The rewards and frustrations of home winemaking

Josh and Dave came by to taste the progress of the 2009 merlot and petite sirah. Last time we tasted them, they seemed to really lack any oak flavor, so we thought we might need to add more cubes to the barrels. We tasted the merlot first, and it is surprisingly good — not overly […]

We opened yet another Chamblaise for dinner tonight, a mere 2 1/2 weeks after bottling, and I was reminded that wines undergo bottle shock within the first month after bottling. This bottle was definitely suffering from it, though it wasn’t awful — it just tastes “off” when it has bottle shock. I’m sure if we […]

Our stock of my first wine kit, a Winexpert Cabernet-Merlot, is slowly dwindling. It is developing bell pepper notes, in both nose and on the tongue. Definitely entering a stage of maturity now, but only 6 more bottles left anyway.

Although this wine is pretty newly bottled, I couldn’t wait to give it a taste. We recently got a Vinturi wine aerator, so we’ve been tasting every wine with and without the vinturi treatment. This wine definitely benefited from the treatment. Without aearation, the primi has faint aroma of burnt rubber with roasted red fruits […]

The bottling binge continues!  I finally bottled the 2009 Fallbrook Syrah, our first harvest from Live Oak Vineyard.  We unfortunately came in short due to a heat wave just before harvest, so we have a total of 11 gallons of wine to split between the three of us.  We will each get 18 bottles, which […]

I saved one bottle of 2009 Chamblaise to compare to the newly-bottled 2010 vintage.  Part of the comparison was to see how much this wine changes with some aging, if at all. We tasted the 2010 Chamblaise first.  It has rich aromas of fresh-picked pear and green apple with hint of freshly-mowed grass. Very clear, […]

Seems to be time to restock the cellar!  Having just bottled my 2009 Primitivo, today I bottled another batch of Winexpert Chamblaise. This will be the fourth time to make this kit, it’s such a great easy-drinker. This batch cleared very nicely and I did not have to filter as I did with previous batches. […]

I have a few wines that are due for bottling, but I was waiting until I opened my shop because I needed corks, and it seemed to make sense that I should buy them from myself.  So today I’m finally bottling my Amador county primitivo.  I’ll bottle most of it as 100% varietal, but I’m […]

The Winexpert “La Jolla Caves” red rhone blend is not quite 3 years in the bottle now. This wine has been quite a roller coaster, and this bottle is just adding to the sordid history. I’m not sure if the bottle opened is flawed, but it has a nose of port or sherry, with blackberry […]

The barrels needed a new home, so we decided it was a good time to rack out the wine and clean out the barrels.  Both the merlot and petite sirah need more oak, so we’re going to leave them in the barrels for another year with some extra oak cubes added in.  We pumped the […]