Yesterday was a tough work day .... this helped the recovery.
What's in your glass tonight?
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We are having friends over for an afternoon Italian "lunch" of linguine with sausage and meatballs, eggplant parmesan, salad and Key lime pie. I will serve my 2020 Amarone and my 2018 Nero D'Avola.
retaste:
Appearance - deep rose with a bit of sediment on the side of the bottles which is easy to settle and decant from (ellagic acid from the raspberries?)
Smell - very fragrant, raspberry, apple and honey smellss are all present.
Tannin - slightly high from the russets but ok
Acid - slightly high but suits me as a table wine. It should age for at least a couple of years without losing its really good smell.
Flavour - dry, intense, interesting, complex melomel cyser.
Bottom line - Since I've had sensational luck with "Framboise" raspberry wine topped up with Franch Chambord black raspberry liqueur as a table wine with and without wild cherries, blackberries and dried elderberries, I think that I will focus on making those. This wine is decent but the "Framboise wines are sensational. So I'll save my raspberries for "sensational." I only use late season raspberries which have less acid than early season and always ferment them from frozen with 71B yeast do drop the acid so I don't have to sweeten it as much to get it to be balanced.
retaste after it spent a day in the cooler with air:
Smell - very fragrant, raspberry, apple and honey smells are all present.
Tannin - slightly high from the russets but ok and better having aerated for a day
Acid - slightly high but suits me as a table wine. It should age for at least a couple of years without losing its really good smell.
Flavour - dry, intense, interesting, complex melomel cyser. Aeration improves it including the aftertaste i.e. less tannin.
Bottom line - this wine will age even though it is 4 years old due to the slightly high tannin. I have about 6 left and will leave them alone until the tannin drops and/or caramelizes i.e. turns into a killer cooking wine. I probably won't make it again because I have better raspberry wine recipes, but don't regret making it just like this. All of your wines should be ongoing adventures (i.e. you can muck with them or use them in ways that you didn't consider e.g. this one could make a really good top up. My bet is that it will end up being a really good cooking wine for marinades once the tannin starts to drop).
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retaste:
appearance - deep rose, slight sediment on the side of the bottle but it decants well off of the sediment
smell - good, intense fragrance, hard to describe in a 5 year old fruit wine which smells like has peaked. It isn't worth keeping for very long e.g. 1 year tops but has no sign of oxidation, except for a slight caramel finish in the nose which is quite pleasant IMHO.
tannin - good
acid - good
flavour - its hard to find the original raspberry and sour cherry flavour due to the caramel finish. I think that this could be good in a dessert like Candid Bananas. It might even be good in a meat marinade e.g. roast chinese duck, pork or chicken chow mein, roast turkey or roast goose or turkey tetrazzini with cremini mushrooms. It has a really nice aftertaste. I think that I will use it as a cooking wine
I have left one of which goes to my daughter who is a gourmet cook and says that she will use it to marinade duck breasts.
I'll use my 26 oz bottle 2 or even 3 ways to make 1) candid bananas dessert James Barber instead of rum 2) Chinese 5 spice roast duck 3) turkey leftovers tetrazzini with cremini mushrooms, onions, garlic, chopped roma tomatoes, fresh lemon thyme, fresh purple sage, chopped broccoli and/or celery, bell peppers, cream, parmesan with linguine noodles. I'll use the wine so the onions don't burn when they sautee and the garlic doesn't burn because of the amount of liquid.
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retaste of Russet Ambrosia 2022-2023
My son in law and I made this blend today which I'm tasting now from 15 bottles of his unoaked 2022 Okanagan Ambrosia (1/3) and my 2023 unoaked Russet (2/3). We sorbated at SG 1.000 and sulphited to about 28 ppm free sulphite and put the blend in my cooler. All of the apple wines were treated mid ferment with bentonite to remove protein haze.
Here are my comments:
Appearance - yellow gold
Smell - good fragrant wine
Tannin - good from the Russets
Acid - good
Flavour - this is very tasty apple wine. It has a good aftertaste. We'll drink it leftover prawn linguine from yesterday.
