What's in your glass tonight?

[winemaker81]

All this talk about booze got me to thinkin'which is dangerous I know..... We have a cabinet full of stuff most of will still be around when we are 6 feet under unless we toss it. We were in a "gourmet dinner group" for about 5 years and that was like 15 years ago now. They were all older "labbie" type folks who liked to have hard liquor before the gourmet dinner (with wine) so we ended up buying all this crazy liquor to make fancy mixed drinks and now it just sits in the cabinet. Not sure if that stuff goes bad over time or not but so far nothing has exploded so that's good...... LOL

I'll PM you my address .....

 

[jswordy]

All this talk about booze got me to thinkin'which is dangerous I know..... We have a cabinet full of stuff most of will still be around when we are 6 feet under unless we toss it. We were in a "gourmet dinner group" for about 5 years and that was like 15 years ago now. They were all older "labbie" type folks who liked to have hard liquor before the gourmet dinner (with wine) so we ended up buying all this crazy liquor to make fancy mixed drinks and now it just sits in the cabinet. Not sure if that stuff goes bad over time or not but so far nothing has exploded so that's good...... LOL

View attachment 97986

That reminds me of going through the remnants of Dad's neglected bar after he passed. Found a two-bottle boxed set of Florida Orange Wine they bought on vacay in like 1963!

 

[David Violante]

That reminds me of going through the remnants of Dad's neglected bar after he passed. Found a two-bottle boxed set of Florida Orange Wine they bought on vacay in like 1963!

That's probably marmalade wine by now...

 

[jswordy]

That's probably marmalade wine by now...

I actually had some. It was quite condensed and syrupy, but still had the kick.

 

[winemaker81]

I'll PM you my address .....

Why is everyone laughing? I wasn't kidding. Free booze is free booze! Even Galiano!

 

[vinny]

Fun new video from my favorite somm.

That was fun.
Thanks!

 

[Hazelemere]

I decided to taste my 2022 Raspberry Chambord from a cooler carboy.

which is 25 bottles of raspberry wine from 6 lbs of raspberries per 1 Imperial gallon of water and 3 lbs cane sugar to SG 1.004 with 1 bottle of Chambord (French Black Raspberry liqueur). This finished fermentation at SG 0.992 on September 21. I've never made this before. Here are my comments:

Nice deep colour.

Very clear.

Rich interesting complex smell.

A bit tangy at SG 1.004 but flavour is really good so I think that I will leave it alone at the lowest residual sugar that I've ever used on a raspberry wine.

I think that I'll make the next one (same recipe) as a Raspberry Chambord Port. Chambord liqueur has wonderful properties.

I think that I'll bottle this around easter so I can take some to my sister in August who loves my fruit wines especially raspberry and blackberry wines.

This recipe is definitely a keeper IMHO. I think I'll make it both ways as a table wine and as a port.

Dextrose was used to raise SG from 0.992 to 1.004 since cane sugar leaves an aftertaste unlike dextrose.

retasting today from a bottle......This is the best raspberry wine I've ever tasted. My son in laws comment "this is stunning!" So we'll make 2 carboys in 2023 from my frozen organic raspberries (one for him and one for me). He have me a gallon of his 50/50 Chenin Blanc/Gewurtztraminer all from from frozen juice which is really tasty due to flat but tasty Washington Columbia River Jarret Vineyard Gewurtztraminer mixed with high acid California Gewurtztraminer and Chenin Blanc. The Washington Gewurtztraminer and California Chenin Blanc were fragrant but the California Gewurtztraminer wasn't' Mixing 50% Chenin Blanc and 25% each of the 2 Gewurtztraminers gave us a really fragrant, rich and balanced wine.

Back to the Raspberry Chambord 2022. In 55 years I've only given 4 wines a perfect score.

Here they are:

Raspberry Chambord 2022 (this one)

Courton Charlemagne (a French Chardonnay to die for - an absolute mindbender)

Penfolds Grange (Syrah)

Mersault (French Chardonnay)

honorable mentions

Chateau Pavie (St. Emillion)

Meek Vineyard Malbec - hand destemmed (one of my wine making apprentices hit this out of the park)

Gevrey Chambertin

Pommard

Dr. Konstantin Frank and Heron Hills Riesling (Lake Keuka New York)

Central Otago Pinot Noirs

Chateau St. Jean (when Dick Arrowood was the winemaker). All of the white wines.

