What's in your glass tonight?

[Hazelemere]

Dineen Vineyard Cabernet Franc 2020

This is 100% Washington Dineen Vineyard Cabernet Franc. This is hand destemmed, uncrushed and fermented with RC212 for 21 days before pressing. Alcohol is 14.9% I have 14 left. Here are my comments on this wine:

Appearance - clear, deep, dark inky purple red

Smell - plums, blackberries, chocolate, blueberries

Tannin - perfect

Acid - perfect

Flavour - this is vey good but tastes like it will improve a lot over time. The acid and tannin should keep it together and fresh for at least 5 years in my cooler i.e. 8+ years. I can imagine opening 1 bottle every 6 months over the next 7 years to taste it when it is 10 years old.

 

[wineh]

Hester Creek's flagship wine. Yummy. (had a glass too many to describe) 14.6%

 

[Hazelemere]

Raspberry Sour Cherry Melomel 2019

This is 62.5% homegrown organic raspberries, 37.5% homegrown organic sour cherries fermented with unpasteurized cranberry blossom honey and EC-1118 yeast, back sweetened to SG 1.010 with dextrose and sorbated. I have 6 bottles left in my cooler.

Here are my comments on this wine:

Appearance - clear, deep rose

Smell - rich, complex nose

Tannin - good

Acid - good for this level of sweetness

Flavour- good, still tasting fresh and fruity after 4 years. If I made it again I'd use 71B yeast to try to drop the sweetness. I'll open the last 6 bottles over the next 6 years, if I can, to see how long it can age before it loses its fruitiness. I like my newer 2023 raspberry wines e.g. Framboise and Black Iris Framboise better but this wine is fine. I think that it could be sensational in a marinade with steaks. In fact that is exactly what I will do with the last part of the bottle...soak 2 small sirloin steaks in it with herbs and then grill them. I'll report back to you all on that experiment.

flavourwise the sirloin steak marinade was fine but my wife said the meat was tough which means that the marinade needs to soak for at least 24 hours. I'll try this same recipe again with at least a 24 hour steak soak in the marinade to see how much of a difference that makes. This is the first time that I've ever oven grilled steak from a wine marinade.

 

[Hazelemere]

Dineen Vineyard Cabernet Franc 2020

This is 100% Washington Dineen Vineyard Cabernet Franc. This is hand destemmed, uncrushed and fermented with RC212 for 21 days before pressing. Alcohol is 14.9% I have 14 left. Here are my comments on this wine:

Appearance - clear, deep, dark inky purple red

Smell - plums, blackberries, chocolate, blueberries

Tannin - perfect

Acid - perfect

Flavour - this is vey good but tastes like it will improve a lot over time. The acid and tannin should keep it together and fresh for at least 5 years in my cooler i.e. 8+ years. I can imagine opening 1 bottle every 6 months over the next 7 years to taste it when it is 10 years old.

This is better on day 2 after being opened; Here are my comments on day 2 tasting:

Appearance - same as before

Smell - plums, blackberries, chocolate, blueberries, a bit of Chinese five spice and anise (more complex and more intense smell on day 2 i.e. it is one of those wines that needs to be decanted and aerated a day before drinking. This is the only red that I have ever made that seems to have this characteristic .

Tannin - perfect

Acid - perfect

Flavour - this is very good, complex, rich and smooth with a long finish and much better than tasted yesterday. I'm lucky I saved some to taste it on its 2nd day. I'll take one to my daughter/son in law's just before Xmas roast goose dinner so they can taste it at dinner after its been aerated and in a decanter for 24 hours.

 

[Hazelemere]

one more:

Black Iris Moraine Melomel Pyment 2019

This started out as homegrown Regent grapes crushed and pressed with RC212 to make a rose. It was not sulphited until after it went through natural malolactic fermentation. It was blended with hand destemmed, uncrushed and fermented homegrown Marechal Foch. I live on a south facing 3 degree grade glacial moraine (soil is powdered rock, sand with a bit of clay and now has about 6 inches of permanent humus on top pH ~6.5 which drains perfectly). Black Iris is pitted wild cherry wine. This is a blend of Regent, Marechal Foch, wild cherries backsweetened with unpasteurized Fireweed honey. SG right now is 0.998 from the fireweed honey which was not fermented, i.e. only used as a sweetener to cut the tartaric acid in the Regent and Foch grapes. Ferment used RC212 yeast.

