We had a great time at the Winemaker Magazine conference in Santa Barbara last year in 2011, I was sorry to miss it this year. But, the Finger Lakes are not exactly driving distance from San Diego! I did get some great news today — I won a Gold Medal for my 2011 Cellar Craft […]
Tag archive: Cellar Craft
I bottled both the Cellar Craft 2010 limited edition Marsanne-Viognier-Roussanne and the Winexpert Spanish Rose today, getting ready for summer sipping. The MVR wasn’t quite clear, which I think might be due to my use of marbles for topping up my wines. When wines with marbles are moved at all from their place of rest […]
I bottled the Cellar Craft limited edition ‘Chateau du Pays‘ today. I intended to bulk age this wine 6 to 8 months, but realized I was a carboy short for upcoming winemaking and didn’t have time to get another one fast enough. As usual, there was one partial bottle left at the end, which went […]
A few more Limited Edition wine kits have come in. I posted previously about starting the Cellar Craft Chateau du Pays; I’m going to bulk age this wine for while, but I did do an extra racking about a month after stabilizing and clearing to take out the second addition of Hungarian oak cubes, so […]
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 […]
Time to get the syrah started. I met Dave at the office, and he set up the “server room winery” with plastic sheeting while I revved up the yeast. I heated up some water and dissolved in go-ferm, then added ICV-D254 yeast and let it wake up for about 15 minutes. Then I added some […]
I was racking off my Cellar Craft 5-week Old Vines Zinfandel kit today and noticed this yucky-looking white residue at the top of the wine, sticking to the side of the carboy as it was racked off. There was a lot of lees at the bottom, too. I have an extra liter or so of […]
I finished bottling the “Bahia Belle” blend and Merlot B (“Embarcadero” merlot) today. Then I finally started another “easy drinker” red kit that I’ve been excited about, a Cellar Craft Lodi Old Zinfandel. I wanted a good, easy house zin to have around for grilling and whatnot, so I did a lot of research on […]
The SG on the Yakima Synergy is at 0.994, although it’s still bubbling away in there. After racking, it’s not very pretty! But, it’s early in the game, there’s still plenty of stirring ahead before it’s expected to clear. In the meantime, Dave bought a cabernet sauvignon kit last year, at the same time that […]