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retaste of Pacific Black Iris
This is Black Iris (68% wild blackberries, 32% pitted wild cherries with Sheridan Syrah 2020 (salvaged from a burnt rubber nose from MLF gone awry) plus 2023 homegrown Marechal Foch ~8% Syrah, 5% Marechal Foch and about 73% Black Iris. I can make 2 cases of this as a house red which I will do. Here are my comments;
Appearance - inky purple
Nose - good wild cherry dominant
Tannin - good
Acid- good
Flavour - good, rich dark dry fruit wine which will age. Has a bottle of Bols cherry liqueur in it which is noticeable and gives it a really nice finish. This is balanced and tasty, maybe slightly sweet. I'll mix Foch and/or Regent in the future to make decent house reds from fruit that I grow or can pick in my neighbourhood. e.g. Black Iris Foch 2024 or Black Iris Regent 2024.
So then I tried one more blend to stretch the black iris and use more Regent to drop the sweetness in a 50/50 blend:
Here are my comments on this new Regent Black Iris blend:
Appearance - inky purple
Smell - good fragrant nose
Tannin - good
Acid - good
Flavour - as a house wine this is fine, It has a bit of tannin in the finish and the previous sweetness is still slightly there but overall this is decent, not great but certainly drinkable and flavourfull. I'd rate it as "good" i.e. not "very good" or "excellent".I'll definitely cut small amounts of Black Iris 2024 (I have enough excellent pitted wild cherries to make 35 bottles in total of Black Iris) into both Marechal Foch 2024 and Regent 2024 to create more complex homegrown red wines. I'll use RC212/71B with nutrient to get the acid in the Foch and Regent as low as I can ahead of malolactic fermentation with medium toast American oak. I'll also make 100% Regent and Marechal Foch for comparison.
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retaste last wine for awhile (I may do Marechal Foch) retaste next. I wanted to do this to see how good Regent is without Black Iris. Here are my comments:
Appearance - inky purple
Smell - prunes, cherries and cocoa same as before. Under-ripe Regent can have a red currant smell. This doesn't which tells me that it was ripe when I picked it.
Tannin - good
Acid - good
Flavour - This is good, not great, but certainly good, the best one I've ever made from homegrown grapes which I attribute to the RC212/71B yeast combo that dropped malic acid ahead of malolactic fermentation and medium toast American oak. It has an interesting aftertaste and has enough tannin that it tastes like it can age which should improve its smell and drop its acid. I'll work on both 100% Regent Red 100% Regent Rose and Regent cut with Black Iris this year. I'm trying to become a better winemaker. To do that I need to experiment. If I'm lucky all of my experiments will work. Anyway for me this is currently the fun of winemaking i.e. follow your instinct.
Good luck to all of you with your 2024 wines
Namaste
Klaus
Marechal Foch 2023 mixed with Pacific Black Iris 2023 about 2/3 to 1/3
Home grown organic hand-destemmed and uncrushed with RC212/71B yeast combo with medium toast American oak during malolactic fermentation. SG 1.092 at ferment (no chaptalization). Grapes were in really nice condition. Pacific Black Iris is blackberries, wild cherries, dried elderberries and a bit of Sheridan Syrah. I made this blend in a glass to get an idea of what Marechal Foch Black Iris 2024 might taste like:
Here are my comments on this wine:
Appearance: inky purple
Smell - complex, hard to describe but here goes: cocoa, wild cherries, elderberries, venison, blackberries
Tannin - good
Acid - slightly high but okay
Flavour - this is decent house red and would probably make a really good cooking wine e.g. beef bourgignon for stroganoff, coq au vin or osso buco
Bottom line - I may put in some second run white grape skins to make it more complex. I've never done this before but my gut tells me to try it. i.e. no guts.......no glory. i.e. Marechal Foch and/or Regent + Black Iris + 2nd run white wine to drop the acid, create a more interesting smell and make the homegrown reds more complex and balanced (via second run white). I think I'll try K1-V1116/71B yeast combo instead of RC212/71B to get the most fragrant red wines possible. If I have enough grapes I may try RC212/71B as a comparison.