Here are my comments on this, my second last bottle:

Appearance - nice dark cherry, purple

Smell - good, complex, fruity and fragrant

Tannin - good

Acid - fine

Flavour - balanced, tasty, complex flavour with a good aftertaste. Hard to pick out each component. I have Sirloin Roast in the freezer that I want to turn into primo beef bourginon and finally beef stroganoff, on the weekend, with either Portabella or Cremini mushrooms. I'll use the last 1/2 bottle of this wine as the bourginon cooking wine. I can tell that it may kill as a cooking wine. I may use the last bottle the same way at a later date. I would make this again in the future as a primo cooking wine. 1/2 bottle was used with 6.5 lbs of sirloin roast to make a really good beef bourguinon with fresh home grown herbs (purple sage, oregano, lemon thyme, basil, garlic), neighbour's ginourmous homegrown spanish onions (I used 1) , sirloin roast, 3 lbs cremini mushrooms, tamari, worcestershire sauce, smoked paprika (cooked slowly for about 5 hours), beef broth 1 carton unsalted, 3 tbsp flour in cold stew liquid (broth after 4 hour cooking put into the freezer from the stew to cool and then reheated to thicken the stew from the addition of flour).

 

[Hazelemere]

I lied.....one more glass blend

Cyser 2023 (revisited)

This is a blend in a glass of russet apple wine ~75% and king apple cyser ~25% (King apple juice chaptalized with unpasteurized blueberry blossom honey). The russets were spike with a bit of pear and Cox apples, all homegrown organic crushed and pressed with cane sugar chaptalization. The King apples were crushed and pressed with unpasteurized blueberry blossom chaptalization

Here are my comments on this wine in a glass at SG 1.001:

Appearance - clear, gold

Smell - good rich nose, the smell lingers after you've swallowed it. I can smell it in my mouth 5 minutes after I tasted it which is uncommon for an apple wine.

Tannin - fine

Acid - fine

Flavour - intense, rich apple wine, a bit too sweet for me but the flavour is good

So I re-blended the wine in a glass 50/50 with extra Russet apple wine: My wife tried it and likes it so I will make this blend for her as a house white e.g. 2 cases.

Here are my comments on the new blend in a glass:

Appearance - gold

Smell - very good, rich complex nose

Tannin - fine

Acid - good, the previous sweetness is still there but much less intense

Flavour - very nice. Has a really good finish which tells me that I shouldn't do anything with my 2023 cyser until I have enough non-honey apple wine to blend it with. This wine in a glass has a really intense and interesting finish.

Bottom line - use the Cyser 2023 as a minor blender with 2023 or 2024 apple wines to create really intense, balanced and flavour full apple wines.

 

[winemaker81]

My son tried Vietnamese coffee recently and brought two the coffee drippers with him. Vietnamese coffee beans are dark-n-bitter. Ground coffee is put in the dripper, a ventilated cover is screwed down on top of the coffee, and then the dripper is filled with hot water. It takes a couple of minutes to drip through.

Traditionally it's served with sweetened condensed milk.



He made me a cup while I was making turkey soup for last night's dinner. Celery and carrots in the background.

 

[Hazelemere]

Petite Pinnacle 2020 - 2021
Dineen Cabernet Sauvignon JJ 2020	27.0​	11.7%	1.100​	0.80​	13.3​
Amador Cabernet Sauvignon JJ 2020	12.0​	5.2%	1.107	0.75	14.5​
Sheridan Syrah JJ 2020	12.0​	5.2%	1.114	0.70	15.6​
Amador Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 KO	90.0​	39.0%	1.107	0.70	14.5​
Petite Sirah KO 2021	68.3​	29.6%	1.120​	0.70​	16.6​
Regent KO 2021	21.7​	9.4%	1.082	0.85	10.6​
	231.0​	100.0%	1.108​	0.73​	14.6​

1st column is lbs of grapes, 2nd column is varietal as % of the finished wine, 3rd column is juice SG, 4th column is juice acid, 5th column is estimated % alcohol. So this is about 14.6% alcohol. Here are my comments on this wine:

Appearance - inky purple

Smell - good complex smell

Tannin - slightly high but fine

Acid - good, possibly slightly low when the tannin eventually drops

Flavour - good, rich, smooth red with a hint of sweetness (glycerol from the Amarone style Lodi Mettler Petite Sirah?), viscous. This is my wife's palate at lower tannin. I'll keep all of it for her i.e. 17 bottles which she can drink over the next 3 to 5 years.

