2007 Vignoles13 Oct: 13: 9 gallons of juice from FallBright @ 22.1
brix / 1.209 total Acid / pH 3.20 / 100 drops Peptic Enzyme |
2006 MerlotOctober 10, 2006: Luck was with us, it was one of the most beautiful fall days we've had. Rod has really gotten the winemaking bug and he drove us down to Fallbright and I was able to sit back and enjoy the countryside. We picked up 100 lbs of Merlot and then got them stemmed and crushed. The sugar was a bit low, but within limits at 19.5 brix. We returned home and Rod, his fiance Geri, another friend, Michelle,, and I all joined in removing most of the residual stems from the must. Geri had the job of counting out drops of peptic enzyme (75), Rod, tossed 1/4 teaspoon of sulfite, and Michelle the 2.5 teaspoons of Enovit. A little later Rod and I tossed in the 71B yeast. October 12, 2006: Well, tonite turned out to be the nite of the 22 inch blizzard in Buffalo, NY. Fortunately, all we had was wind and a bunch of swirling snowflakes, but this didn't hold us back. Out came the press and again, Rod and our friendly helper Michelle came over to experience how much fun pressing can be. At one point I had Michelle put her hands in the must just to get them to warm up. Regardless, a good time was had by all and we ended up with 8 gallons at 5 brix. The carboys are now settling nicely in my garage. December 26, 2006: Racked carboys. Stats are 11% alcohol with a brix of 0. Tossed in a little sulfite. Wonderful garnet color, yeasty/fruity taste. July 5, 2007: Filtered and bottled with 1 gm. sulfite in 6 gallons. Total yield of 31 bottles. Bone dry and excellent fruit flavor, will be submitting to NYS Fair again. If you 'd like to see some pictures of all our fun from picking up the grapes right thru the pressing, and all the "work" in between, click on this external link Winemaking Fun. You will NOT be returned to this site, so please save this address. |
2006 RieslingOctober 21, 2006: Last nite I received an email inviting me to partake in some Riesling. I'd been debating for weeks whether to get some or not and the decision was made for me (Thanks Marcy). Unfortunately, I had to drive down alone this trip, but it was an enjoyable trip. Not only did I get to chat a bit, but also stopped off on the way back at Barrington Cellars Winery, as one of the owners, Eileen, worked with me at Eastman Kodak about 33 years ago. I hadn't seen her in about 10 years and it was fun talking about our families, wine, grapes, Kodak, and things in general. October 22, 2006: Rod came over in the am and we proceeded to transfer the5 gallons of juice to a couple of 3 gallon carboys. It was necessary to boost the sulfite content from 11ppm to about 60ppm. We then tossed in 2 lbs. of sugar to bring the brix up to about 23 from 18.7. The the acid and pH were near perfect at .875 and 3.15 respectively. Again we added Enovit and Peptic Enzyme, and tossed later on inoculated each with 71B yeast. October 25 - 27: One carboy seems to be trying to start, the other shows no sign of starting. I tested both carboys for SO2 in case they were overdosed, but both showed 40 ppm on Wed. I added some Yeastex and split a packet of 71B between both jugs. and brought them in from the garage to give them a 68 degreen environment. On Friday am, one was definately starting fermentation, but the second just didn't seem to kick over. Friday nite I added more yeast, and by Saturday, both were bubbling away nicely. May 5, 2007: Racked and filtered. 13% alcohol by vinometer, added 1/4 teaspoon metabisulfite, 2 teaspoons of potassium sorbate, and 1 lb sugar into 5 gallons of wine to sweeten. July 5, 2007: Racked and bottled. 3% residual sugar. Crystal clear on bottling. Should be a wonderful after dinner wine. August 29, 2007: Awarded a bronze medal at the NY State fair. |
2005 RavatWith this vintage, Rod Halat joins me in making wine. This is a new hobby for him and I'm hopeful that it turns out successfully. October 1, 2005: What a fantastic day, bright, sunny, warm, and best of a fantastic vintage. We drove down to Fallbright to pick up eight gallons of Ravat-51 juice. The brix was 23 and the acid was .854. The juice tasted like nectar. To this I added two and a half teaspoons of Enovit and about 90 drops of Peptic Enzyme. The yeast I chose was Lalvin 71B. The fermentation proceeded normally. November 19, 2005: The wine is settling nicely in a 5 & 3 gallon carboy. I decided to check the sulfite level with a 'titrete' and the result was a little over 40 ppm. The best part was tasting the young wine. So far, so good, it is what I'd classify as a very fruity semi-dry. Hopefully the haze will dissapate, but if not, I will be using my standard clarifying tool, that is isinglass. April 15, 2006: Racked into 2, three gallon carboys and bottled the remainder. Wine is at 4 brix, clear, and quite fruity, added a gram of SO2 to each carboy. The isinglass was not needed this year. July 13, 2006: We are planning on bottling this weekend. Several of the previously bottled wine has blown the corks out so to prevent further fermentation after bottling, I added 3 teaspoons of Potassium Sorbate and 1/8 teaspoon of Potassium Metabisulfite to each three gallon carboy to stabilize the wine. July 15, 2006: Wine is approximately 2.5 - 3 brix residual sugar, approximately 11% alcohol, very fruity and crystal clear.. The six gallons made exactly 30 bottles. While we haven't decided for sure yet, I think this may be an entry for the State Fair. August 30, 2006: I was informed the other day that we won a medal at the NYState Fair. I don't know which one yet, but will update this when I find out as well as another picture. September 1, 2006: GOLD MEDAL December 27, 2006: Believe it or not, we did not receive the medal until TODAY... Unfortunately there is but one medal, so Rod and I will have to share it. The picture on the main page was actually taken in the SNOW. |
