The Riesling, however, did need some filtering.  It just wasn’t clear, but I didn’t want to wait to let it clear with bulk aging – we’re running out of summer whites!  I set up a 1 micron inline filter, but the last 6 bottles did not seem to filter completely.  I actually uncorked these and tried to refilter, but the gunk would not filter out.  Oh well, another lot of wine to keep for home drinking.

Tasting notes: Nose of slightly unripe peach with spice. Very clear, pale gold in color. Flavors of peach, apricot, banana, and flint, with long, minerally finish. Very dry with light sweetness, very nice.

Time to bottle!  I racked about half of carboy, then filtered the rest with my gravity filter and combined the wine before bottling – I was too impatient to wait for it to clear over an extended bulk aging. I really need to get an inline filter for the enolmatic, the gravity filter added an extra hour to bottling time!

Bottling day tasting notes:  Very clear pale golden in color. Very floral nose with hints of green apple and pear. Crisp and crunchy with flavors of apple, pear, and lychee, with light sweetness and creamy mouthfeel. Tastes great already!

Looks pretty, too.

To keep the cellar fully stocked, we *really* some sauvignon blanc.  This kit was touted as a quick-drinker, and I’ve been really happy with the lower-end white kits.  I bulk aged this wine an extra month (out of laziness and lack of time to bottle). I did have to filter this one, the low-end whites just don’t like to clear.  Great for a freshly-bottled wine! Nose with pear and apple up front and hint of grass. Very clear greenish-gold in color. Crisp flavors of green apple, lychee, and pear. Light spice with long finish. Really nice!

The brunello kit came with 30 grams oak dust and 30 grams of French oak chips.  It was bulk aged 2 months (again, out of laziness and lack of time), but not filtered. Still pretty clear, dark garnet in color. Spicy nose with lots of dark, ripe fruit. Really rich, complex flavors of spice box, cedar, smoke, plums, black cherry, and hint of blueberry. Really good for a young red, this one is going to be great!

After the foam mess, I skipped the optional second racking of this wine, since I already lost so much volume in that debaucle.  As a result filtering was definitely necessary.  But, it all seems OK after everything that went wrong. Very nice at bottling, should need about 2-3 months to be more drinkable. Nose of apricots and pear. Hint of crispness, but also very mellow and round in the mouth, should even out with some bottle aging (minimum 3 months). Sweet with flavors of stone fruits with citrus blossoms and honeysuckle. Should be great for this summer, I doubt it will last to the end of the year!

I actually got 30 full bottles plus 2 glasses to taste. Had to filter, did not completely clear, although pretty clear, could have bottled. Already pretty well developed. Fruity nose of apples and pears with hint of vanilla. Greenish-gold (and clear) in color. Round flavors of apple with citrus flower and some vanilla, a little tangy. Really very nice for the day of bottling!

The vinbrite gravity filtering unit is a little intimidating.  It’s easy to put together, then I ran some water through the siphon plus filter unit, then set it up to filter the wine.  It doesn’t sit in the top of the carboy very stably, so I did hold on to it for most of the filtering.  It started out at a good pace, but then quickly slowed to a dribble.  After about 45 minutes it was just trickling, so I decided that the filter was clogged and needed to be changed.  That was fun.  What a mess.  But, the end result was worth it.

Here’s the wine before filtering:

And then after:

Much better!  It looked great, and tasted good, too.

Chamblaise is a blend of Chenin Blanc and colombard. Tasting notes from today: this wine is actually very drinkable already and probably will not last long! Nice fruity/floral nose, crisp and semi-dry but with a little bit of butter. Flavors of peach and honeydew melon with a little bit of honeysuckle. Really quite surprisingly nice! We are very happy with this kit from Winexpert, yet again! Final alcohol 11.7%.