The advantage of hobby winemaking vs commercial winemaking is that as an amateur you can try anything that you want only restricted by your access to fruit, knowledge and your imagination. I'm having more fun now than I've ever had winemaking because 1) I don't mind making smaller batches e.g. 15 bottles of raspberry wine or any other wine 2) more experience on what works and what doesn't 3) connections that I never imagined e.g. this website with some talented winemakers 4) better sense of how to use any ingredient when as ripe as I can get it no matter what the fruit source. 5) lack of pressure to create new wines due to a really good inventory of wines at all quality levels (excellent, very good, good, okay). 6) ability to age any wine properly due to having all of my wines stored in a walk-in cooler. 7) knowledge about wines that make really good cooking wines and/or marinades for all kinds of meats. 8) If I screw up a small batch its no big deal. My focus right now is to learn how to make better homegrown red wines from grapes. I'll also try a K1-V1116/71B Regent Rose for the first time ever.
Home grown organic hand-destemmed and uncrushed with RC212/71B yeast combo with medium toast American oak during malolactic fermentation. SG 1.092 at ferment (no chaptalization). Grapes were in really nice condition. Pacific Black Iris is blackberries, wild cherries, dried elderberries and a bit of Sheridan Syrah. I made this blend in a glass to get an idea of what Marechal Foch Black Iris 2024 might taste like:
Here are my comments on this wine:
Appearance: inky purple
Smell - complex, hard to describe but here goes: cocoa, wild cherries, elderberries, venison, blackberries
Tannin - good
Acid - slightly high but okay
Flavour - this is decent house red and would probably make a really good cooking wine e.g. beef bourgignon for stroganoff, coq au vin or osso buco
Bottom line - I may put in some second run white grape skins to make it more complex. I've never done this before but my gut tells me to try it. i.e. no guts.......no glory. i.e. Marechal Foch and/or Regent + Black Iris + 2nd run white wine to drop the acid, create a more interesting smell and make the homegrown reds more complex and balanced (via second run white). I think I'll try K1-V1116/71B yeast combo instead of RC212/71B to get the most fragrant red wines possible. If I have enough grapes I may try RC212/71B as a comparison.
The advantage of hobby winemaking vs commercial winemaking is that as an amateur you can try anything that you want only restricted by your access to fruit, knowledge and your imagination. I'm having more fun now than I've ever had winemaking because 1) I don't mind making smaller batches e.g. 15 bottles of raspberry wine or any other wine 2) more experience on what works and what doesn't 3) connections that I never imagined e.g. this website with some talented winemakers 4) better sense of how to use any ingredient when as ripe as I can get it no matter what the fruit source. 5) lack of pressure to create new wines due to a really good inventory of wines at all quality levels (excellent, very good, good, okay). 6) ability to age any wine properly due to having all of my wines stored in a walk-in cooler. 7) knowledge about wines that make really good cooking wines and/or marinades for all kinds of meats. 8) If I screw up a small batch its no big deal. My focus right now is to learn how to make better homegrown red wines from grapes. I'll also try a K1-V1116/71B Regent Rose for the first time ever.
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retaste just to get my bearings on the difference between okay-decent (my red hydrids Regent and Marechal Foch, good, very good and excellent. I'm tasting this wine again (25 bottles in total) to see whether or not I'm biased: Here are my comments:
Appearance -inky purple
Smell - very aromatic, olives, chocolate, blueberries, ...after that I'm lost
Tannin - good
Acid - good and high enough together with the tannin to allow this wine (my wife's primo future red) to age for at least 5 years from here and further improve its smell.
Flavour - this blows the Marechal Foch and Regent out of the water. This has a really good long finish. I'd rate it as very good with the potential to be excellent i.e. a really good way to use sky high brix (29%!!!!!!!!) very nice condition Lodi Mettler Amarone style Petite Sirah grapes (un-raisined if you can believe it at this high brix level) from 2021. This is first class heavy duty red wine. My wife likes Petite Sirah because of its low acid. I find the Petite Sirah to be intense but lacking complexity. This wine because of the high quality Washington Dineen Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot is very rich and complex. I estimate the alcohol level at ~14.5% which is about as high as I like it for a table wine. All of the grapes were hand destemmed and fermented uncrushed on RC212 yeast with nutrient containing B vitamins to prevent hydrogen sulphide formation during malolactic.
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I would not have bothered posting about this wine, but I had a first tonight -- out of ~1,700 Nomacorc, I had a bad one. Had to dump the bottle.
Since 2018 I've had about half a dozen bottles leak a bit, basically a few drops early on and then the leak stopped. The scoring on the cork produced by a floor corker was visible, but the bottles were fine, even after 2 years.
