The fizziness seems to be gone. The wine is deep rub-red and very clear, although it was not filtered. Still a little weird soapy odor on the nose; underlying that is rich fruits. Still a little sour, flavors of plums, blackberries, and a little strawberry or cherry is really developing and mellowing out. Definitely still […]
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The Montagnac vieux Chateau d’Oc kit came with a funky little attachment to go over the end of the racking cane, apparently to keep the raisins from clogging it when racking. It says: “To successfully rack the kit and leave the sediment and grape skins behind, you will need to remove the cap off of […]
Time to check the Montagnac vieux Chateau d’Oc to rack to secondary. Bummer, the SG is 1.025, and should be 1.010 or less. OK, wait another week …..
A few notes on the latest wines. It is a little early for most of them, but you don’t know how they’re developing without tasting! Australian Chardonnay: A little soon after bottling to taste, but I couldn’t help myself. Still too young, but nice. Buttery nose, lots of heavy oak in the attack and flavors […]
After learning more about the different levels of kits and being so impressed with the pinot gris kit so far, I plunged and got one of the super-premium kits with grape skins. I got Winexpert’s Montagnac Vieux Chateau d’Oc, which is a big, confusing code name for a Mourvedre-based rhone blend. It is described as […]
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 […]
The chardonnay is clearing nicely. This kit gets racked once before bottling time, to give it an extra polish. I hope it settles out as well as the Pinot Gris did.
This bottle might be corked, or else the flavors are changing drastically as this wine ages. Much more herbal in flavor than the day of bottling. This one might test my patience, but I’m convinced that age will help this wine mature eventually.
In making this wine, I became obsessed with keeping oxygen out of the wine. Watching my hubby make beer, he would often purge the carboys with CO2 or nitrogen gas before racking into them to reduce oxygen exposure; I rationalized that this should also be good practice for winemaking. However, after I started incorporating this […]
I wanted to call my chardonnay “Torrey Pines”, after the state park here where the rare Torrey Pine grows in a protected area. They are really neat pine trees, they grow near the coast and so tend to have a windswept shape to them. So, to get a good picture we drove to the park […]