What's in your glass tonight?

[jswordy]

Seven years of settling, lol...

 

[Arne]

Seven years of settling, lol...

View attachment 120450

Good to the last drop. Arne.

 

[Hazelemere]

Chardonnay Fleur d'Oranger 2023-24

This is my last Sheridan Vineyard Chardonnay 2023 71B ferment blend in a glass with Fresco Australian Orange Muscat. We added citric acid to the Chardonnay because 71B yeast made it a bit flat. I'll bottle 4 Orange Muscats on their own. I'll test the sulphite in a 50/50 blended 30 bottle carboy and put it back into my cooler.

Tasting comments from a blend in a glass:

Appearance - clear, deep, lemon yellow

Smell - good creamy, muscat nose

Tannin - good

Acid - good for my palate. My wife may find it a bit tangy right now.

Flavour - this is tasty and fragrant with a good finish. It should improve as it ages and citric acid esters develop with malic acid and tartaric acid esters and the acid drops a bit. I'd rate it as very good right now. I'll try to age it at least 3 years after I bottle it around Easter 2025.

retaste from a bottle in my cooler:

Appearance - clear, deep, lemon yellow, very slightly bubbly, loses bubbles on swirling

Smell - good creamy, buttered popcorn, muscat nose

Tannin - good

Acid - good

Flavour - tasty Chardonnay Muscat. This needs time age and develop an even more complex nose. I score it as very good. I have no idea how much it will improve on aging. It has a good aftertaste. I think that it could be good with panco halibut burgers, rainbow trout, or prawn tempura. Have any of you foodies every made homemade prawn tempura?

 

[Hazelemere]

Marechal Foch 2024 Rose

The home grown Foch were picked at SG 1.076 which is the lowest I've ever seen which I can only attiribute to powdery mildew in canes and leave. I picked at SG 1.076 vs normal 1.096+ and decided to make a rose with 71B yeast so the high acid at low brix wouldn't destroy the flavour on a long skin ferment due to extracted tannins.

So I'm tasting a racked sample that I chaptalized in a glass to SG 1.007 with dextrose before it goes into my cooler unchaptalized

Here are my comments:

Appearance - semi-clear deep rose

Smell - good clean slightly yeast nose

Tannin - good

Acid - slightly high even at SG 1.007 but theacidity should improve over time at this brix.

Flavour - right now it tastes acidic. Over time it should improve as the acid drops. The aftertaste is good. So I'll put it in my cooler and let it drop acid e.g. tartrates. It tastes like it will be fine if aged for at least 6 months to a year so that is what I will do. Age it in my cooler.

retaste from a cooler carboy into a glass sweetened with dextrose to SG 1.008:

Appearance - clear, dark deep rose

Smell - good, clean, fruity nose

Tannin - good

Acid - slightly high but better than last time

Flavour - slightly acidic but the flavour and aftertaste are good. I think that I'll leave it alone to see how much the acid drops and whether I can blend it to make something better.

Then just for the fun of it I diluted it 50/50 with my 2023 Marechal Foch and dextrose to SG 1.004 in a glass. Here is what that is like:

Appearance - clear deep purplish red

Smell - interesting, fruit meets wild game. I like the smell. It lingers. Montreal smoked meat, cocoa, sour licorice, roast beef, buckwheat groats

Tannin - good

Acid - slightly high but not unpleasant

Flavour - As a cooking wine I think that this blend could absolutely kill. I would use it in a Chinese 5 spice roast duck, chicken, goose, wild boar or turkey marinade, any wild game marinade, even coq au vin, beef bourguignon or pot roast (beef or lamb). So what I'll do is take some of my Marechal Foch 2025 red wine (assuming it ripens to >SG 1.092) and mix it with some or all of this rose at SG 1.004 or similar and bottle it as a super premium cooking wine e.g. Marechal Foch Saveur 2024-2025. My daughter who is a gourmet home chef will get a case of it as a birthday present in the summer of 2026 (she has wild moose, deer and duck in her freezer since my son in law is a skilled hunter), and I will take what is left. I love to cook too but she is at a different level from me - started asking to smell spices as a young child (the whole cabinet i.e. all of them!.

The lesson here is to focus on flavours and smells and experiment with how to use them in the best possible way. Another example of creating something from nothing i.e. from a "blend in a glass". e.g. old white wines that don't taste oxidized in a bad way e.g. go creamy and/or nutty can be really good in prawn linguine, chicken tetrazzini and pork dishes. There are a lot of really skilled cooks on this web-site and I challenge all of you in that category to produce premium cooking wines anyway you can from anything that you may not be thrilled with as a table wine.