Carneros Sangiacomo Chardonnay (from Pacific Breeze winery juice) - a tropical fruit bomb i.e. stunning California Chardonnay

home made Washington Meek Vineyard Grenache-Syrah-Mourvedre blend (mostly Grenache ~87%) all hand destemmed

 

[Ivywoods]

It's been a while since I posted anything on here so hello to all! Who doesn't love gewurztraminer?

 

[jswordy]

After listening to an exhaustive news report about how I am killing myself if I have more than two alcoholic drinks A WEEK, all I can say is that after I put this in the cellar for 2 years, it really turned out nice. I have $7.99 in this, and it tastes like a $15-20 bottle. Better than a lot of them!

 

[ibglowin]

Heading out tomorrow to visit the FIL/MIL for 5 days...........

This will help!

 

[Boatboy24]

Heading out tomorrow to visit the FIL/MIL for 5 days...........

This will help!

View attachment 98019

Just be careful not to spill any on your way there.

 

[ibglowin]

Just be careful not to spill any on your way there.

Sippy bottle is your friend!

 

[geek]

Recently a friend & I discussed liquors, and we looked at my cabinet -- my sons & I have been exchanging bottles at birthdays and Christmas for a few years, and I have a significant number of bottles of a wide variety of liquors. We always sample at opening, and for many bottles that's all that has been consumed. I like liquor, but tend to drink wine.

I realized I was out of space for more bottles, and my birthday is in a few months, so it's time to reduce stock. I received drink stones for Christmas (stones kept in freezer, drop in drink to chill it without diluting it), and have been enjoying a double shot after work each day.

The day before yesterday was Macallan, and yesterday I switched to Cognac.

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Always see a Macallan at Costco and wonder how tasty it is.

 

[sour_grapes]

It's been a while since I posted anything on here so hello to all! Who doesn't love gewurztraminer?

Not me! That is, I do love Gewurtztraminer!

Welcome back!

 

[winemaker81]

Always see a Macallan at Costco and wonder how tasty it is.

Very!

 

[cmason1957]

Always see a Macallan at Costco and wonder how tasty it is.

Whenever I walk through Costco and see Macallan on the shelf, I pick up a bottle. Same way with The Glenlivet, The Balvenie, Aberfeldy, and if I ever saw Oban or Laguvulin I would do the same. I avoid Glenfiddich, I bought a bottle of Bourbon Barrel aged, brought it home tasted it, along with my wife. We looked at each other and said almost in unison that tastes like I just ate a bar of soap, it went back to Costco next trip for a full refund. Love me some unblended Scotch almost as much as I like dry red wine.

 

[Shurt1073]

Guessing this will be in our glass tonight.

 

[geek]

 

[Hazelemere]

A blend of 3 wines that I racked and blended as follows:

Brehm frozen California Chenin Blanc 2021 (very high acid but tasty and fragrant)

Brehm frozen California Chardonnay 2021 (very high acid - improving from only buttered popcorn smell)

Cyser 2022 - from organic russet juice mixed with unpasteurized blueberry blossom honey and no sugar or water

25 bottles California Chenin Blanc + 5 bottles Cyser with sorbate added to prevent ferment + 1/8 tsp potassium metabisulphite into a 30 bottle carboy - This is very good and I will leave it alone until summer 2023 to bottle and drop any haze e.g. proteins that the bentonite missed.

25 bottles California Chardonnay + 5 bottles Cyser with sorbate added to prevent ferment + 1/8 tsp potassium metabisulphite into a 30 bottle carboy - This is very good and I will leave it alone until summer 2023 to bottle and drop any haze e.g. proteins that the bentonite missed.

Cyser - I have 8 left to bottle. I talked about this before so won't repeat myself here.

Why I added Cyser to the Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay:

First - to drop the acid

Second - to improve the smell

Third - to improve the aftertaste

Fourth - to improve ageability (the tannin from the russet apples used to make the Cyser complement the grape acid for aging

Fifth - the acids in the blueberry blossom honey create fragrances that enhance the smells of the grape wines on their own given enough time

Bottom line - I don't care about convention. I care about smell, balance, flavour and ageability.

Finally what does the 3 way blend taste like?

good, rich, tangy, fragrant, good finish

Lesson here is to taste all kinds of combos to train your palate and nose.

This one tells me that my Chardonnay/Chenin Blanc/Cyser blends are all decent.

Good luck to all of you with your wines.

Namaste (yoga salutation which I do every day on zoom yoga)

Klaus

 

[geek]