One year tasting of the rhone blend. Decanted for about an hour. A little bit of the weird soapiness I get with the kit wines in the nose, also notes of plum and oak. Foamy. Sour flavors of black cherry, blackberry, and raspberry with strong oak and soapiness also. Long finish, but quite sour and […]
Tag archive: home winemaking
I stopped by the office to check out the barrel wines to make sure they’re not over-oaked. They both taste great, and we don’t think they’re too oaky yet. Let a sleeping cab lie ….
I rationalized that I needed a bottling pump, since we would have SO much wine to bottle from the barrels, and also then I could bottle solo and not pester my hubby. This is one of those investments that I really hope pays off, because I have high hopes for it. I did a lot […]
The merlot has been on my mind. I’m bothered that the MLF didn’t finish, although the MLF in the barrel batch did not complete either. But, since the Cab MLF went great, I feel like there should be something proactive I can and should do to try to make it work. I’m worried that it […]
Did not decant, probably would benefit from decanting at this stage. Not foamy, seem to finally have that under control. Big nose of red ripe fruits with sour edge. Very clear, dark garnet in color. Slightly fizzy on the tongue, with very tart flavors of sour cherry and pomegranite. Mainly fruity, very light spice, medium […]
Just checked the malic acid levels in the cab, and it’s at the bottom end of the strip test, reading ~50 mg/L. So, we know the strip tests work, the MLF in the merlot just didn’t.
We racked the cab out of the lovely grey trash cans into an even lovelier new American oak barrel with medium toast. Dave and I ended up with a full 30 gallon barrel plus a 6 gallon carboy and another 2 gallon bottle full of fine lees. I checked the malic acid, and it’s down […]
Paul sent in a sample of his merlot to Vinquiry for a full panel analysis. The merlot Dave, Josh, and I made should be similar, although our MLF definitely did not complete like Paul’s did. Here’s his analysis results: Alcohol: 16.4% pH: 3.56 TA: .765 Free SO2 : 0 (He hadn’t added any yet) Total […]
I stopped over to check the MLF progression on the cab, and it looks like it’s working this time! Malic acid levels have dropped below 300 mg/L (not at max at least!), and lactic acid is reading positive at 80 mg/L.
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 […]