 

[Hazelemere]

one more

Chenin Blanc Cyser Pyment 2021-2022

This is Brehm frozen California Chenin Blanc juice mixed with homegrown organic apples ground, pressed and chaptalized with unpasteurized blueberry blossom honey i.e. no water.

Here are my comments:

Appearance - clear, pale gold

Smell - good complex nose from all components

Tannin - good from russet apples

Acid - good from Chenin Blanc and russet apples

Flavour - this is my palate. I'd make it again in a heartbeat, rich, complex dry table wine. I have 3 left and will share those with 1) 2 of my soulmate winemaker friends who've never tasted a cyser pyment who I know will enjoy it and love Chenin Blanc 2) sister and brother in law #1 3) sister and brother in law #2. A lot of people won't like it because of the tannin and acid.. It seems that high acid white wine grapes can improve a cyser a lot (for certain palates). In 2024 I may try a Madeleine Angevine Cyser Pyment since I have 2023 cyser and grow Madeleine Angevine. This will be fun because I've never made it before and never ever thought of making it! Winemaking should be fun and this will be fun.

 

[Hazelemere]

Looks GREAT, but, I would never give it a perfect score. I'm not criticizing your taste or judgement. It's just that you can't improve on perfect, and I'm sure you'll keep on trying!

you are right. As a dessert wine it is a 10. As a table wine it might be a bit sweet i.e. not a 10 as a table wine except for people who lover sweeter table wines e.g. Asians on wine tours. So the next time I make it I'll try some at lower sweetness fermenting with 71B yeast. Thanks for your comments. Very useful.

 

[Hazelemere]

Black Iris Fusion 2023

blend in a glass: 2/3 Black Iris Framboise (41% blackberry 19 % wild cherry, 40% raspberry + chambord liqueur) 1/3 Pacific Foch Moraine ( Marechal Foch, Syrah) SG 0.996. Here are my comments on this blend in a glass:

Appearance - deep purple, mahogany

Smell - good, complex nose

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - a tasty, rich complex "fusion wine" grape/fruit wine mix. I'll make 2 American gallons of this. In future I'll consider blending Marechal Foch into Black Iris Framboise. This style of winemaking is akin to making spaghetti sauce 4 different ways 1) beef bolognese 2) beef non-bolognese 3) wild boar bolognese 4) wile boar non-bolognese. My daughter, a gourmet cook, is buying me large cans of Italian diced fire roasted tomatoes plus 12 lbs wild boar shoulder. I'll make a pasta ragout and use Fusion 2023 to make it like a cross between Julia Child beef bourguinon and Italian wild boar ragout/spaghetti. I love the taste of wild boar and absolutely love the taste of fire roasted tomatoes. I'll leave some of the Black Iris Framboise as is for all of my soulmates who like sweeter wines like Iris my neighbour who has one of the wild cherry trees together with Rick the green thumb who gives me organic green cabbage, red cabbage and killer ginormous spanish onions from his garden.

 

[Hazelemere]

Russet 2023

This 2023 Russet (majority), King and pears (minority) homegrown organic apple wine chaptalized with cane sugar and aging in my cooler after being sulphited and treated with bentonite (racked twice off bentonite and sulphited to about 35 ppm free sulphite). This was fermented with 71B yeast with nutrient. I have about 75 bottles in my cooler at SG 1.000 and will sorbate it when it is bottled probably around Valentine's (some) or Easter (some more) or August 2024 (all of it). All of the apples were ground with an electric grinder and immediately pressed with a bladder press with about 25 ppm free sulphite with pectic enzyme and nutrient.

