What's in your glass tonight?

[jswordy]

Tonight, my first taste of Bin 138.

 

[ibglowin]

Yes, you are correct, as I tried to say in my post. That was unavailable. Of course, yours is better.

Move to the desert!

I can get it the Full Proof right now at two places within about 10 miles of me. TotalWine carries it but sold out for months now.

 

[Hazelemere]

Framboise 2024

Appearance - clear deep red rose

Smell - really good raspberry nose from raspberries plus Chambord liqueur

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour -this was fermented with 71B yeast to drop malic acid to reduce the need for back sweetening. I use corn sugar (dextrose) for back sweetening because it gives me an aftertaste that I like. This is SG 1.009, the lowest I've ever had on raspberry wine. This wine is slightly tangy with a really good nose and a really lingering finish. I can taste it in my mouth after 5 minutes.

retaste:

Appearance - clear deep rd purple

Smell - really good raspberry nose from raspberries plus Chambord liqueur actually hard to describe

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - this is good-very good

 

[Vailvalley@24]

2023 sweet Brianna and a 2022 California Viognier!

 

[ibglowin]

Excellent choice with the smoked baby back ribs last night!

 

[Hazelemere]

retaste: Menagerie 2020-2021

Dineen Cabernet Sauvignon, Sheridan Syrah, Amador Cabernet Sauvignon, Dineen Cabernet Franc 2020 with Mettler Petite Sirah (74%) - Regent (homegrown) 26% 2021

I have 4 left. Here are my comments on this wine:

Appearance - purple ink

Smell - good, complex nose, hard to describe, smoked meat

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - this is intense, full on red wine. I have 2 left which I will try to let age and drink on special occasions over the next 3-5 years. This is at least very good with the potential to be excellent. So I'll try to keep my mitts out of it so it can become excellent or very good-excellent. It has a good long finish and enough acid + tannin to age. I get the tannin in the aftertaste with the acid which is a good sign. This is primo red IMHO. Petite Sirah especially ultra ripe Petite Sirah like Lodi Mettler Vineyard's is tailor made for Cabernet Franc and or Cabernet Sauvignon. The Petite Sirah in this wine was sky high brix but un-raisined, tasty and fragrant like Italian Amarone. If you like Amarone, grow French American hybrid grapes and can buy Lodi Petite Sirah, including Mettler, if you are lucky then make a Lodi-French hybrid blend. Any red hybrid can work with Lodi red wine grapes. Blending Lodi reds with hybrids gives you much better balance in the reds i.e. acid, brix, balance. My guess is Minnesota and New York red hybrids will work also but I'm guessing because I only grow Regent and Marechal Foch.

Have fun

Wild things

You all make my heart sing

Wild things

Klaus

retaste: Menagerie 2020-2021

Dineen Cabernet Sauvignon, Sheridan Syrah, Amador Cabernet Sauvignon, Dineen Cabernet Franc 2020 with Mettler Petite Sirah (74%) - Regent (homegrown) 26% 2021

I have 3 left. Here are my comments on this wine:

Appearance - purple ink

Smell - good, complex nose, smoked meat, cedar, plums, pepperoni

Tannin - good maybe slightly high but it will help this age

Acid - good

Flavour - this is intense, full on red wine. Really tasty. It tastes like it would be really good with barbecued ribs. I'll save the rest for birthdays when my daughter asks me if she should make me barbecued and of course the answer will be go for it. I've never done it but it might be really good with homemade pizza which would be fun for the whole family tribe to make for the first time. It could also be good with wild boar borscht or chorizo chili.

24 hours later from a half open bottle at room temperature:

Appearance - purple ink

Smell - good, complex nose, smoked meat, cedar, plums, chorizo

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - this is intense, full on red wine. Really tasty. It tastes like it would be really good with barbecued ribs. I'll save the rest for birthdays when my daughter asks me if she should make me barbecued and of course the answer will be go for it. I've never done it but it might be really good with homemade pizza which would be fun for the whole family tribe to make for the first time. It could also be good with wild boar borscht or chorizo chili.

