What's in your glass tonight?

[Hazelemere]

Dineen Cabernet Sauvignon 2023

This is hand-destemmed and uncrushed Dineen Cabernet Sauvignon in boxes in perfect condition fermented with nutrient and RC212 yeast for 12 days. This is racked into a glass carboy and is near the tail end of a malolactic fermentation with 38 medium toast American oak cubes in a 25 bottle carboy to make sure it has no hydrogen sulphide issues. Here are my comments:

Appearance - nice deep purple

Smell - good clean nose

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - this very nice, rich, complex and interesting. I'll try to keep my mitts out of it wrt to bottling it alone or in a blend until the end of the summer 2024. I am thrilled to have 50 of these! No hydrogen sulphide smell at all. The oak level is fine and not overpowering at this dosage of cubes. I'll post a photo when I have one. We've used Dineen grapes for years. These were 1st class 14% PA.

retaste:

from a carboy in my cooler:

This is hand-destemmed and uncrushed Dineen Cabernet Sauvignon in boxes in perfect condition fermented with nutrient and RC212 yeast for 12 days with 50 medium toast American oak cubes in a 25 bottle carby during malolactic fermentation.

Appearance - nice deep purple

Smell - good clean nose, hard to describe due to slight oakiness which is fine

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - this is rich, complex and interesting and slightly oaky. When the slight oakiness drops over time, it should develop a good flavour and smell. I like the Dineen Petite Verdot better right now, but this is fine and should improve over time.

 

[winemaker81]

Sake to accompany sushi!

 

[Hazelemere]

Dineen Cabernet Verdot 2023

This is a 50/50 blend in a glass from one carboy of Dineen Cabernet Sauvignon and one carboy of Dineen Petit Verdot. I think pure Petit Verdot blows it away. This Cabernet is better blended 2 to 1 with a high alcohol Lodi Mettler Vineyard Amarone style Petite Sirah that we have in storage in our cooler, so that is what I will do with the Cab i.e. no Cab other than in a Lodi Mettler Amarone style Petite Sirah blend. This blend will give my wife a low acid rich red below 15% alcohol the way she likes it. This way I get to drink a spectacular Petit Verdot on its own. I tried Marechal Foch Petite Sirah 50/50 but the Cab/Petite Sirah blend is much better IMHO. A bit of Foch in the Cab Sirah should be ok e.g. 5% should be fine giving me 4 cases for my wife as a premium house red that she can drink over the next 3 to 7 years..

 

[jswordy]

Last night I drank my last Four Peaks Brewing Co. Lager from our Arizona trip. Mmm...

 

[Hazelemere]

Petite Pinnacle 2021, 2023

This is 25% Lodi Mettler Amarone style grapes from 2021 at sky high brix (SG 1.120, PA 16.0) blended with 75% Dineen Cabernet Sauvignon from 2023 at PA 14.0 to drop the alcohol of the petite sirah and improve the Cab flavour to PA 14.5%, both fermented with RC212 yeast and oaked with medium toast American cubes during MLF all grapes uncrushed and destemmed.

Here are my comments on this blend in a glass from my cooler:

Appearance - inky purple

Smell - good rich nose - black licorice, cocoa, plums, cigar box, tar

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - intense, rich. the Cab improves the Petite Sirah by giving it more balance. Should be good with pepper steak or osso buco. One word to describe this - ballsy. My wife Carol will enjoy it when the tannin drops in the next 2-3 years. She really likes Petite Sirah. The Petite Sirah is very intense even at this % level so I'll make some for her and my son-in-law who has the Petite Sirah and then bottle my remaining Cab on its own or spike it with 2024 homegrown Marechal Foch and/or Regent in whole or in part.

 

[Hazelemere]

Petite Pinnacle 2021, 2023

This is 25% Lodi Mettler Amarone style grapes from 2021 at sky high brix (SG 1.120, PA 16.0) blended with 75% Dineen Cabernet Sauvignon from 2023 at PA 14.0 to drop the alcohol of the petite sirah and improve the Cab flavour to PA 14.5%, both fermented with RC212 yeast and oaked with medium toast American cubes during MLF all grapes uncrushed and destemmed.

Here are my comments on this blend in a glass from my cooler:

Appearance - inky purple

Smell - good rich nose - black licorice, cocoa, plums, cigar box, tar

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - intense, rich. the Cab improves the Petite Sirah by giving it more balance. Should be good with pepper steak or osso buco. One word to describe this - ballsy. My wife Carol will enjoy it when the tannin drops in the next 2-3 years. She really likes Petite Sirah. The Petite Sirah is very intense even at this % level so I'll make some for her and my son-in-law who has the Petite Sirah and then bottle my remaining Cab on its own or spike it with 2024 homegrown Marechal Foch and/or Regent in whole or in part.