Here are my comments:

colour - deep golden yellow and very clear (I wouldn't want it to go darker).

smell - sensational smell (I used to use EC-1118 yeast but used 71B for the first time on my apple wine based on comments on this web site about 71B yeast which I hadn't ever used in over 55 years of winemaking. 71B rules on high acid apple wine e.g. Russets for smell.

acid - slightly high even at SG 1.000 but that is how I like my acid in white table wines. The acid should drop as this wine ages and should become even more fragrant. I'll make some of this for my wife and either sween it some more or blend it with 2nd run Washington Chardonnay to drop the acid as a house wine for her.

tannin - fine

sweetness - the acid is high enough from the Russets to balance the sweetness

flavour - this is an extremely young wine that shows the benefit of bentonite treatment that has a really good rich and complex flavour. The 71B yeast seems to be a perfect partner for high acid Russet apple wine, espescially since it is reported to ferment some of the Russet malic acid. I will absolutely use 71B again on Russet apple wine.

PS I'm tasting it in a 50/50 blend with Sheridan Chardonnay piquette (some Madeline Angevine) fermented with V-13 yeast (this photo is on the right). The piquette drops the acid and sweetness on the Russet apple wine. The Russet eliminates the flatness of the piquette (i.e. low acid). Some of the piquette "Chardonette" containing some Madeline Angevine 1st run should make a decent house white for my wife and son-in-law 1st and me 2nd as Russet Chardonette 2023 although I like Russet 2023 better for myself. Bottom line is that this wine can be used lots of ways successfully.

My wife tried this and likes the pure Russet-Cox-Pear ice cold, so I'll bottle it for her as her house white. Obviously I'll drink it too. Luckily I made lots ~6 cases so it should last her a long time unless of course she decides to throw a big party.

 

[Hazelemere]

Black Iris Framboise 2023

This is a 60% Black Iris 40% Raspberry table wine blend. Black Iris is 68% frozen wild blackberries from my neighborhood, 32% frozen pitted wild cherries from my neighborhood and 1 lb dried elderberries per 25 bottle carboy medium toast American oak cubes and 1 bottle of Bols cherry liqueur. Framboise is frozen organic homegrown raspberries with 2 bottles of French Chambord liqueur (black raspberries).. I fermented raspberry and wild cherries with 71B yeast, pectic enzyme and vitamin B containing nutrient, blackberries and elderberries with RC212 yeast, pectic enzyme and vitamin B containing nutrient.

Here are comments on this wine:

Appearance - clear deep cherry red

Smell - beautiful rich complex nose

Tannin - good

Acid- slightly high for the tannin level but should drop as it ages

Flavour - first class young fruit table wine. I was going to bottle it but I think I'll leave it alone in my 25 bottle carboy until Valentines

Bottom line- this is a really interesting fruit wine and I will definitely make it again e.g. a couple of cases per year. It is back-sweetened with dextrose and sorbated at SG 1.000. It should improve for at least 5 years after it is bottled. This is the lowest sweetness level I've ever had on a raspberry wine which tells me that 71B is the way to go on wine containing raspberries..

I bottled 15 of these. My comments are the same as before i.e. let it age for a long time so the acid and/or tannin can drop 2 years in the bottle in my cooler should do it.

 

[Hazelemere]

Russet Cyser 2023

This is 90% homegrown russet major Cox and pear minor apple juice chaptalized with cane sugar and 10% homegrown King apple juice chaptalized with unpasteurized blue berry blossom honey and fermented with 71B yeast blended in a single glass. Here are my comments:

Appearance - golden i.e. a bit dark

Smell - good rich apple nose with a bit of honey fragrance

Tannin - good from the russets

Acid - good from the Russets

Flavour - good, rich intense apple wine. I'll probably make at least 15 of these.

Russet 2023

This is 100% homegrown russet major Cox and pear minor apple juice chaptalized with cane sugar

Appearance a bit lighter than the Russet Cyser

Smell - good rich apple nose

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - tasty, balanced apple wine with a nice aftertaste. I have 15 bottled but can do 30 more as my house white ( 45 bottles ) and still make 15 Russet Cyser. I may save 15 to blend with my son-in-laws apple wine to make a 3rd apple wine and/or 2nd apple cyser wine.

my wife likes it ice cold so I bottled another case of russet 2023 today mainly for her so the more exotic white grape wine can age.