 

[Hazelemere]

retaste from a 1/2 bottle in my cooler. Here are my tasting notes:

Appearance - clear deep lemon yellow

Smell - very fragrant, complex nose that lingers

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - this is better than a house wine, absolutely delicious with a really good aftertaste. I can smell it after I swallow it after a couple of minutes. This was made with D47 yeast which gives it the long finish. I score it 9+ out of 10 and will store it as a premium white wine to see how it ages. Surprisingly my own grapes which were destemmed and culled at low brix SG 1.073 are in this together with low brix Fresco Chilean Viognier juice in a pail at SG 1.083, plus organic homegrown Russet and Cox juice plus Okanagan Macintosh juice (all apples ground and pressed for juice and chaptalized with unpasteurized blueberry blossom honey to ~ SG 1.085). Apple + honey = cyser, Grape + honey = pyment. Cyser + Pyment = White Fusion.

Consider white fusions i.e. cyser + pyment. This wine kills!

Happy New Year to all of you

Klaus

retaste from a 1 bottle in my cooler. Here are my tasting notes:

Appearance - clear deep lemon yellow, slightly sparkling (i.e. this is refermenting in the bottle, it has yeast sediment on the side of the bottle)

Smell - very fragrant, complex slightly yeasty nose that lingers

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - this is now what we call a "fizz bomb" i.e. an unplanned sparkling wine. This is a really tasty slightly sparkling white wine. It is slightly sweet which tells me why it refermented. I never plan these wines. They make themselves. This is a really good slightly sweet "fizz bomb"

 

[VinesnBines]

2023 Vidal; same grapes fermented by myself and Winemaker_81. Mine is the lighter bottle, pressed off the skins and fermented with Cotes de Blanc yeast. Bryan fermented on the skins and used TR-313.

Aside from the color, the taste was vastly different. Mine has a tad of residual sweetness and very little citrus finish. Bryan’s “orange wine”.is dryer with a distinct grapefruit in the middle.

Same grapes; both wonderful wines. Vidal is truly a versatile grape.

 

[Hazelemere]

White Fusion 2024

This is a blend in a glass of 50% Chilean Viognier from Fresco juice, 25% homegrown Russets + Macintosh apple juice chaptalized with cane sugar, 25% Homegrown white wine grapes including Siegerrebe, Ortega, Reichensteiner, Madeleine Angevine with homegrown Cox apple juice chaptalized with unpasteurized blueberry blossom honey and fermented with D47 yeast.

Tasting notes:

Appearance - clear lemon yellow

Smell - very fragrant, complex nose

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - this is better than the sum of its parts and should make a really good, balanced and tasty house white wine for everyday drinking. I'd rate it as very good. It has no apparent flaws. I'll mix up 30 bottles of this in a carboy, put it back in my cooler and bottle it around Easter 2025.

retaste:

Tasting notes:

Appearance - clear lemon yellow, no fizz (most of these are sparkling. This one isn't.)

Smell - very fragrant, fruity, intense, lingering complex nose, hard to describe

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - this is really good with a long aftertaste. I can't make it again because of all of the ingredients that can't be replicated., but I can try to mimic it with a Russet apple juice fresh ground and pressed, rich 2nd run white wine grape blend (homegrown Siegerrebe, Ortega, Madeleine Angevine and Reichensteiner) with Cox/King apples and unpasteurized honey (e.g. Cranberry or Blueberry blossom) i.e. no sugar, only honey with no water - another cyser pyment = white fusion 2025. Surprisingly my wife doesn't. like it. So this is mine. She has hers.

 

[winemaker81]

Mrs. WM81 and I are celebrating Valentines using the glasses we celebrated our engagement with!

 

[sour_grapes]

Mrs. WM81 and I are celebrating Valentines using the glasses we celebrated our engagement with!

View attachment 120250

I am hoping that when Mrs. S-G gets home, we will do the same. We had those Perrier-Jouet glases at our wedding, and I believe it was you who clued me in on the brand. I was able to replace the one we broke, and then some, from eBay. We are down to only 3 again (which is convenient, as my SIL lives with us).

 

[winemaker81]

I am hoping that when Mrs. S-G gets home, we will do the same. We had those Perrier-Jouet glases at our wedding, and I believe it was you who clued me in on the brand. I was able to replace the one we broke, and then some, from eBay. We are down to only 3 again (which is convenient, as my SIL lives with us).

