Wedding Bells
- Thread starter ScubaDon
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Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:
Scubadon: My 2 cents: I can only help you in the white category, we don't do much of the red wine.
Symphony: Slightly off dry (although could be taken to dry, but I would think would leave it slightly bitter... at least for my taste), smooth wine with a hint of apricot and honey. Not as citrus tasting as say a Gerwitz, but a hint of acid on the tongue as it finishes adds a lot of character to this wine.
French Chardonnay. Although a white drinker, I'm not a dry white drinker as much as an off dry, nor do I care for oak in a white wine. A good Frenc Chardonnay has the perfect balance of fruit, acid and oak for a very rich mouth feel, whithout the taste of, or hastle of long aging oak (plywood). I used Tim V's suggesting of stirring it up for thirty days to get that buttery taste to it, and would never do a Chardonnay whithout doing this, what a huge difference it made in taste, and mouth feel from other commercialChardonnays that I have tried.
PersonnallyDon, the best advise that I could offer would be to do 2 batches of wine. Onereally good batch for the head table and the inlaws and outlaws. Then I would make one Horrid cheapest rot gut you could make. Because when those 300 other guest figure out that your making free wine...................... Your never going to get a bottle of wine for yourself again
Symphony: Slightly off dry (although could be taken to dry, but I would think would leave it slightly bitter... at least for my taste), smooth wine with a hint of apricot and honey. Not as citrus tasting as say a Gerwitz, but a hint of acid on the tongue as it finishes adds a lot of character to this wine.
French Chardonnay. Although a white drinker, I'm not a dry white drinker as much as an off dry, nor do I care for oak in a white wine. A good Frenc Chardonnay has the perfect balance of fruit, acid and oak for a very rich mouth feel, whithout the taste of, or hastle of long aging oak (plywood). I used Tim V's suggesting of stirring it up for thirty days to get that buttery taste to it, and would never do a Chardonnay whithout doing this, what a huge difference it made in taste, and mouth feel from other commercialChardonnays that I have tried.
PersonnallyDon, the best advise that I could offer would be to do 2 batches of wine. Onereally good batch for the head table and the inlaws and outlaws. Then I would make one Horrid cheapest rot gut you could make. Because when those 300 other guest figure out that your making free wine...................... Your never going to get a bottle of wine for yourself again
Well here is the final deal,
After reading everything that was posted here, thank for all the great posts and information, I have chosen the kits.
It is a lot different than I thought when I first started. I picked 3 Island Mist kits.
1.they were here and I could get started. so I thought! Sorry George but you did get a cutat the end.
2. I tasted them, in the store as he had every brand and flavor that he sells there to taste,and they tasted great.
3. The ABV was only about 7% and a lot of the family are not big drinkers and a wine that is closer to a cooler would be better received.
I am also mixing the flavors. I picked up 2IM zin's and one while strawberry merlot. I am gong to make them seperately and then mix them before bottling. I think that they will make a great wine. Can't wait to taste it.
George got a cut because I had to order a bunch more buckets and stuff from him. He once again came to the rescue by sending them out to me that day. Thanks again George.
So, Chip and Pam's wedding wine, (my son and his soon to be wife) will have their own wine, never before served and I think it will be great.
Thanks for all the help guys!Edited by: ScubaDon
After reading everything that was posted here, thank for all the great posts and information, I have chosen the kits.
It is a lot different than I thought when I first started. I picked 3 Island Mist kits.
1.they were here and I could get started. so I thought! Sorry George but you did get a cutat the end.
2. I tasted them, in the store as he had every brand and flavor that he sells there to taste,and they tasted great.
3. The ABV was only about 7% and a lot of the family are not big drinkers and a wine that is closer to a cooler would be better received.
I am also mixing the flavors. I picked up 2IM zin's and one while strawberry merlot. I am gong to make them seperately and then mix them before bottling. I think that they will make a great wine. Can't wait to taste it.
George got a cut because I had to order a bunch more buckets and stuff from him. He once again came to the rescue by sending them out to me that day. Thanks again George.
So, Chip and Pam's wedding wine, (my son and his soon to be wife) will have their own wine, never before served and I think it will be great.
Thanks for all the help guys!Edited by: ScubaDon
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One thing I would do Scuba- before mixing the whole batches together, mix a cup of each batch into a small batch before bottling. Sample the mixture at that point. If possible, have the kids sample it with you and see if you all like the mix or the idividual batches better. You may find they taste better seperately-they all taste great, but I don't know how they are mixed? Just a suggestion.
