Recent content by lilvixen

I'm jealous of your vines! Good luck waiting for harvest time. We opened a bottle of Carmenere about 2 weeks ago, and it's good! Heavy on the oak, but it is integrating nicely. I unfortunately can taste kit taste, and the Carmenere is now at the age where I would buy it again if I got it from...

(Unable to edit old post.) I'm new to the party but gaining speed: (I should probably update this statement at some point.) Made and gone - WE World Vineyard Trinty Red (May 2016) - CC Sterling Sauvignon Blanc (Jun 2016) - CC Sterling Malbec (Aug 2016) In the "one bottle a month" rotation -...

(Unable to edit old post.) I'm new to the party but gaining speed: Made and gone - WE World Vineyard Trinty Red (May 2016) - CC Sterling Sauvignon Blanc (Jun 2016) - CC Sterling Malbec (Aug 2016) In the "one bottle a month" rotation - RJS En Primeur Italian Super Tuscan (Jul 2016) - Peach...

I was curious about the differences between an INTJ and INTP because I once tested as in the middle between J and P, although not most recently, and I found and skimmed this article. This is a pretty fun one that I don't have time to vet thoroughly, but I nodded and laughed in agreement of the...

You'd get a kick out of my [unscientific, because it'd be creepy if I interrogated everyone] attempt to wrestle with hubby's workplace figures. How can a room of 6 software engineers have 5 INTJs and 1 ESFJ?! That defies logic and holds no semblance to a random sample. Granted, the people in...

I tried this with a midlevel Malbec that I made last year, which has the same weird taste I don't like, and the weird taste did go away, so I have hope for red wine batches that are sitting in carboys. Now I just need to exercise patience and let it all age long enough for the flavor to...

I don't believe this part from the INTJ page: If it's true, I have found the niche in the work world and online forums where INTJs congregate. I'm a woman INTJ with fellow INTJ friends and coworkers, my husband works in a bullpen office with five INTJs (he's the only non-INTJ in the room)...

This thread is so timely! I'm still only doing kits, but I'm dealing with the same question. I racked 3 red kits yesterday - CC Showcase and WE LE - ranging from 6 weeks to 6 months from pitch, and they all have a weird flavor that I've never tasted before in a commercial wine, and I'm really...

There's a big thread on here on Extended Maceration, if you're interested. If that process seems too long or you don't want to get a Fermonster, the Cellar Craft Showcase instructions call for 10 days in a primary bucket for skins kits, which I did for a CC Showcase Carmenere and an WE...

I promise I'm not trying to turn this into a degassing thread, but I wanted to reply that I use the Brew Belt to ensure my wines are 74-75* before degassing because I need all the degassing help I can get. The difference with this kit vs the three sitting in carboys right now is that the ambient...

And to hear the airlock bloop!

I started a CC Showcase CabMerlot with BM4x4 in EM 12 days ago, and I'm amazed at how much it's degassing. In the dozen kits I've done, this one wins, hands down, for most consistent airlock blooping around the 1.000 mark. (I last checked it over the weekend at 1.002 and won't open it again...

(Disclaimer: I know nothing about cultivating grape vines.) The article said that the old vines have deep roots, but is transplanting them into rows, rather than replacing them with new vines, feasible? Or if they're replacing Zin with Zin, perhaps they're using cuttings of the existing vines...

Thanks, guys. I'll throw in some kmeta solution tonight and cap it with a bung.

In my growing frustration with degassing, I decided to try using the spoon to degas instead of the J-hook wine whip that I have, just to see if it did any better. I apparently wasn't as careful as I thought I was being, because after racking recently, I noticed the Better Bottle carboy has...