Search results

Bottled a Muller-Thurgau this evening. Couldn't use the All in One because I was using some plastic bottles. Going to start a Tempranillo in the new Brew Demon next. Should be a fun experiment.

Has anyone here ever made a Chenin Blanc wine kit? I can only find a RJS South African for cheap or a Kenridge Classic South African for very expensive. Anything else?

Here is a shot I took at Childress Vineyards in North Carolina last weekend. These are Malbec grapes and tasted perfect (by my uneducated brix tongue) for harvest.

I did a first rack of my low-dollar Amazon Cab-Merlot wine kit with a M&M grape pak added. The Amazon kit was pretty thin to start, it only measured 1.082 after mixing. I guessed about a quart of grapes are in the grape pak...boy was I off! There is almost a gallon of "stuff" in those grape...

I know they are not a sponser and are relatively unknown, but the Williams wine kits are 15% off today and Friday. Pretty good price for 5 gallons of good wine.

Finally got my grape packs from M & M. The USPS seems to have lost the first shipment. Interesting that the grapes were sent 2 day priority mail, but the USPS has a 10 day "guarrantee" of delivery. Only after that 10 days can you file for lost stuff. M & M was as professional as they could...

I ordered 2 All grape packs and have not got them yet. Checked their website (www.juicegrape.com) and its gone. Any ideas why?

Thats the OLD SORBATE SYNDROM. My viognier turned into a sparkling wine. I'm really bummed, because it was so good. It isn't awful as a sparkling wine, but it lost some of its fruit characteristics due to the residual sugars getting eaten. I can still drink it. When I opened a bottle...

Finally got around to starting two Williams kits today. A Petite Sirah and a Cabernet Sauvignon. The Sirah measured 1.095 in the pail. I added 1 1/2 tsp. tannins and the kit came with generic toasted oak and 71B-1122 yeast. The Cab measured 1.094 and I also added the tannins to this one...

I started this one 8/2013 using the 180 day extended kit directions. Bottled in Feburary It is good, no young taste, slightly tannic snd a bit of berry taste. Every bit the mid-bodied fruit forward wine that it is supposed to be. Firm believer in the 180 day method!

It's been a year and I opened a bottle of my Chilean Carmenere. If you recall, I was having tons of problems with pH and TA and I had a referment after 4 months. When I called the winery that sold me the juice, their first reaction was that I needed to stabilize the wine quickly, as the...

my Williams Merlot. It is one year old today. Opened the first bottle (in the E-Z Cap 1 liter bottles) to give it a try. Very tasty, some oak and smoke flavor, light on tannins, still a touch of "sweetness" even though it is very hot. I think it tested out at 13% or so, but it has an almost...

Using my new All In One wine pump to rack and degas.

I found a link that shows how to check TA by using a pH meter and sodium hydroxide. You add a few ml of the sodium hydroxide to the wine until a balance point at 8.2 pH is reached, and multiply the number of ml by 3/4 to get a percent TA. OK, that is all well and good, but my readings are...

Both fermented exactly as they were supposed to. Both dropped into the mid .990's. Both sat on toasted oak. The Pino sat for 7 months and the Merlot sat 9 months. Both had a tiny bit of lees at bottling. No sorbate added. I didn't test the Pino, but the Merlot tested 3.85+/- pH and about 10...

Picked up my bucket of carmenere this evening. Its still way too cold to do anything with tonight, so tomorrow it begins! Got 2 oz. of toasted hungarian oak to put in it, my go-to oak for just about anything.

I know, its been done, but mine is wine THEN water. Bottled 2 cases of Williams Pinot Noir and after all the carrying and cleaning and sterilizing, I decided to take a night swim in my new pool! The pool was great and the wine is pretty good for a "fresh" wine. Had about 3/4 of a bottle...

I opened a 3 year old bottle of peach wine today. It is very good. I had tried a bottle a while ago and it was not too good. This wine was made with free peaches, yellow and white, from Younces Farm in Greenwood, SC. The lawyer my wife worked for would rent out a piece of his parking lot...

I know that the kit is a middle-of-the-line offering, but I made it 3 years ago before I found out that high-end kits are the right way to go. Anyhow, I opened the last bottle, bottled in January, 2010 last night. The wine was perfect! All 29 other bottles seemed to be a bit on the sour...

Tast tested my WE Tempranillo today. Still has some gas in it, I will hit it with the Winegasgetter mnext weekend. The taste is great, heavy oak, lots of tannins (I would like more), and a bit fruit forward. I think this one will be fine in 6 months and great in a year. I strongly agree...