Here are my new comments: this is really good and will age via the acid and tannin. First class. I'll try to make it again with Cox apples and some pears.

 

[Hazelemere]

Moraine Black Iris Dry Melomel Pyment 2018-2019

This is homegrown organic Regent & Marechal Foch grown on glacial moraine soil with pitted wild cherries and unpasteurized fireweed honey. I'm tasting the very last bottle. Here are my comments:

Appearance - clear mahogany purple red.

Smell - good clean fruity nose

Tannin - fine

Acid - slightly high but okay

Flavour - very different, exotic taste. This should kill as a cooking wine e.g. Coq au Vin, Beef Bourguignon or Wild Boar Ragout. So I recorked it in a 26 oz bottle half and half with Raspberry Cyser Pyment 2020 and will use it to make wild boar ragout 2 ways 1) Italian style with fire roasted crushed and diced Italian tomatoes and 2) French Alsatian style which I've had in France and was to die for with Gewurtztraminer. I'll let you know how they both turn out with this wine 1/2 bottle in each sauce. The 2 wines blended taste like they will help make a really good sauce for the wild boar. This wine combo is very fragrant (in a good way) and should compliment all of the fresh homegrown spices that I can muster (oregano, purple sage, lemon thyme, basil) together with the best mushrooms I can find, garlic, tamari, worchestershire, smoked paprika, my neighbour's homegrown organic Spanish onions and maybe some homegrown chives and/or parsley. I think I may just make my own recipe on the fly and not look at a cookbook for either recipe. I love to cook and it will be great fun to make 2 wild boar ragout recipes without looking at any recipes. i.e. total decadent fun.

 

[Rocky]

We had some beef stir fry over white rice and washed it down with some of our 2018 Nero D'Avola. This wine was a real adventure that I made about 5 years ago. When it had bulk aged for a year and a half, I botted it and I was very disappointed in the wine. I think I may have over-oaked it. I had about 16 gallons of it and I was reluctant to pitch it or turn it into vinegar, so I packed the bottles in cases and let it age for 3+ years more. Along the way, I would occasionally open a bottle for a taste. Early results were not great but I sensed a slight improvement every 6 months or so. I still have 5 cases of it and it is now a very nice, very bold, dry red.

I am posting this to give others encouragement not to be so ready to "pull the plug" on a wine that initially is not what is expected. Try to determine what is missing or over done, apply a remedy and give it time.

 

[Hazelemere]

Marechal Foch 2023

This is homegrown organic hand destemmed and uncrushed Marechal Foch at 91% blended with my Siegerrebe-Ortega 2nd run (no water or sugar added) both fermented with a RC212-71B yeast blend. This has just finished malolactic fermentation and is ready to be racked and sulphited at 50 ppm (1/8 tsp per Imperial gallon) to drop tartrates in my cooler. I have 30 bottles of this. Here are my comments:

Appearance - inky purple

Smell - good clean nose

Tannin - fine

Acid - good (lowest I've ever had without any chemical treatment over 10 years)

Flavour - this is decent with an interesting aftertaste.

Bottom line - this is the best Marechal Foch I've ever made. Adding low acid 2nd run white and using 71B yeast looks like a winning recipe going forward. I think that it will improve over time and become more complex. I never heard of 71B until this year on this website. I'll absolutely use 71B yeast on Marechal Foch in the future in combination with RC212.

II just pulled a bit out of a sulphited 30 bottle carboy in my cooler to see how it is doing. Here are my comments:

Appearance - inky purple

Smell - good clean nose

Tannin - good

Acid - fine

Flavour - this is decent, balanced and flavourful. It should turn into something good. I'll leave it alone in the cooler and then rack it off of tartate crystals with some more sulphite e.g. take it from 50 to 70 total ppm sulphite which should give me ~23 ppm free sulphite in the carboy. I'll definitely use this yeast combo again.

 

[Hazelemere]

Regent 2023

This is homegrown organic hand destemmed and uncrushed Regent grafted onto SO4 rootstock at 91% blended with my Siegerrebe-Ortega 2nd run (no water or sugar added) both fermented with a RC212-71B yeast blend. This has almost finished malolactic fermentation and will soon be ready to be racked and sulphited at 50 ppm (1/8 tsp per Imperial gallon) to drop tartrates in my cooler. I have 60 bottles of this. Here are my comments:

Appearance - inky purple

Smell - slightly stinky until it is swirled in a glass at which point it is fine and interesting. Racking and sulphiting it should improve it a lot.

