The rewards and frustrations of home winemaking

A few more Limited Edition wine kits have come in.  I posted previously about starting the Cellar Craft Chateau du Pays; I’m going to bulk age this wine for while, but I did do an extra racking about a month after stabilizing and clearing to take out the second addition of Hungarian oak cubes, so [...]

At the bottling party, I was talking with Paul about getting some of his Cabernet Sauvignon (also from Lambert Bridge Vineyard in Sonoma) to make a Paraduxx-like blend with my merlot and primitivo.  He mentioned he had several gallons of cabernet that seemed to have a VA problem.  I hate to dump wine without trying [...]

We drove up to Fallbrook yesterday to meet up with Paul and a bunch of his neighbors to bottle his 2009 Merlot and Petite Sirah from Lambert Bridge Vineyard in Sonoma (the same grapes we made wine from that need to be bottled soon).  It was a very nice day, sunny and warm but not [...]

I’m mostly disappointed with this wine. But, perhaps there is some hope. After pouring through a Vinturi aerator, the flaws of this wine really mellowed out. Aromas like vanilla ice cream with edge of lemon. Still very sweet on the tongue, but not so sharp. Oak is becoming prominent. I might as well give it [...]

We finally opened the last bottle of our RJ Spagnols Limited Release Argentinian Trio white blend.  This wine was bottled about 2 years ago now, and it was a good thing we were drinking the last bottle.  We really loved this wine, in fact it won a silver medal and “Best of Class” at the [...]

I just bottled the Winexpert 2010 Limited Edition “Pacifica White” blend this past Thursday. As usual, there was one partial bottle left, but I’m just now getting around to tasting it. This wine has amazing, mouthwatering aromas of peaches, apricots, and honeysuckle. The wine is clear, very pale yellow in color; huge, ripe, juicy flavors [...]

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 [...]

I have several wines in progress currently, besides the petite sirah and merlot that is waiting to be bottled.  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 [...]

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 [...]

I realized I haven’t tried my ‘Embarcadero’ Dry Creek Valley Merlot yet.  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.  I tasted it in a [...]