This one different -- the gold capsule was discolored from underneath, and when I cut it off it was obvious the cork leaked. Oddly, no more than few others that had a leak, but the outside of the cork was crusted.
Sniffed the wine and it was bad. Looked at the cork, and it had 3 deep scores.
Sounds bad, but out of 1,700 corks, 1 real failure is a good result. My incidence of bad bottles with natural corks was significantly higher.
The next bottle (pictured) is just fine. About half is in a batch of taco meat ... the remainder into the cook.
Since 2018 I've had about half a dozen bottles leak a bit, basically a few drops early on and then the leak stopped. The scoring on the cork produced by a floor corker was visible, but the bottles were fine, even after 2 years.
This one different -- the gold capsule was discolored from underneath, and when I cut it off it was obvious the cork leaked. Oddly, no more than few others that had a leak, but the outside of the cork was crusted.
Sniffed the wine and it was bad. Looked at the cork, and it had 3 deep scores.
Sounds bad, but out of 1,700 corks, 1 real failure is a good result. My incidence of bad bottles with natural corks was significantly higher.
The next bottle (pictured) is just fine. About half is in a batch of taco meat ... the remainder into the cook.
Australian Orange Muscat 2024
This is sulphited Fresco juice in pails. Here are my comments on this wine that will be used as a blender with Washington Sheridan Chardonnay to give it a fruitier smell than its own "buttered popcorn" smell
Here are my comments:
Appearance - clear almost colourless
Smell - aromatic, hard to describe may have a bit of sulphite in it
Tannin - good
Acid - good slightly high
Flavour - the juice was SG 1.083 i.e. just ripe. I would have preferred higher brix e.g. SG 1.090-1.093 but this is ok. My son in law and I made it to try to improve Washington Sheridan Chardonnay, especially that fermented with 71B yeast to overide the "buttered popcorn smell which is okay but nothing like the smell of ripe Carneros or Sonoma tropical fruit bomb Chardonnay e.g. Sangiacomo Vineyard Chardonnay. On its own I find it slightly tangy, but tasty with a good aftertaste. I wouldn't make this on its own. It lacks body and complexity. Otherwise it is fine.
So now I'll comment on what it tastes like in a 50/50 blend with Sheridan Chardonnay fermented with 71B yeast (gallon jug from my cooler):
Sheridan Chardonnay Fleur d'Oranger 2023 (71B)
Appearance - pale lemon yellow
Smell - good complex nose, buttered popcorn smell is hidden
Tannin - good
Acid - good
Flavour - this is tasty, a really good blend. We have enough 71B Sheridan Chardonnay to blend it all this way. I'd rate this as very good with the potential to improve.
finally I tasted pure Sheridan Chardonnay 71B yeast
Here are my comments:
Appearance - deep lemon yellow
Smell - buttered popcorn smell has morphed. This smell is more interesting and more complex with more fruit smell.
Tannin- good
Acid - good
Flavour - this is very good good Chardonnay. Not excellent but very good.
So my son in law and I (he has most of the Chardonnay) have decided not to touch the Sheridan Chardonnays D47, V13 or 71B alone or blended (e.g. with my Siegerrebe-Ortega until Xmas/New Years) with sulphite adjustment so we give the Chardonnay a maximum opportunity to morph its smell into something really good.
This is sulphited Fresco juice in pails. Here are my comments on this wine that will be used as a blender with Washington Sheridan Chardonnay to give it a fruitier smell than its own "buttered popcorn" smell
Here are my comments:
Appearance - clear almost colourless
Smell - aromatic, hard to describe may have a bit of sulphite in it
Tannin - good
Acid - good slightly high
Flavour - the juice was SG 1.083 i.e. just ripe. I would have preferred higher brix e.g. SG 1.090-1.093 but this is ok. My son in law and I made it to try to improve Washington Sheridan Chardonnay, especially that fermented with 71B yeast to overide the "buttered popcorn smell which is okay but nothing like the smell of ripe Carneros or Sonoma tropical fruit bomb Chardonnay e.g. Sangiacomo Vineyard Chardonnay. On its own I find it slightly tangy, but tasty with a good aftertaste. I wouldn't make this on its own. It lacks body and complexity. Otherwise it is fine.