Thanks Appleman, That is what I will do. I was really surprised as to how similar they were when mixing up the must. They looked, tasted and smelled exactly the same. I expected some difference but they both seemed to have a strawberry base. They all use the same yeast, etc. I don't see how they will finish out being very different at all. The three buckets are sitting in the kitchen bubbling away. If you have every heard someone getting water from a water cooler and the sound that the cooler makes as the water refills the cooling chamber, this is what you can heard fromthe Den. We do have a water cooler in that part of the house and I thought,someonewas back there getting a glass of water. When I checked on it I found it was the wine buckets working away.Edited by: ScubaDon
Wedding wine blues!!!
Well, selected the kits as above and got started. Made all 3 at the same time plus 2 others.A lot of work to make 5 kitsall at the same time! After they finished and bulk aged for 2 months I started bottling. At bottling I filtered thru a gravity filter. I wanted to really polish it and make sure thatit was as clear as possible. Finished filtering number one wedding wine and started on number 2. I had the carboyof wine sitting on the bar with an empty carboywith the gravity filter sittingon the floor. As we all do, I guess,I tilted the carboy of wine sitting on the barjust a little and started filtering it in to the empty carboy on the floor. I watched it close and when there was about 2 cups of wine left tosiphon outthru the filter, for some crazy reason, I walked away to get something. I head a noise turned aroundjust in time to see the carboy falling off the bar and it seemed likeit was in slow motion. I tried to run to it and grap it but before I could get thereitcrashed into the full carboy of wine (with the gravity filter sitting on top). The full carboy of wine sitting on the floor exploded!!!The carboy that fell off the bar did not break but the full one sitting on the floordid and it sent 6 gallons of wine across my dinning room floor. I thought I was going to throw up. I couldn't say anything except for "Oh my God!" over and over again. After 4 hours of using the wet vac and mop I was able to get back to bottling the rest of the wine. I started a new batch a week later to replace the broken batch that ended up going down thedrain. Also I found out when I tried to filter the next batch that the blow from the empty carboy striking the top of the full carboy with the gravity filter also cracked the gravity filter caseand it joinged the busted carboy in the trash. I determined that by having the carboy tilted the weight of the siphon hose and auto siphon became heavier than the empty carboy on the bar causing it pull the carboy over and allowing it to fall onto the full carboy on the floor. What a waste, 6 gallons of finished wine, a glass carboy and gravity filter all gone over a simple stupid mistake caused by walking away. Edited by: ScubaDon
Well, selected the kits as above and got started. Made all 3 at the same time plus 2 others.A lot of work to make 5 kitsall at the same time! After they finished and bulk aged for 2 months I started bottling. At bottling I filtered thru a gravity filter. I wanted to really polish it and make sure thatit was as clear as possible. Finished filtering number one wedding wine and started on number 2. I had the carboyof wine sitting on the bar with an empty carboywith the gravity filter sittingon the floor. As we all do, I guess,I tilted the carboy of wine sitting on the barjust a little and started filtering it in to the empty carboy on the floor. I watched it close and when there was about 2 cups of wine left tosiphon outthru the filter, for some crazy reason, I walked away to get something. I head a noise turned aroundjust in time to see the carboy falling off the bar and it seemed likeit was in slow motion. I tried to run to it and grap it but before I could get thereitcrashed into the full carboy of wine (with the gravity filter sitting on top). The full carboy of wine sitting on the floor exploded!!!The carboy that fell off the bar did not break but the full one sitting on the floordid and it sent 6 gallons of wine across my dinning room floor. I thought I was going to throw up. I couldn't say anything except for "Oh my God!" over and over again. After 4 hours of using the wet vac and mop I was able to get back to bottling the rest of the wine. I started a new batch a week later to replace the broken batch that ended up going down thedrain. Also I found out when I tried to filter the next batch that the blow from the empty carboy striking the top of the full carboy with the gravity filter also cracked the gravity filter caseand it joinged the busted carboy in the trash. I determined that by having the carboy tilted the weight of the siphon hose and auto siphon became heavier than the empty carboy on the bar causing it pull the carboy over and allowing it to fall onto the full carboy on the floor. What a waste, 6 gallons of finished wine, a glass carboy and gravity filter all gone over a simple stupid mistake caused by walking away. Edited by: ScubaDon
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Woe that is horrible! I can feel your pain from it all.
It will give you a good story to recall for the wedding. Maybe you can use it for some kind of a wise lesson for life and marriage. Life can move slowly, don't take things for granted, life is full of bumps, life can come crashing down,pick up the pieces and move on, don't cry over spilled wine, a carboy and cargirl meeting and you can soon expect another carboy in the picture- You get the idea
WOW! I have had a few issues when making wine but never to that extreme. Sorry to hear about the loss of equipment and more importantly 6 gallons of finished wine.
Thanks for sharing as this might help prevent someone else from going through the mess you did.
Thanks for sharing as this might help prevent someone else from going through the mess you did.
