What's in your glass tonight?

[Boatboy24]

Did not like the agave. Going to try it again with my 2:1 turbinado simple syrup and suspect I'll enjoy it much more.

 

[Hazelemere]

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.

Retaste with comments:

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.

retaste of Russet 2023:

Appearance a bit lighter than the Russet Cyser, slightly petillant (i.e. residual sugar fermenting in the bottles in the cooler. We call these "fizz bombs" If the gassing isn't too intense and the corks don't pop, fizz bombs can be very good i.e. poor man's champagne or Sparkling Russet).

Smell - very fragrant rich apple nose. The Cox apples and Moonglow pears probably helped the Russets.

Tannin - good. Russets are high tannin apples.

Acid - good. Russsets are high in acid.

Flavour - the Russets have a unique, rich and complex flavour. If you want to make apple wine look for Russets and if you can find Cox e.g. Cox Orange Pippen buy those too. If you can find non-mushy pears (i.e. not Bartletts) but Bosc, Moonglow or Anjous add some of those. Anjous can make delicious table wine.

"Cox’s Orange Pippin has an orange-red hue and is lightly red-striped. It is a medium-sized apple with excellent flavor and a spicy or nutty fragrance, making it a favorite among cider makers."

Russet Cox in any combination can make a beautiful apple wine especially with a few pears. I use Moonglow pears because I grow them. Anjous are at least as good i.e. Russet-Cox-Anjou could kill as a table wine!

 

[wineh]

I have begun buying wines on sale. This one has aromas and flavours of black cherries and vanilla and currants. Maybe a plum or two. 14.5%

 

[Hazelemere]

2022 Dry Gulch Cyser blended 50/50 with high acid Brehm Chenin Blanc white wine made from frozen juice.

This drops the tannin to something reasonable, boosts the acid and drops the Sg to ~1.000. The honey flavour is still there. I'm tempted to make ~2 cases of this as a Chenin Blanc Dry Gulch Cyser Pyment 2021-2022. This is very rich, with a good complex smell and flavour. It has a long finish and tastes like it will age from the high tannin and acid. I may even go 2/3 Chenin Blanc and 1/3 Cyser. 2/3 to 1/3 is better. I'm tasting 3/4 to 1/4 which is also good. Honey aftertaste is still there but 2/3 to 1/3 may be the best so far.

Dry Gulch Cyser 2022 retaste:

Appearance - slight sediment on the side of the bottle in my cooler at 58 Fahrenheit (14 Celsius), slightly petillant (sparkling). Sediment (probably yeast solids) dropped to the bottle after 24 hours upright.

Smell - yeasty cyser nose i.e. champagne like "sparkling cyser" from 71B ferment to SG 1.000 on bottling. I don't have a record of sorbating it.

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - rich and tasty. An odd-ball for sure but I like it and will use some of it in a prawn linguine to keep sauteed onions, celery and bell peppers from burning together with white mushrooms, broccoli, tomatoes, garlic and any fresh winter herbs I can find (e.g. purple sage, oregano, lemon thyme and nutmeg) outside on the warmest January day that I can remember.

Bottom line - the next time I get a sparkler with sediment on the side of the bottle like this, I'll disgorge it upside down and then freeze the sediment just below the cork in an ice salt slurry at -10 Celsius. Wine freezes ~ -7 Celsius. Then I'll upright it and pull the cork to pop the ice plug containing the sediment, top it up and recork it as Sparkling Cyser or whatever it was un-sparkled. I have another one unopened and will do the experiment on that to see how well this idea works and then drink it with my family who all like champagne with something like Clam Vongole Linguine at a birthday dinner.

 

[David Violante]

Tonight I’m drinking a glass of apple wine with a “touch” of smoked maple whisky. It’s quite wonderful.…!

 

[Hazelemere]

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.

This is a retaste. Here are my comments:

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. My wife would hate this. She would find it too acidic. It is perfect for me. Tastes like really good dry Vouvray.

Flavour - my palate all the way. Bone dry, fragrant table wine with a really good aftertaste. This would kill IMHO as champagne.

Bottom line - If you have a white wine that is too acidic consider blending it with apple wine (2nd choice) or cyser - apple juice with unpasteurized honey (1st choice NO QUESTION)

 

[jswordy]

Tonight's nightcap is from Four Peaks Brewing in Tempe, AZ...

 

[Darkroom]

Finishing the Day with a glass of 2022 French Pretender (FWK Bordeaux) started Feb 22. good body, great flavor. sometimes I question the FWK product and then I sample something Ike this one and smile. 1st sample since bottling

 

[winemaker81]

Blue Margarita -- 2 shots tequila, 1 shot blue curacao, 1 shot lime juice, 2 tsp agave nectar.

I didn't bother salting the rim because I'm eating sea salt-vinegar kettle cooked chips, and extra salt is totally unnecessary.

