WMT (Unofficial) Strawberry Coastal White Wine Competition

[dangerdave]

Dan, that is awesome! Great to have our wines tasted during the convention. Thanks Greg and Lauri for helping out! We appreciate all of your input(s)!

We axiously await Julie's report, and the final results!

 

[jswordy]

Hey-hey, what a nice surprise Dan! Thank you for putting that together for us! It was thoughtful and classy - which we had come to expect of you prior to all the trash talking you did in this topic!

Way to take your rep down a notch! LOL - I enjoyed each and every post. You are in first place in my book.

A real treat to see the judges' comments! I'm going to save my nickels and dimes all year to enter AWS competition next year. I think I have my entry bottle in a carboy now.

 

[Runningwolf]

Thanks Jim and thanks to GreginND for posting the comments as we tasted. That guy is so fast he took the pictures and I didn't even see it. Neither Greg or Lauri knew about this before we met up at the convention. I had planned on it working out this way which is why I was biting my nails as we kept post poning the deadline and I finally said I hoped I had everything by last Wed.I am anxious to hear what Julies group has to say so we can compare notes and announce the winner. I can say there was a lot of work and effort on everyone part on making this happen. You guys rock.

 

[GreginND]

And, I'll add, the effort and love in each of those bottles was clearly evident!

 

[LoneTreeFarms]

Thank you for the kind words on the wine, i have not bottled yet i started to however once i saw how cloudy it was it all went back into the BB for aging and eventually it'll get fined/filtered. my wife was surprised by the comments, she doesn't drink much wine and wasn't fond of this early on, I'm glad to hear it's turning around. cheers!

 

[GreginND]

It is a nice wine. If I were to guess, you added fresh strawberries to the wine after fermentation rather than ferment the strawberries or blend with a fermented strawberry wine. Am I close to being right?

 

[jswordy]

 

[LoneTreeFarms]

It is a nice wine. If I were to guess, you added fresh strawberries to the wine after fermentation rather than ferment the strawberries or blend with a fermented strawberry wine. Am I close to being right?

yes, by the time this competition had started i had already started this kit, it was done with the primary fermentation already, so a combination of fresh and frozen strawberries were thrown into the secondary and racked onto it, left that for a time till they looked rough then transferred again, ended up using a couple cans of frozen strawberry margarita mix at the end to add to the strawberry intensity.

 

[dangerdave]

Ah, now we're hearing the secrets!

I did almost the same thing. However, I did use strawberries in the primary. And more in the secondary. When the strawberry flavor was still not up to my liking, I made an extract from even more strawberries and added that before bottling. Unfortunately, mine went sparking after the first bottling, and had to be dumped back out, and degassed again. For fear of a recurrence of carbonation, I did not add more sugar to the wine after the last re-degassing. I am affraid this gave my wine an off-balanced, acidic quality ("sour", as Dan said). I like my wines a bit tart, so it is fine for me, but I can understand---and appreciate---Dan's critical evaluation.

Let's see what Julie thinks...

 

[novalou]

Ah, now we're hearing the secrets! I did almost the same thing. However, I did use strawberries in the primary. And more in the secondary. When the strawberry flavor was still not up to my liking, I made an extract from even more strawberries and added that before bottling. Unfortunately, mine went sparking after the first bottling, and had to be dumped back out, and degassed again. For fear of a recurrence of carbonation, I did not add more sugar to the wine after the last re-degassing. I am affraid this gave my wine an off-balanced, acidic quality ("sour", as Dan said). I like my wines a bit tart, so it is fine for me, but I can understand---and appreciate---Dan's critical evaluation. Let's see what Julie thinks...

After a couple of strawberry wine batches later, aging the wine one year, the strawberry flavor DOES come back!

 

[Julie]

Ah, now we're hearing the secrets!

I did almost the same thing. However, I did use strawberries in the primary. And more in the secondary. When the strawberry flavor was still not up to my liking, I made an extract from even more strawberries and added that before bottling. Unfortunately, mine went sparking after the first bottling, and had to be dumped back out, and degassed again. For fear of a recurrence of carbonation, I did not add more sugar to the wine after the last re-degassing. I am affraid this gave my wine an off-balanced, acidic quality ("sour", as Dan said). I like my wines a bit tart, so it is fine for me, but I can understand---and appreciate---Dan's critical evaluation.

Let's see what Julie thinks...

That will be on Sunday!

 

[dangerdave]

Yes, noalou. I figure to stash the dozen bottles I have left and see how they fair next year.

That's fine, Julie. Whenever you get around to it. Wine makers are patient peoples.

Hey, everyone, what are we going to make for next year? We need to come up with some ideas!

 

[Runningwolf]

Hey, everyone, what are we going to make for next year? We need to come up with some ideas!

Jalapeno Wine

 

[dangerdave]

Strawberry and now Jalapeno wine?! Dan, you like dragging me---kicking and screaming---out of my comfort zone!

 

[kryptonitewine]

Would the next one be with a kit base? Or is this a free for all? May I suggest a welch's base.

 

[Runningwolf]

Would the next one be with a kit base? Or is this a free for all? May I suggest a welch's base.

First off congratulations on your 100th post.

It's funny you mentioned Welch's because this was also my very first thought. It would promote creativity and be affordable for most. Additional guidelines would need to be added such as what kind of fruit additions could be added if any.

I think at some point juice pails from Chile or CA would also be a good one. These pails are less expensive than most low end concentrate kits.

Regardless what the members decide to pick I think this is a great thing that Dave has started.

 

[Arne]

You could always do welches white grape and add Dan's Jalapinos. Arne.

 

[the_rayway]

I've really enjoyed following along with everyone for this contest! Congrats everyone so far on your success. I'm very much looking forward to Julie's comments on Sunday.

Perhaps I can get in on the action for next year - depending on the shipping from Winnipeg

 

[dralarms]

I'm in for a welches.

 

[Runningwolf]

You could always do welches white grape and add Dan's Jalapinos. Arne.

Many folks do use that as a base for jalapeno.