So now I'll comment on what it tastes like in a 50/50 blend with Sheridan Chardonnay fermented with 71B yeast (gallon jug from my cooler):
Sheridan Chardonnay Fleur d'Oranger 2023 (71B)
Appearance - pale lemon yellow
Smell - good complex nose, buttered popcorn smell is hidden
Tannin - good
Acid - good
Flavour - this is tasty, a really good blend. We have enough 71B Sheridan Chardonnay to blend it all this way. I'd rate this as very good with the potential to improve.
finally I tasted pure Sheridan Chardonnay 71B yeast
Here are my comments:
Appearance - deep lemon yellow
Smell - buttered popcorn smell has morphed. This smell is more interesting and more complex with more fruit smell.
Tannin- good
Acid - good
Flavour - this is very good good Chardonnay. Not excellent but very good.
So my son in law and I (he has most of the Chardonnay) have decided not to touch the Sheridan Chardonnays D47, V13 or 71B alone or blended (e.g. with my Siegerrebe-Ortega until Xmas/New Years) with sulphite adjustment so we give the Chardonnay a maximum opportunity to morph its smell into something really good.
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This wine is a conundrum. Fall 2022 we made 8 lug batches of Grenache and Tempranillo, and added the pomace from each batch to respective FWK Tavola Merlot kits. The Merlot/Grenache has a strong Grenache aroma and taste, but it's not like any Southern Rhone I've had. Very distinctive and I'm letting it age more. The few people who have tasted this one like it.
The Merlot/Tempranillo? It's a "good" wine, meaning it possesses a pleasant aroma and flavor, the acid has just enough bite to make itself known, and it goes down very well. But I can't describe what it tastes like. It doesn't taste like Merlot, it doesn't taste like Tempranillo, and it doesn't taste like I'd expect a blend of the two to taste. It's essentially a totally generic red wine.
This is the next-to-last bottle (only had a case) and I'm just using it up. Making stew beef tonight, so some is going into the beef and some is going into the cook.
The Merlot/Tempranillo? It's a "good" wine, meaning it possesses a pleasant aroma and flavor, the acid has just enough bite to make itself known, and it goes down very well. But I can't describe what it tastes like. It doesn't taste like Merlot, it doesn't taste like Tempranillo, and it doesn't taste like I'd expect a blend of the two to taste. It's essentially a totally generic red wine.
This is the next-to-last bottle (only had a case) and I'm just using it up. Making stew beef tonight, so some is going into the beef and some is going into the cook.
Petite Sirah Foch 2021, 2023
Here are my comments:
Appearance - inky purple
Smell - good nose, the Foch makes the Petite Sirah smell more interesting
Tannin - good tastes like it can age so I'll let it. I have 4 splits left so I'll try to leave them alone for a few years
Acid - good maybe slightly flat but that is normal for Lodi Petite Sirah. The tannin compensates for lack of acid.
Flavour- the Petite Sirah definitely improves Marechal Foch. I'd buy Mettler Petite Sirah if I could get it or any other decent California Petite Sirah to make a rich red for my wife who really likes Petite Sirah because of its richness and lack of acid. I'd rate this as "good" with the potential when the tannin drops to be very good. If you grow French American hybrids consider blending them with Lodi Petite Sirah.
Here are my comments:
Appearance - inky purple
Smell - good nose, the Foch makes the Petite Sirah smell more interesting
Tannin - good tastes like it can age so I'll let it. I have 4 splits left so I'll try to leave them alone for a few years
Acid - good maybe slightly flat but that is normal for Lodi Petite Sirah. The tannin compensates for lack of acid.
Flavour- the Petite Sirah definitely improves Marechal Foch. I'd buy Mettler Petite Sirah if I could get it or any other decent California Petite Sirah to make a rich red for my wife who really likes Petite Sirah because of its richness and lack of acid. I'd rate this as "good" with the potential when the tannin drops to be very good. If you grow French American hybrids consider blending them with Lodi Petite Sirah.
Post your F-A hybrid blends in the Red Blends post in Grape Wines. We have a ton of Vinifera blends, but very little with F-A hybrids.
please post from that link so I know what you are talking about i.e. "Red Blends" "Grape Wines"
Obviously your telepathy is NOT working today!
https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/red-blend-ideas.73908/
What was the reaction to the two wines?
chug a lug, chug al lug
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