2004I had decided to try to make Riesling again this year, even went as far as ordering the liquid yeast again, but unfortunately, I received an email that was not totally unexpected considering how this summer has been. (WET and COOL). The Riesling was in very short supply (roughly only 6%, or a 94% crop failure) and my order could not be filled. This is the first time in all these years that this has happened to me with no alternative. While this is a disappointment to me, I can't imagine what it must be like to the grape growers. Unfortunately, when buying the yeast, I made an on the spot decision after seeing all the pails of fresh California juices. I bought a 20 liter pail of Red Zinfandel (http://www.wines.com/zin.html) which has always been one of my favorites, but is not grown in New York State. I won't bore you with the details, but it came out as one of my failures. My guess is that the juice had started fermenting and the damage was done before I could correct it. I don't think I'll be trying this one again. |
|
2003 Riesling October 26, 2003: Drove down to Fallbright to pick up the juice. As we had previously heard, this was not one of the better years as most juices seem to be low in sugar and high in acid. The Riesling was no exception as the juice was 17.4 brix with an acid of 1.125 and the pH was 2.9, definately not one of the better years. First step on getting home was letting the juice warm up a bit and then adding about 2.5 lbs of sugar to get up to 23 brix. I then added 1.5 teaspoons of Enovit, 2 teaspoons of Peptic Enzyme, and had earlier decided to experiment a bit with a different yeast. There were two I was interested in: #1: Some years ago I made a wonderful Riesling with another yeast, "3237 Steinberg" a classic German yeast from the Rheingau District which produces full bodied wines with great depth, dry smoky characteristics with a sharp finish, drier than # 3783. Riesling, Sylvaner, Moselles, Liebfraumilch. #2: "3783 Rudesheimer" which produces distinct Riesling character. Rich flavor, creamy, fruity profile with nice dry finish and a hint of Riesling sweetness in the aftertaste. Rhine Wines, Fruity Ciders, Riesling, lce Wine. I decided on using the Rudesheimer as I'd like it to finish with a bit more residual sugar. Now the fun started. I normally ferment out in garage. Since it turned cold very early, the fermentation promptly stuck at about 9 brix. I added some Yeastex, but that couldn't get it going either. I finally decided to bring the carboy in and put it in my front hall inside my dog's training cage (she had finally been trained and no longer needed it, see Part 4: Racking and Bottling for label). There it sat with the 2003 Chambourcin and finally started fermenting again, and this fermentation lasted for weeks. The only way to describe the look of that jug was "slightly yellowish milk". The wine was finally racked off in January and placed out in the garage to cold stabilize it. After a week, the wine again turned 'milky' so I brought it back in and dosed it with additional sulfite as well as some isinglass to attempt to clarify it. While this helped, it took two additional treatments of isinglass in the following months to finally get the wine totally clear. In June I finally did a tasting and was quite surprised that anything that had looked so horrible could turn out to taste so good. I bottled it and have been enjoying it since. Final brix was 1.5. Officially, the wine was judged to be slightly high in SO2 and slightly bitter, but no one who has sampled has complained. This only proves that if you enjoy the wine you make, that's all that matters. |
|
2003 Chambourcin While I normally always buy grapes when making a red wine, circumstances did not allow me to do that this year, so I bought it as seven gallons of juice. Brix was 18.1, but acid was 1.646 with a pH of 3.01. Needless to say, this was NOT anything near optimum, but decided to give it a shot. In an attempt to get the acid down to something reasonable, I ameliorated the juice with 1.5 gallons of water, about 4 pounds of sugar, and then took off about 1/3 to treat with 8 tbs. CaCo3 (Calcium Carbonate or chalk). After settling, this was then recombined with the rest of the juice and, after adding Enovit and Peptic Enzyme, it was time to inoculate. For this, I decided to try the "3277 Assmannhausen" which is a red wine yeast from Germany with intense fruity characteristics. Ferments slower than most red wine strains. Enhances vinifera character in French American hybrids. Cold tolerant. Red German Wine, Riesling, Red Varletals, Merlot, Red French American Hybrids, Beaujolais. The fermentation took a similiar path as the 2003 Riesling, however, in this case, the wine just never seemed to clear. I thought I'd just dump it, but as it turned out, it was salvageable. Following a suggestion from Marcy, I tried it combined with ginger ale and 7Up/Sprite and it turned out to be quite good as a wine punch. I "bottled" it in 1 liter pop bottles and it was then brought to a picnic where it was throughly enjoyed. |
