The rewards and frustrations of home winemaking

Monthly archive: 02 2011

Rosso Fortissimo Tasting Note

I just bottled the Cellar Craft “Rosso Fortissimo” yesterday, and as usual I have one bottle that isn’t quite full. Perfect for tasting right after bottling! I poured out a glass to taste first without aeration, and was surprised to find that the wine is very cloudy. It was racked off just prior to bottling […]

Wines in Progress

I have several wines in progress currently, besides the petite sirah and merlot that is waiting to be bottled.ย  I started a very cool Super Tuscan red blend wine kit from Cellar Craft, “Rosso Fortissimo”, which is almost ready to be bottled. This wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sangiovese and comes with […]

Tasting Fined Petite Sirah

It’s time to rack the Petite Sirah off of the egg white fining lees and see how it tastes! The wine is very clear, and there was not a lot of lees on the bottom. Tasting the fined wine side-by-side with the unfined wine, I definitely prefer fined wine. It did smooth out taste without […]

First Tasting of 2009 ‘Embarcadero’ Merlot

I realized I haven’t tried my ‘Embarcadero’ Dry Creek Valley Merlot yet.ย  This wine is 100% merlot “B” (fermented with Pasteur red yeast) aged with french oak (heavy + medium toast, cubes in carboy) with incomplete MLF but treated with lysozyme. This wine has been in the bottle 18 months.ย  I tasted it in a […]

Shuffling Petite Sirah

I wanted to try some egg white fining on the 2009 Petite Sirah.ย  We tasted it recently and decided it was good without any fining, but I’ve had a previous vintage with fining and really liked the results.ย  So, I decided to go for it. We have a 30 gallon barrel plus one 6 gallon […]