Your 3 Favourite Homemade Wines and why you Loved them

[Hazelemere]

1. Carneros Sangiacomo Vineyard fresh slightly sulphited Chardonnay juice.

This was sensational, as good as any of the best California Chardonnays I've tasted. A total fruit bomb.

2. Washington Meek Vineyard Grenache 83%, Mourvedre 8-9%, and Malbec 8-9% fermented hand destemmed and uncrushed.

Fantastic red tasted at 9 years old. Gorgeous smell and flavour.

3. Raspberry Chambord table wine. Best raspberry wine I've ever tasted. I'm making it this year.

Honorable mentions - Meek Vineyard Malbec , Yellow Plum wine, Siegerrebe Reichensteiner Spatlese homegrown, Italian prune plum sherry with Turkish figs, raisins and dried elderberries topped up with Drambuie, Anjou pear wine (no water added)

 

[crushday]

Fun exercise... All wines made from grape must.

1. 2020 Knights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon - 100% Cab and delightful, hint of black cherries and tobacco leaf dominate the nose, blending beautifully with the aromas of oak aging. Only 3 bottles left.

2. 2020 New World Bordeaux - Cab Franc 64%, Merlot 24%, Cab Sauv 8%, Petite Verdot 4% - shows layers of concentrated fruit, exotic spice, opulent aromatics and a plush suede texture. Good news, still 175 left in the cellar.

3. 2020 Whimsical Wine Blend - Cab Sauv 65%, Carnignan 23%, Cab Franc 5%, Petit Verdot 5%, Merlot 2% - I fought with this wine, blended at fermentation, from H2S. Two full doses of Reduless sought to rob this wine of it's character. BUT, it's been reviewed as one of the best wines I've ever made. I'm glad I still have 19 bottles left from the original 300.

 

[Hazelemere]

Fun exercise... All wines made from grape must.

1. 2020 Knight's Valley Cabernet Sauvignon - 100% Cab and delightful, hint of black cherries and tobacco leaf dominate the nose, blending beautifully with the aromas of oak aging. Only 3 bottles left.

2. 2020 New World Bordeaux - Cab Franc 64%, Merlot 24%, Cab Sauv 8%, Petite Verdot 4% - shows layers of concentrated fruit, exotic spice, opulent aromatics and a plush suede texture. Good news, still 175 left in the cellar.

3. 2020 Whimsical Wine Blend - Cab Sauv 65%, Carnignan 23%, Cab Franc 5%, Petit Verdot 5%, Merlot 2% - I fought with this wine, blended at fermentation, from H2S. Two full doses of Redules sought to rob this wine of it's character. BUT, it's been reviewed as one of the best wines I've ever made. I'm glad I still have 19 bottles left from the original 300.

what kind of yeast and oak did you use?

 

[crushday]

In 2020, I used Avante yeast and CH16 bacteria exclusively. In all years, I use French oak barrels and adjuncts.

 

[vinny]

2. Washington Meek Vineyard Grenache 83%, Mourvedre 8-9%, and Malbec 8-9% fermented hand destemmed and uncrushed.

Fantastic red tasted at 9 years old. Gorgeous smell and flavour.

I'll weigh in in about 8 years!

 

[NorCal]

Fun exercise... All wines made from grape must.

1. 2020 Knights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon - 100% Cab and delightful, hint of black cherries and tobacco leaf dominate the nose, blending beautifully with the aromas of oak aging. Only 3 bottles left.

2. 2020 New World Bordeaux - Cab Franc 64%, Merlot 24%, Cab Sauv 8%, Petite Verdot 4% - shows layers of concentrated fruit, exotic spice, opulent aromatics and a plush suede texture. Good news, still 175 left in the cellar.

3. 2020 Whimsical Wine Blend - Cab Sauv 65%, Carnignan 23%, Cab Franc 5%, Petit Verdot 5%, Merlot 2% - I fought with this wine, blended at fermentation, from H2S. Two full doses of Reduless sought to rob this wine of its character. BUT, it's been reviewed as one of the best wines I've ever made. I'm glad I still have 19 bottles left from the origin

I’ve had the privilege to taste these wines and they were outstanding.

 

[NorCal]

My top three favorites, I chronicled here.

1. 100 point Cab Franc
2. Softest Petite Sirah
3. Barrel fermented Chardonnay

 

[crushday]

In 2020, I used Avante yeast and CH16 bacteria exclusively. In all years, I use French oak barrels and adjuncts.