Tannin - fine, more than the Marechal Foch described above

Acid - good (lowest I've ever had without any chemical treatment over 10 years)

Flavour - this is decent with an interesting aftertaste which is totally different than the Marechal Foch.

Bottom line - this is the best Regent I've ever made. Adding low acid 2nd run white and using 71B yeast looks like a winning recipe going forward. I think that it will improve over time and become more complex. I never heard of 71B until this year on this website. I'll absolutely use 71B yeast on Regent in the future in combination with RC212.

Attachments​

I re-tasted this from a carboy in my cooler. I have 60 bottles. Here are my comments:

Appearance - inky purple

Smell - slight stink is gone, cherries and black currants plus mocha chocolate. Good nose becoming more distinctive.

Tannin - good

Acid - fine

Flavour - this is decent and should improve as it ages. I've never had a Regent this good which I attribute to 71B/RC212 yeast combination.

 

[Ericphotoart]

Yesterday I opened my Pineapple-Strawberry-Banana "Summer Blend" that I started in August 2022. The last time, in June 2023 it was still tarty and fruits were not so distinctive. I was really amazed last night. The wine is much, much smoother, tartness mellowed, Each of the three fruits are very distinctive. Banana added mouthfullness and strawberry added a beautiful reddish color. The wine was made from Dole frozen fruits. I'm very happy with the outcome.

 

[Hazelemere]

final taste in a glass 2021 Mettler Vineyard (Lodi) Petite Sirah 68% and Regent 2021, 2023 - 32%

here are my comments on Petite Sirah Regent which now drops from 16 to 14.6% alcohol:

The original Petite Sirah was flat and too high in alcohol but the grapes were tasty even though they'd shriveled to pre-raisin level like Amarone grapes.

Appearance - inky purple

Smell - good nose

Tannin - good

Acid - no comparison to the Petite Sirah i.e. much better

Flavour - This is good and should improve. It will probably end up slighly flat so more Regent should make even better e.g. 62/38 blend which I'm tasting now with these comments:

Smell - good nose

Tannin - fine

Acid - fine

Flavour - this is complex and interesting. Tannin hits you in the aftertaste. Alcohol is now ~14.2. This is rich and should age due to the tannin even though the acid is still moderate. My wife Carol will like it as it softens over time because of its smell and richness.

Black Iris Fusion 2023

blend in a glass: 2/3 Black Iris Framboise (41% blackberry 19 % wild cherry, 40% raspberry + chambord liqueur) 1/3 Pacific Foch Moraine ( Marechal Foch, Syrah) SG 0.996. Here are my comments on this blend in a glass:

Appearance - deep purple, mahogany

Smell - good, complex nose

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - a tasty, rich complex "fusion wine" grape/fruit wine mix. I'll make 2 American gallons of this. In future I'll consider blending Marechal Foch into Black Iris Framboise. This style of winemaking is akin to making spaghetti sauce 4 different ways 1) beef bolognese 2) beef non-bolognese 3) wild boar bolognese 4) wile boar non-bolognese. My daughter, a gourmet cook, is buying me large cans of Italian diced fire roasted tomatoes plus 12 lbs wild boar shoulder. I'll make a pasta ragout and use Fusion 2023 to make it like a cross between Julia Child beef bourguinon and Italian wild boar ragout/spaghetti. I love the taste of wild boar and absolutely love the taste of fire roasted tomatoes. I'll leave some of the Black Iris Framboise as is for all of my soulmates who like sweeter wines like Iris my neighbour who has one of the wild cherry trees together with Rick the green thumb who gives me organic green cabbage, red cabbage and killer ginormous spanish onions from his garden.

I just finished making 6lbs of French style wild boar ragout with 2 lbs of cremini mushrooms after marinating the cubed wild boar shoulder into a bottle of this wine for 24 hours. The ragout came out perfect. All of the wine marinade went back into the stewing pot. We'll have it this evening, the way I had it in Alsace, with spaetzle.