|
2002 Cabernet Franc / Merlot October 12, 2002: This year I am making a wine similiar to the 2001 vintage. I started with 55 lbs. of Cabernet Franc (21.5 brix) and 45 lbs. of Merlot (19.5 brix). The grapes were crushed and stemmed at Fallbright, with the potassium metabisulfite being added at that time. Thanks to a fellow winemaker who won three medals at the 2002 New York State Home Wine Competition, I was able to experiment with a pair of different yeast strains. Peter supplied me with BM45 and CSM yeasts respectively, for two separate primary fermentations. Each batch also received 1.25 teaspoons of Enovit (yeast starter) as well as 60 drops of Peptic Enzyme. Noticable fermentation started within about 12 hours. Due to some time constraints, the primary stage was only 4 days long, but in that time, the brix on both had dropped to the 2-3 range at which point they were combined. I then pressed the must which yielded almost 9 gallons. This was then stored in a pair of 5 gallon carboys. December 31: I racked off the jugs and ended up with a little over 8 gallons which are being aged in a 3 and 5 gallon carboy. During the winter, the carboys are kept at a temperature ranging from just below freezing up to maybe 45 degrees. This helps to cold proof the wine. Of course, I couldn't resist taking a taste of the raw wine. I was pleasantly surprised by the smooth cherry fruitiness of the young wine. Next sampling will be in about 4 months or so. July 19 we bottled almost 40 bottles. The wine was submitted to the NY State Homewinemaking Committee for judging at the New York State Fair on August 28. Unfortunately, this wine did not place. |
|
2002 Ravat October 12, 2002: At the last minute, I decided to buy a little over three gallons of Ravat-51 juice. The brix was 21.4 and the acid 1.047. To this I added one teaspoon of Enovit and 60 drops of Peptic Enzyme. The yeast I chose was Lalvin 71B. The fermentation proceeded normally. February 21, 2003: I racked it off the lees and decided on the taste test. While very young, the wine already had a wonderful fruity taste. I checked the SO2 level and added a further 20 ppm (~2 grams) of Potassium Metabisulfite to the wine. In the following months, the wine first cleared and then developed a haze. I treated it with isinglass which clarified it within a few days. As the spring wore on however, the haze returned. I consulted with Marcy down at FallBright and evidently the wine had started fermenting again. I then dosed it with 1.5 teaspoons potassium sorbate and 1/8 teaspoon potassium metabisulfite and let it sit a week. I then repeated the isinglass treatment and the wine went to a beautifully clear straw. Bottling took place on June 22 and the wine was submitted to the NY State Homewinemaking Committee for judging at the New York State Fair on August 28. On August 28, we went to the fair in Syracuse, NY and attended the final judging. I was quite surprised when they called my name for the silver medal. |
|
2001 Cabernet Franc / Merlot For the 2001 season, I made a blend of 50 lbs. of Merlot (19 brix) and 50 lbs. of Cabernet Franc (23 brix). The grapes were mixed together and crushed on October 13. I then added Yeastex and Peptic Enzyme, and used a blend of RC-212 and 71B yeasts. The primary fermentation took place over the next 4 days after which I pressed the must. The yield was a little less than 8 gallons which was then allowed to further fement in glass carboys. The wine was racked off on December 30 and spent the winter and spring out in the garage. On July 19, 2002 the wine was racked off again and bottled. Two bottles have again been entered in the NY State Home Winemaking competition which will be held in August. My description of the wine would be a brilliant garnet color, very fruity nose, and bone dry with berry, cherry, and some pepper flavors. Alcohol is in the 12% range. It should be interesting to see what aging does to this, but at this point in time, I am very happy with the results. The result of the competition was that my wine was too young yet. December 2002: Amazing what a difference another 5 months makes. The wine has smoothed out further. |
|
2000 Gamay Beaujolais I made Gamay Beaujolais for the 2000 season. The 100 lbs. of grapes came in at 22.5 brix, were crushed on October 14, fermented using Lalvin 71B, and pressed on October 18 resulting in 8 gallons of young wine. The wine turned out to be light and delicious, however it did not place in the state finals. The problem seems to have been a bit of hydrogen sulfide formation, probably due to insufficient yeast starter (diammonium phosphate) in the fermentation. While the wine didn't taste bad, it was enough to affect the nose and knock it out of competition. |
Return to Main Page |
Feel free to send me mail at sshanker@rochester.rr.com