What's in my glass? Homemade hooch. SWILL. Actually a combo: Australian Shiraz, Lenor (homegrown black Spanish), plus some CS from Lodi. Left overs from various ferments. Combined together and oaked for 5+months. Actually quite surprisingly good.
retaste:
Appearance - clear yellow gold
Smell - honey smell is dominant, complex interesting nose:
Tannin - good
Acid - good
Flavour - intense cyser. very pleasant. I'll make some more this year, in about 2 weeks, with D47 yeast with and without homegrown grape juice i.e. some as Cyser Pyment 2024.
retaste (I have 6 left after this):
retaste:
Petite Pinnacle 2021, 2023
Here are my comments on this blend in a glass from my cooler:
Appearance - inky purple
Smell - good rich nose - black licorice, prunes, cocoa, plums, cigar box, tar
Tannin - good
Acid - good
Flavour - intense, rich. the Cab improves the Petite Sirah by giving it more balance (lower alcohol and higher acid). This is my wife's primo red. I'll age it for her so she can drink it with a really good steak. She'll have it today with a really tasty broiled prime rib steak, with garlic mashed home-grown organic potatoes and garlic with fresh organic homegrown pole wax beans and a really tasty organic blackberry apple crumble with vanilla or chocolate ice cream. I mention organic all of the time because trust me it makes a real difference e.g. no glyphosate (Round-up) in your gut, no synthetic fungicides in your stomach. I know I could kill all of the wasps and hornets in my vineyard with synthetic insecticides but I'd rather trap them simultaneously with 3 different traps 1) strawberry jam jars 2) yellow jacket pheromones 3) W-H-Y traps. I'll cull damaged grapes from wasps and/or powdery mildew by hand before I crush and press without any remorse. i.e. I'll joyfully get what I get!
Cyser Kir 2023
This is about 90% Russet Cyser 2023 with 10% Creme de Cassis (French black currant liqueur)
Appearance - clear rose
Smell - really good smell, very interesting. The Cassis improves it a lot.
Tannin - good
Acid - good
Flavour - this is a really good way to drink a cyser. I'd drink this in the summer on ice as a cocktail. A really tasty surprise. I'll keep creme de cassis in the house just so I can make this. When I was younger my wife and I used to drink Dubonnet. This IMHO is better. My wife tasted this and really likes it. Scored it 8.5/10. What a pleasant surprise!
I'm tasting this today while I'm roasting a Canadian Thanksgiving turkey. Black currant liqueur with apple melomel (cyser) is sensational. Making this again is a no-brainer! The aftertaste is fantastic!
retaste:
Black Iris Foch Syrah 2022-23
wild blackberries, wild black cherries (pitted), dried elderberries, Sheridan Syrah (repair job), homegrown organic Marechal Foch
Appearance - inky purple, slight fizz
Smell - complex, wild cherries, caramel, cocoa, Chinese 5 spice, roast duck, marzipan
Tannin - good
Acid- good
Flavour - this is interesting. I won't make it again because the Syrah was a train wreck one-off which this blend was an attempt to fix. This is a decent, rich house red with a unique and interesting aftertaste. I think that it would make a killer marinade for duck or any wild meat - venison, wild boar, elk or moose. I'll keep what I have left (a few bottles) as a marinade for wild meat. My son in law and his brothers are hunters.
Framboise 2024
15 lbs organic frozen raspberries including Meeker and Lamberhurst
6 lbs cane sugar
3 US gallons of water
raised SG to 1.085 with cane sugar after the raspberries thawed and the after the water as added.
71B yeast
pressed at SG 1.000 to remove seeds
added 2 750 mL bottles of Chambord liqueur (French black raspberry)
added dextrose (corn sugar) to SG 1.006
raised total potassium metabisulphite from 2/8 tsp to 3/8 tsp total i.e. ~25 to 30 ppm free sulphite
addded sorbate and put into my cooler to bottle around Easter 2025
Comments (pre sorbate and 1/8th tsp sulphite addition at SG 1.006):
Appearance: clear after 4 weeks. Ferment is done.
Smell - very fragrant, very slight stink off yeast sediment
Tannin - good
Acid - slightly high but ok for now. It will drop over time e.g. 6 months+. If it doesn't I can always sweeten it a bit more e.g. SG 1.009.
Flavour - this should be very good in 1 to 2 years. I'll leave it my cooler for 6 months before I taste it again. I should get 26.5 regular bottles. 71B seems to be a go to yeast for raspberries.
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