Wine in the Shower » RJ Spagnols

“Sail Bay Sundown” 2-year Tasting Note

gisela — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:43:41 +0000

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 San Diego county fair last year, but it is definitely past its prime. It has really mellowed over time; it lost its crispness, now tastes like an oaky chardonnay — even though there was no oak in this wine. It was definitely better within the first year.

Best of Class Award and Silver Medal at SD County Fair!

gisela — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 18:17:21 +0000

I entered two wines into the San Diego County Fair Homemade wine competition: ‘Bahia Belle’ Bordeaux Blend, a 50/50 blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot made from fresh grapes, and ‘Sail Bay Sundown’ RJ Spagnols Argentinian Trio Limited Release white blend. One of my fellow winemakers also entered the same cabernet sauvignon and merlot as 100% varietals. Interestingly, his merlot won a Gold medal and the Cab won a bronze, but my blend did not win any awards. However, the white kit blend did win a Silver medal and Best in Class! So, although the results for the red wines is a bit baffling, it’s very exciting to win these awards for my RJ Spagnols wine!

My tasting notes for this wine: Lovely nose of hay, roses, and spice. Flavors have already come together nicely. Crisp, minerally taste of crunchy apples, persimmon, and toasted spice. Really nice!

The judging notes included: “Enjoyable, unique combination of flavors.” “Nice complex balanced flavors.” “Oak, fruit, dry” — this last comment is very interesting; several other winemakers at the award ceremony commented on the good oak character in this wine, but there was no oak in this wine! This wine does have a very nice, creamy smoothness and hints of vanilla reminiscent of oak character. Either way, it is a lovely, tasty wine, and I’m very glad it was recognized for its excellence.

As for the ‘Bahia Belle’ Blend, my average score was pretty decent, and so I think this wine almost got a bronze. Personally, I think this wine it too young, but we thought it would be interesting to enter several versions of our first fresh grape wines. I think this one will fare much better next year, or maybe even the year after that.

Starting Argentinian Trio Reserve Kit

gisela — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:56:24 +0000

Time for another reserve kit! This one is also from RJ Spagnols, and is an unoaked blend of Viognier, Riesling, and Chardonnay. The starting SG is at 1.10, so I should get a final alcohol of about 14%. It smells yummy already, I can’t wait to sip this one over the summer!

Try MLF on Merlot Again and First Reserve Kit for 2009

gisela — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:43:21 +0000

Time to rack and check the home merlot. I splash racked again, and tested/tasted it. The Free SO2 seemed to be below 20 ppm, so I’m going to try to restart MLF with the dried bacteria I got in December. I’m not optimistic, because I’m pretty sure the bacteria is no good after this long, but I’m going to try. Today I add the malostart and recheck the malic acid levels: >500 mg/L for lot A, and about 300 mg/L for lot B. They both are quite tasty, but I think they both have enough oak now, so it won’t get transferred this time. Lot A has flavors of spiced fruit, and is definitely spicier and “bigger” than lot B, which is still very fruit-forward with a good nose of berries and oak. Both are very clear, so the racking has paid off.

In the meantime, the first reserve wine kits have arrived and I’m ready to start! I got both a Barolo from Mosti Mondiale and a Muller-Thurgau (moooo-ler Tur-gow) from RJ Spagnols. I’m going to start the MT first, since the cellar is sadly lacking in crisp whites! This kit had about 5 gallons of juice (read as: heavy to lift and pour!), and elderflowers – I haven’t used those before. They came in these big “infusion bags,” basically 4 giant tea bags that get soaked in hot water first, then the water and the bags get added to the juice for fermentation. I’ll start the Barolo tomorrow, too much wine-ing for today!

Bottling Limited Edition Riesling

gisela — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 21:03:22 +0000

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!

Foaming Riesling!

gisela — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:27:01 +0000

This is the first Spagnols kit I’ve done, and the instructions are a little different from Winexpert. They said to stabilize and clear at the first racking; but mine was still fermenting. It foamed up and over the top very quickly!

Of course, the one time I have the wine out in the kitchen and decided not to move it to the shower first. It made a helluva mess, I lost about a liter or maybe 2 of wine I didn’t have any appropriate wine to top with, so I just added filtered water.

Time for Limited Editions!

gisela — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:04:12 +0000

I have discovered that the wine kit companies make special limited edition wines every year that are supposed to be “exceptional quality.” I’ve been pretty impressed with the quality so far, so these should be really exciting! Here’s what I got:

Pacific Quartet: A blend of very cool whites from the Pacific, including Vidal from British Columbia, chenin blanc from California, gewürztraminer from Wasington, and muscat from Australia. Should be a fun wine! This wine is released in March.
Chilean Carmenere/Cabernet Sauvignon: Carmenere is a south American varietal similar to Merlot. The description sounds like this will be a cellar star, but will need some serious hangin’ out time. Released in January.
Italian Brunello: Gotta love a big Italian red. This wine will also undoubtedly need a lot of aging to really shine. Released in April.
Canadian Old Vine Riesling: My first kit from RJ Spagnols. Always good to have a nice, crisp Riesling to go with spicy szechuan or Indian food. This one released in January.