by the russets and the honey.

Bottom line - The next time I make it I'll try 80 parts raspberry melomel and 20 parts cyser to get more raspberry flavour and tone down the russets. Having said that, I like it, kind of oddball but intense and interesting as a fruit table wine. Sorry I don't have a photo off my phone yet but when I get it I'll post it.
 

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Chenin Blanc Cyser Pyment 2021-2022

Contains:

Brehm frozen Chenin Blanc juice at SG 1.087 fermented with EC-1118 yeast, super dry but tasty
EC-1118 yeast.

Cyser - Homegrown organic Russet, King and Cox apple juice chaptalized with unpasteurized blueberry blossom honey fermented with EC-1118 yeast.

pyment is grape wine with honey in it. This wine is ~50/50 Cyser with Chenin Blanc

colour- pale golden yellow

smell - complex and interesting

tannin - is high but still ok

acid - is high but fine

flavour - good with a long finish if you like your wines really dry. This tastes like it would have been good champagne style.

I have 2 left and I want to see how they age over 3 to 5 years as the acid and tannin start to drop. I'd make this again.
 

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