Wonderful!

Yeah, that was me. I'm considering buying some glasses so we can leave these in the display cabinet

 

[Hazelemere]

Regent-Marechal Foch 2023 (50/50 blend of the above 2 wines)

Appearance - inky purple

Smell - good nose

Tannin - good

Acid - very slightly high but not by much which means that this blend can age because of the tannin to get an even more complex smell

Flavour- this is good, the best Marechal Foch-Regent blend I've ever made. I attribute this success to Lalvin 71B/RC212 yeast combos. I've used RC212 for ages but never used 71B which I learned about from this website and will absolutely use again. If you grow hybrids consider RC212/71B yeast combos with nutrient. This year I'll try cutting this blend with 2nd run homegrown white viniferas with no chaptalization or water to improve the body i.e. Moraine 2024. I can try Moraine 2024 with Black Iris or not.

Moraine 2023-2023 (50/50 blend of homegrown Foch and Regent)

Appearance - inky purple

Smell - good intriguing complex nose - chocolate, mocha, coffee, blackberries, red currants, prune plums, licorice

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - the grapes were ripe and it shows in this wine. This is the best homegrown red blend I've made since 1978 where I made a really good Leon Millot. I live southeast of Vancouver, 5 miles north of Blaine Washington on a 3 degree southeast glacial moraine (powdered rock), slightly sandy, slight clay) slope with heat units akin to Mount Vernon, Washington. I have about 6 inches of loam from multi-year composting on my soil. If I wanted to grow another red I'd grow Leon Millot and space it out to 6 ft in a row to reduce its vigour, maybe even 8 feet.

Back to the flavour........last time I rated this as good. It is certainly good and has the potential to become good-very good over time. It is better than the last time I tasted it. The flavour right now is certainly good and has the potential to improve. I like it. Certainly house wine quality, i.e. everyday red wine with soul..

I have a lot of it so I can drink it or let it age. I'll do both. As house wine this is fine.

 

[tullamore]

Mrs. WM81 and I are celebrating Valentines using the glasses we celebrated our engagement with!

View attachment 120250

nicely done!
2 thumbs up!!!!!

 

[sour_grapes]

Wonderful!

And, yes, I was able to twist her arm to enjoy some Cali sparkling wine in our Perrier-Jouet glasses. We then had a nice dinner of "Marry Me Chicken.."

 

[ibglowin]

Last nights pairing with Valentines dinner. A Total Wine exclusive that is always a winner with Mrs IB (and me). Martin Codax Albarino Rias Baixas. For some reason you can't find Albariño in many places including most grocery stores and even Costco but TW carries 4-5 bottles all at decent price points. This is always an excellent choice with fish or fowl IMHO.

 

[wineh]

This is always an excellent choice with fish or foul IMHO.

Auto correct, or just screwing with us?

 

[ibglowin]

Auto correct, or just screwing with us?

Fixed it! LOL

 

[winemaker81]

Our son and his girlfriend visited, and we (my son & I) made a dinner in honor of his girlfriend's birthday. NY strip, lobster ravioli with limoncello cream sauce, and baked squash. I had a Brie that was not opened at Christmas, so I baked half of it in puff pastry. We enjoyed Sake with it.



Interesting, my son introduced his girlfriend to Sake last night with a tuna dinner. She is officially a fan!

The limoncello used for cooking was mine:



This was a first for her as well. She's a fan of this as well.

My son brought a pyment for the steak. "Cloer" is a local winery that partnered with Starrlight Meadery, supplying Noble grapes. It's lighter than I'd normally serve with a steak, but honestly went well.



We also served a sparkling Vouvray (Chenin Blanc), that Mrs. WM81 loves. It complemented the ravioli well.

I thought of my former business partner, who is sadly passed on. On an occasion such as today, he'd lean back, take a sip of wine, smile, and ask, "What are the poor people doing today?" Meaning we were rich because we had good food, good wine, and good friends.

 

[ibglowin]

Well this is still crazy good for an 11 year old wine. Not over the hill by any means and paired really well with leftover BB ribs from last week. A blend of Cab, Zin and Syrah.

The 1+1 corks from Lafitte Cork have held up beyond all expectations!