 

[jswordy]

I have 3 bottles of the 2016 left, and two are on deck (not to worry, I have more recent vintages). The last bottle I drank had what I thought were some developing off flavors, but this one tastes FINE – and I do mean fine, smooth as silk. Enjoying it with a chicken-rice-mushroom-almond casserole.

 

[Ohio Bob]

Tartan, same as a Manhattan but with a splash of Drambouie.

Watching the NHL all stars.

 

[wineh]

Tartan, same as a Manhattan but with a splash of Drambouie.

Watching the NHL all stars.

View attachment 109977

CLR is a chaser? Lol

 

[Ohio Bob]

CLR is a chaser? Lol

Good eyes.

Full transparency, I use that area to repair faucet sink handles for our pre-school. Over time, handles get caked in lime deposits and the handle stops get worn away, leading to the handle over traveling and essentially the faucet continues to run. CLR eliminates the lime deposits, then I mix some JB Weld and “rebuild” the stop, some filing is needed to clean up the form, then the handle is good to go for another few years.

 

[Hazelemere]

Marechal Foch 2023

This is homegrown organic Marechal Foch hand destemmed and uncrushed at SG 1.094 (unchaptalized) in very nice condition fermented with a mix of RC212 and 71B yeast and natural malolactic bacteria plus medium toast American oak cubes.
Here are my comments on this wine out of a carboy in my cooler:

Appearance dark inky purple

Smell - good slightly funky nose like South African Pinotage i.e. a bit venison like

Tannin - fine

Acid - slightly high but ok

Flavour - decent and should improve. I think the 71B yeast improved it vs RC212 alone. I have 15 of these and will let them age after bottling them probably in the spring. I'm tempted to make this again and blend some of it with wild black cherry wine with or without blackberries and dried elderberries. I went back into my cooler and found Foch with resurrected Sheridan Syrah plus Black Iris (my neighbour Iris' wild black cherries, wild blackberries and dried elderberries) plus Regent blended with Black Iris and no Syrah. Both are decent. I have a wine called Moraine which is a Foch Regent blend which is certainly drinkable but I'll use it as a cooking wine for myself and my daughter to make Coq au vin, Beef Bourguignon and Beef stroganoff.

retaste ahead of sulphiting to 70 ppm total (i.e. add 1/8 tsp kmp to get to 70 from 50) and then bottling.

Appearance - dark inky purple

Smell - good rich smell

Tannin - good

Acid - slightly high but should drop as it ages

Flavour - This is the best Marechal Foch I've made from my own homegrown organic grapes uncrushed and destemmed on 71B/RC212 yeasts. It tastes like it would be good with Cantonese 5 spice savoury roast duck, wild boar or roasted venison especially if it ages. So I'll make sure to age it i.e. at least 1 case. I'll use the same yeast combo in the future.

 

[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..

retaste:

Appearance - clear deep cherry red

Smell - beautiful rich complex nose

Tannin - good

Acid- good

Flavour - first class young fruit table wine.

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..

 

[Boatboy24]

Anejo Old Fashioned. I liked this MUCH better this time around. I must've mis-measured the agave last time around. It's quite tasty.

 

[Hazelemere]

This is Carol's Muscat Dry Auslese 2023 from a carboy in my cooler made from 27% Ortega, 55% Siegerrebe and 18% Reichensteiner homegrown organic at SG 1.093, 1.092 and 1.092 respectively with un-chaptalized juice, bentonite treated mid-ferment with 71B yeast and nutrient. Here are my comments on this wine:

Appearance - clear lemon yellow

Smell - very fragrant muscat similar to Gewurtztraminer

Tannin - fine

Acid - I thought it might be flat from malic acid conversion by 71B yeast but it isn't. Carol my wife says don't mess with it.

Flavour - this is delicious, the best one I've tasted in 10 years. I'll get 40 bottles. If it does go slightly flat I'll bottle 25 of those for Carol and 15 for myself spiked with a tiny bit of citric acid. I'm tempted to leave it until the end of the summer before tasting it again and then bottling it after I adjust the sulphite level and acid. I'll post an image as soon as I have one. The grapes were picked dry, hand destemmed and sorted, undamaged by wasps, mildew or botritis. Just for fun I mixed it 50/50 in a glass with California Chardonnay 2022 from Brehm frozen juice. That is also good with more acid, an interesting Chardonnay-Muscat nose and a good aftertaste. In future if I could I'd make all three 1) Carol's unacidified version 2) my acidified version 3) my version with Chardonnay e.g. Washington Sheridan vineyard Chardonnay in boxes.

retaste:

Appearance - clear lemon yellow

Smell - very fragrant muscat similar to Gewurtztraminer

Tannin - fine

Acid - I thought it might be flat from malic acid conversion by 71B yeast but it is now, so I added citric acid to it. Now its fine.

Flavour - this needs time for the citric acid to work its magic on the smell.

 

[winemaker81]

 

[jswordy]

Sprite, mango juice and Smirnoff No. 21. I call it Whatever.

 

[ibglowin]

Some decent TW Albarino that went well with the Diablo shrimp for dinner........