The rewards and frustrations of home winemaking

Tag archive: winexpert

Pacific Sunset White Two Year Tasting

This wine is now approaching 2 years, it’s hard to believe it made it that long, it’s so good! After time the honey/flowery notes have come forward, although there is still a good spicy bite in the finish too.  Still a great wine, it will be hard to let this one go.  I hope this […]

Pinot Gris Two and a Half Year Tasting Note

There are only 2 bottles of this wine left, though it is surprising that it has lasted this long.  This wine has really developed nicely over the years. It now has very rounded, mellow nose of apricots and melon. Coconut notes develop on the tongue coupled with crisp flavors of lychee and apple. This wine […]

Two Year Tasting of “La Jolla Caves” Rhone Blend

It’s been 6 months since I touched my “La Jolla Caves” Winexpert Montagnac Vieux Chateau d’Oc, wanting to give it time to come together better.  Now it’s at the 2-year mark, which sounds like a good time to test it out.  I did not decant this time, I wanted to see how it developed out […]

Chilean Carmenere Not-Quite-2-Year Tasting

I’ve been looking for an excuse to open my 2008 Winexpert Limited edition Chilean carmenere, and Moroccan Braised Beef (recipe courtesy of Chef Jenn Felmley!) sounded like just the ticket. Today is  just short of 2 years in the bottle. I decanted about an hour.  There is  some foam, but not too bad.  Slight soapiness on the […]

Comparing Chiantis

Since we are four tonight, I decided it was finally time to do a head-to-head comparison of 2008 Mosti Mondiale Chianti with the 2009 WE Chianti.  Overall, both tasted very similar;  very basic, clean, nice table wines.  We tasted alone and with a spinach salad with blue cheese, toasted walnuts, and balsamic vinaigrette.  Both wines […]

Battonage on Sauv Blanc Kit

I’ve been wanting to try some battonage on a wine kit for a while, since I first read about the technique.  Battonage basically involves leaving the wine on the fine lees for an extended period of time, and stirring the lees up every few days to extract additional amino acids and mannoproteins from the yeast.  […]

Response from Winexpert about Brown Stuff

I tossed the juice bag from the Riesling, but then thought I should go ahead and send an email to Winexpert to see if the precipitate is a bad sign, or no big deal.  I have to say, I’ve been very happy with their customer service – they answered me the next day!  Linda from […]

Bourg Rouge Tasting

The burgundy is now about a year and a half old.  Nose of cherry with traces of herbs. No fizz in this bottle, did not decant or vacuum pump, just splash poured. Flavors of caramel, plums, and light cherry. Getting more of the “bacony” and “smoky” flavors just now. Taste definitely integrated better, quite drinkable […]

One Year-ish Tasting of Bourg Rouge

This wine is just fizzy, definitely a freshman mistake on my part. Anticipating fizz, I vacuum pumped the wine before pouring into glasses (no decanting), which might have helped the wine. We will just have to drink another bottle to find out. The wine was definitely better, very well integrated and no soapiness. This wine […]

Bottling Sauvignon Blanc and Italian Brunello

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 […]