The rewards and frustrations of home winemaking

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 […]

I wanted to try some egg white fining on the 2009 Petite Sirah.  We tasted it recently and decided it was good without any fining, but I’ve had a previous vintage with fining and really liked the results.  So, I decided to go for it. We have a 30 gallon barrel plus one 6 gallon […]

I had the opportunity to show off my new shop on Fox morning news today. It was really fun, except for the 5 am starting time. In the first segment I demonstrated how to start a wine kit, then in this second segment I bottled my Winexpert Chilean Carmenere. The camera guy got a little […]

It seems to be time to catch up on wines I haven’t visited for a while. Tonight I opened our Lambert Bridge Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, which I bottled as 83% cab sauv and 17% of a Lambert Bridge Vineyard merlot that I fermented as a small batch. In lieu of decanting, I aerated with Vinturi […]