I also tried this at 80% Cab and 20% Petite Sirah which drops the alcohol to 14.4%

Here are my comments on this blend in a glass from my cooler:

Appearance - inky purple

Smell - good rich nose - black licorice, cocoa, plums, sandalwood

Tannin - very good

Acid - very good

Flavour - this is rich and intense with a super long finish on the tongue. This should age like crazy i.e. 5+ years in my cooler. I have 45 Cab so could easily make at least 25 of these (20 Cab 5 Petite Sirah), which leaves Carol and I with 20 and John/Jacqueline son-in-law and daughter with 5, which would leave me with 25 pure Cabernet. I think I will make these 2 Cabernet Sauvignon wines, both totally different.

 

[Hazelemere]

Dineen Cabernet Franc 2020

This is hand destemmed, uncrushed Washington Dineen Vineyard Cabernet Franc in perfect condition in boxes fermented with RC212 yeast for 22 days before pressing at 14.9% alcohol i.e. dead ripe Cabernet Franc. I have 11 bottles left.

Here are my comments on this wine:

Appearance - deep purple red

Smell - good fragrant nose

Tannin - perfect

Acid - very good considering the ripeness of the grapes

Flavour - rich, complex, tasty. This is really good, with a really good aftertaste, and tastes better now than the last time. My wife finds it high in alcohol. I don't even though at 14.9% it is. This is getting better in the bottle especially over the last 6 months so I won't taste more than one every 6 months as it ages so I can see how it develops. Right at this moment its very good with a beautiful aftertaste.

retaste:

Dineen Cabernet Franc 2020

This is hand destemmed, uncrushed Washington Dineen Vineyard Cabernet Franc in perfect condition in boxes fermented with RC212 yeast for 22 days before pressing at 14.9% alcohol i.e. dead ripe Cabernet Franc. I have 9 bottles left.

Here are my comments on this wine:

Appearance - deep purple red

Smell - good intense fragrant nose - lavender, lilacs, toffee, cocoa, caramel, blackberries, black currants

Tannin - perfect

Acid - perfect

Flavour - rich, complex, tasty. This is really good, with an intense yummy aftertaste.

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[jswordy]

Life is short...

 

[Hazelemere]

Life is short...

View attachment 111744

I was blessed to vertically taste 10 vintages of Penfolds Grange at an Australian Wine Society tasting in Vancouver. I think it cost me $125, over 15 years ago, which was in hindsight money well spent. We scored each wine out of 20. The lowest score on any wine was an 18. Grange Syrah kills!

 

[Hazelemere]

Life is short...

View attachment 111744

how do you like it?

 

[wineh]

Inexpensive Monday afternoon wine. Cherries, pepper and hint of vanilla on the nose, black cherries, vanilla and a hint of licorice on the palate.
By the way, where I live, that Penfolds bin 389 is over $100.00 Canadian! If I come home with one, my wife must never know!

 

[jswordy]

how do you like it?

Excellent, as always. Rich, concentrated, focused and muscular wine that, after 6 years in my cellar, has come into its own in the bottle.

 

[jswordy]

I was blessed to vertically taste 10 vintages of Penfolds Grange at an Australian Wine Society tasting in Vancouver. I think it cost me $125, over 15 years ago, which was in hindsight money well spent. We scored each wine out of 20. The lowest score on any wine was an 18. Grange Syrah kills!

What a treat for you!

Even if you buy the newest issued Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz or Shiraz-Cab at $9-12 a bottle, if you stick that stuff in your cellar for 6 or 8 years, it is wonderful juice. IMO, it is difficult to go wrong with cared-for Penfolds.

I took a bottle of it along with other wines to a gathering Saturday, and the 7-year-old Penfolds Koonunga Hill shiraz and the Southern Belle blend out of Spain - both SCREW TOPS! – were the first drained by guests, who bypassed my tasty corked Bordeaux offerings to get to them first.

Southern Belle was the first wine ever to be whiskey barrel aged, and it is aged in Pappy Van Winkle barrels. Even with that pedigree, it is modestly priced at $16-20 a bottle. But it hits way over that price, and the cellar is nice to it, as well.

The idea to whiskey barrel age the wine was conceived in Tenneseee, as well.

“The idea to use the bourbon barrels came over a dinner years ago that I shared with my buddy Julian Van Winkle at a Southern Foodways Alliance meeting at Blackberry Farm in 2001. It was simply an idea that came up in conversation. Hey, let's do something together. What about putting wine in used Pappy barrels? Okay, I'll send you some. I don't know if you've ever seen old, used bourbon barrels, but they're ugly. When the winemakers first saw the barrels, they flat out refused to put wine anywhere near them. But, eventually they did and the result was not only delicious but magical.” – Dan Philips

 

[ChuckD]

I was blessed to vertically taste 10 vintages of Penfolds Grange at an Australian Wine Society tasting in Vancouver. I think it cost me $125, over 15 years ago, which was in hindsight money well spent. We scored each wine out of 20. The lowest score on any wine was an 18. Grange Syrah kills!

Excuse my ignorance but to what does “vertically “ refer to in a tasting?

