WAYWARD WINE

HAPPY.NEW.SAME.

Posted on January 4, 2012 by waywardwine

Casual Wine-Racking Friday

Wine follows its own calendar. You can’t rush it. All you can hope is to avoid panic.

It has taken two months for it to settle, since I picked up vidal blanc grapes in October. I itch to bottle it. But last year, I rushed my vignoles, which taught me a lesson by turning into fizz and shooting corks and wine carpet-ward.

Older, wiser, and still worried, I check my vidal daily and rack it every few weeks.

Although the sediment seemed to have disappeared last week, new detritus has dusted the tank bottom, like a light snow, pretty, but one that isn’t enough to give you a day off from school (unless you’re from Oregon).

This fourth racking gives me a new chance to taste it.

Somehow, the fruit returned. When fermentation ended mid-November, all I could taste was water, acid, and alcohol. Yet now, it’s fine, mild, but fine. Why? Maybe it was in shock from the sulfuring and cold stabilizing. Maybe my palate is crap.

Either way this might turn out.

Posted in CABERNET CRISES: MY FOURTH WINE, OENOLOGICAL ODYSSEY | Tagged Christmas break, corks, detritus, Food, Grape, light snow, New year, October, Oregon, tank bottom, Vidal Blanc, vidal blanc grapes, vignoles, wine, yeast | Leave a comment

NOW.WHAT?

Posted on December 19, 2011 by waywardwine

A little wine-down-time, and I go to re-rack…

Fine. Dandy. Now what?

I try the wine left in the tank. It’s hopelessly mild. My wife tastes it. There’s alcohol, something citrus, pear, maybe mineral hiding around there. But she likens it to water.

This, regrettably, makes sense.

The grape Vidal Blanc traces half its lineage to Ugni Blanc: captain bland of the wine world. There’s no flavor, which makes for a great, if neutral, base for spirits (Cognac); or can be concentrated into something with flavor, if left to dehydrate and freeze on the vine as a late harvest or ice wine.

When we picked up the grapes in October, they tasted mild but fine. I shouldn’t be surprised.

Now, I could have picked a different yeast. One that would have emphasized fruit notes like the Vignoles that I made last year. But that was monstrously intense and tropical: like godzilla carved out of pineapple.

Instead, I went with Lalvin’s 71B-1122, (a.k.a. Narbonne). It was new to me. It was from France (via Canada). It claimed to handle aromatics and high acids…but clearly would not amp up flavor.

Now what…

As George Lucas says (in my mind), “don’t worry, we can fix it in post”. Since I can’t direct either, I’ll remake this wine in different ways, like releases that get further and further from their source.

First, some bottles will get re-dosed with yeast and juice for a bubbly (intentional, unlike last time). Some will just be bottled as they are (it might improve?). Some will be rejuiced, using what the Germans call my süßreserve (sweet-juice-reserve) to sweeten the wine, a method they generally term verbesserung (“bettering”). Heck, I might even try to distill a bit of it into spirit.

Until I bottle it, one more racking should cut the last microbes.

Posted in CABERNET CRISES: MY FOURTH WINE, OENOLOGICAL ODYSSEY | Tagged Canada, France, George Lucas, Germans, October, Star Wars, Vidal Blanc, vignoles, wine | 2 Comments

SECOND.SHOT.

Posted on December 13, 2011 by waywardwine

Clearly I can’t multitask. Last week’s post proved that babbling on camera and racking wine don’t mix…

: Self-reflexive!

For those out of the loop, since October 23rd, I’ve been fashioning wine out of Vidal Blanc juice, which I bought from a grower in New York.

Fermentation ended two weeks ago. Most of the wine’s sediment had settled. My mini-fridge crystallized the tartaric acid. But I managed to set that all back another week by sucking dregs back into the wine.

Word of advice: don’t daze off. Stop suction before, rather than after, your siphon gets to the tank’s bottom.

So I added dirt to get rid of dirt (actually it’s a vegan clay of diatomes that negatively charges the wine: killing suspension, glomming solids together, and sinking them).

This new week gives me another chance to rack my wine. Let the video-babble commence:

After some tank down-time, I return with sparkling fresh, sterilized equipment:

Let’s see what’s left:

Yumm!

Clean equipment immediately after you rack wine. Otherwise, gunk dries into a cake that isn’t for your birthday.

Spick and/or span?

Once purged of all insolent detritus, I reset the tanks and camera:

The Fates hold one more racking in my future. If I don’t mess it up, bottling will be in order. Glass carboys are hardly air-tight, especially as the wine decreases. But once in bottle, air is my least concern.

Posted in CABERNET CRISES: MY FOURTH WINE, OENOLOGICAL ODYSSEY | Tagged drink, Food, New York, Rack, Recreation, Shopping, Vidal Blanc, wine | 2 Comments

SETTLING.DOWN.

Posted on December 5, 2011 by waywardwine

Like a good winemaker, I’ve waited over a week, and gold (aka beige sludge) is my reward:

Muddy gold.

My minifridge is magic. It has driven the flurry of yeasts into hibernation. Last week’s sulfuring got that spiked ball-of-death rolling. But now a week of cold has sunk them into a mass of hibernation at the bottom of the glass carboy (pictured).

So I heave the tank out, set up a camera, and…

Still with me? No? Good. So, I kinda, sorta suck at racking. That brown in the tube means I will need to rack another day. But to ensure the wine listens, I need to fine it:

Now back to the tank…

Coaxing wine into something drinkable is trench warfare. You wait. And wait. But once the time comes, you have to be ready. Sterilizing helps. Videotaping doesn’t.

Check in next week, maybe I can rack this cleanly.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

END.GAME.

Posted on November 28, 2011 by waywardwine

The end is nigh. Fermentation has slowed in my six gallons of vidal blanc juice. Less than a week has expired since I picked up the juice. Last night’s reading (below) was a call to arms (and racking siphon tubes).