@Hazelemere I need to correct the yeast used on the Whimsical Blend as I used RP15 and not Avante.

 

[Christopher Anderson]

Grow my own grapes. #1 is Black Spanish Grapes (Lenore). tiny seedy grapes but makes a good wine. grown on a trellis over the patio
#2 Tempranillo. Also local to central Texas. this is my 1st year with these grapes (vine is now 4 years old). It is sitting in two carboys. Tasted like new wine, good but needs a year plus to get better IMHO.
#3 is a Syrah/Shiraz . 5 year old wine. so far very good. as a friend states: it beats 2 buck, now 4 buck Chuck by a long shot. The one from 2020 is now coming into its own.

 

[Raptor99]

This post is a few months old, but I'll give it a go. All the anwers so far are about grape wine, but I haven't made any grape wine. All of my country wines are a work in progress, but three of the best so far are:

1. Blueberry. I love the flavor of blueberries, and this wine is a family favorite. I use citric acid to bring the pH down to the desired level, and a small amount of oak during aging. Lightly backsweetened before bottling.

2. Peach. Very nice with a meal that pairs well with a "white" wine. I add a vanilla bean during aging to give it just a hint of vanilla in the background.

3. Cherry Chocolate. How can you go wrong with tart cherries + chocolate! I only have done a 1-gallon experimental batch so far, but this is definitely on my list of recipes to make again and improve.

Since the question was about wine, I did not include any favorites from my hard cider or mead experiments.

 

[Hazelemere]

This post is a few months old, but I'll give it a go. All the anwers so far are about grape wine, but I haven't made any grape wine. All of my country wines are a work in progress, but three of the best so far are:

1. Blueberry. I love the flavor of blueberries, and this wine is a family favorite. I use citric acid to bring the pH down to the desired level, and a small amount of oak during aging. Lightly backsweetened before bottling.

2. Peach. Very nice with a meal that pairs well with a "white" wine. I add a vanilla bean during aging to give it just a hint of vanilla in the background.

3. Cherry Chocolate. How can you go wrong with tart cherries + chocolate! I only have done a 1-gallon experimental batch so far, but this is definitely on my list of recipes to make again and improve.

Since the question was about wine, I did not include any favorites from my hard cider or mead experiments.

tell us about your ciders and meads

 

[Raptor99]

My favorite cider: Apple Pear cider. This is about 50/50 fresh pear juice and grocery store apple juice, lightly oaked in secondary and back sweetened just a little. I currently bottle carbonate, and am getting a kegerator set up to carbonate my ciders.

I am still getting used to making meads, and my traditional meads are not quite there yet. My favorite mead so far is a cherry spice melomel made with tart cherry concentrate and flavored with a whole cloves and star anise. Just a hint of spice in the background, so that it does not overpower the cherry. My citrus spice mead is also very enjoyable.

This is such a great hobby! There is almost no end to the experiments that you can try.

 

[Nebbiolo020]

Honestly I have a few favorites

First batch is the 2021 Zinfandel I made it’s drinking amazing and is getting better and better with age, it has a extremely round full body, moderate acidity, finely integrated tannins and rich flavors of cherry, bramble, vanilla, raspberries, and a slight hint of sweetness which I suspect is from glycerol from the yeast. I used RP-15 and wine came in at 16.5%.

My second favorite wine is probably the field blended sparkling white wine that I made which was an experiment on if I could pull off a good sparkling wine with my equipment at home I have only ever made 3 sparkling wines commercially it’s a challenge even under ideal circumstances.

I used Fiano,Picardan and Sauvignon Blanc in the blend which were picked at random not sure what the final percentage of each really was, wine has crisp acidity, very good bubbles, I naturally carbonated in bottle and left the wine to age in bottle on the lees for the last 2 years. Wine has a richness to it, nutty notes, notes of apple, honey, floral notes it’s a excellent sparkling wine and a real success that I trialed just because I wanted to see if I could do it. Abv came in at 11.5% perfect for a sparkling wine. Yeast used was EC-1118 cause it’s a champagne type yeast.


I don’t really have a 3rd favorite yet as some of my more recent wines are aging I haven’t had much time to experiment with home winemaking outside of my commercial work, I mostly like to try things I am not able to try commercially and then apply them if they work out well.