 

[jswordy]

Excuse my ignorance but to what does “vertically “ refer to in a tasting?

It's tasting the wines from a label from different years so you get a sense of the changes over time.

 

[Hazelemere]

Excuse my ignorance but to what does “vertically “ refer to in a tasting?

years e.g. 10 different vintages of the same wine is a 10 year vertical tasting

 

[Hazelemere]

Framboise 2023

This is from a 25 bottle carboy of raspberry wine containing 2 bottles of French Chambord black raspberry liqueur. I have 15 left and will give my daughter 6 as a Xmas present leaving my 9 to share. Here are my comments on this wine:

Appearance - clear deep rose-red

Smell - fantastic nose. I can smell the Chambord.

Tannin - good

Acid - for raspberry wine this is perfect or nearly perfect

Flavour - this is the best raspberry wine that I have ever tasted winning "Best of Show" against 200 winemakers each year over 2 consecutive years with raspberry wine that wasn't as good as this.

I give it a perfect score of 10/10 i.e. my best wine ever in over 55 years of winemaking. This is a fantastic wine.

retaste from a bottle in my cooler:

This is from my last bottle of raspberry wine containing 2 bottles of French Chambord black raspberry liqueur in a 25 bottle carboy. Everyone loved it so I had to give it away! Here are my comments on this wine:

Appearance - clear deep rose-red

Smell - fantastic nose. I can smell the Chambord. This is raspberry on steroids.

Tannin - good

Acid - for raspberry wine this is perfect or nearly perfect. The berries were homegrown organic late season which always have the lowest acid which lets me drop the sweetness.. Too much sweetness in a raspberry table wine can overpower it. This was bottled with sorbate at SG 1.008, my lowest ever. Normally I bottle at SG 1.012. The raspberries were perfect (I have 3 varieties and blend them including Meeker and Lamberhurst, I don't remember #3). My raspberry patch is 36 years old. I don't know that that matters but I will pretend that it does. The key to making high end raspberry wine is to pick the ripest raspberries that you can. I use frozen and thaw them with 3 lbs cane sugar per 6 lbs frozen raspberries for 2 days before adding water (1 Imperial gallon per 6 lbs raspberries plus pectic enzyme). Early season raspberries don't cut it for wine but are good for juice. I press the pulp in my stainless steel bladder press to keep the seeds away from the alcohol at about SG 1.030 starting from about SG 1.090. I used 71B yeast for the first time and will use it again on this recipe. In the past I have always used EC-1118 but 71B is better IMHO because it creates less acidic raspberry wine.

Flavour - this is the best raspberry wine that I have ever tasted winning "Best of Show" with raspberry wine against 200 winemakers each year over 2 consecutive years with raspberry wine, in the Salmon Arm, B.C. Fall Fair, judged by professional winemakers, that wasn't as good as this.

I still give it a perfect score of 10/10 i.e. my best wine ever in over 55 years of winemaking. This is sensational. I'll absolutely make it in 2024 exactly like this if I can, and also blended with organic wild cherries, wild blackberries and dried elderberries.

 

[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:

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, the raspberries are dominant with the Chambord

Tannin - good

Acid- good

Flavour - this is really good fruit wine. Everyone loved it, except my wife Carol who likes her wines flat, rich and with low tannin ( a challenge for me but I enjoy a challenge). Most people like their wines with more acid so I had to give it away to people that do. Her palate is Cab Petite Sirah or Petite Sirah on its own. You shouldn't judge another person's palate IMHO. Make enough different wines so that no matter who you provide wine to, especially if you understand their palate, you can give them a wine that they like. Winemaking and winetasting should be fun. It should never be an ego trip about why they don't like something that you like.

 

[Boatboy24]

It said 'traditional style' on the back label. I disagree with that. Definitely some oak present, but it was good. Went well with El Puerco

 

[cmason1957]

Costco find of the week (at least for wine). $6.99/bottle. Very tasty.

VARIETALS: 34% Grenache | 33% Syrah | 33% Mourvèdre [GSM]
APPELLATION: Pays d’Oc
ALCOHOL: 13.5% vol. RESIDUAL SUGAR: 6 g/L PH: 3.7 TOTAL ACIDITY: 3.1 g/L

The grapes are harvested and fermented separately, destemmed and crushed. The maceration lasts about 15 days at a temperature of 26/28° C, in concrete tanks. Regular pumping-over during the process. The Syrah is aged under the influence of medium-toasted French oak for 5 months. The Grenache and the Mourvèdre are aged on their fine lees, in concrete tanks and stirred regularly. Blending and crossflow filtration before bottling.

Deep ruby in color with a hint of purple. Intense and complex aromas of ripe red and black fruits, followed by notes of earth and spice. A hint of cloves and pepper. The wine is very well structured, with a perfect balance of elegance and ripe and silky tannins.

and how can they make enough wine for Costco purposes, store for 3 years, ship from France for that price point???