Beginner's success and newfound confidence!

[lilvixen]

I started a WE World Vineyard Trinty Red over Memorial Day. This is my first attempt at wine making and at kit making, so I went by the instructions, other than adding a pinch of tannin and giving it an extra 7 weeks in the carboy before bottling. I bottled on Saturday with a yield of 29.5 bottles (the bottle filler stopper didn't cooperate on bottle 27...).

I thiefed a sample from the carboy on Friday night, and hubby and I weren't impressed at all. It had a weird plastic-y/manufactured flavor we couldn't pinpoint but just wasn't good. I chocked it up to my first attempt and/or the kit I chose.

We decided to drink the half-full bottle with dinner, so the wine sat with just a regular stopper in the bottle for about 6 hours. We used an aerator on the wine, just because we knew it was young and hoping to quell that weird flavor.

On Friday night, we ranked the thiefed sample as a 2 out of 5 - we wouldn't throw it out, but we wouldn't offer it to friends. On Saturday, the weird taste was barely detectable, and it was actually good! It stood up to our grilled chicken and veggie dinner and we upped the ranking to a 3.5 out of 5 - we'd serve it to friends as a casual table wine.

It still tastes young (obviously), and it has no smell (nose?), but I have so much more confidence in this hobby now! We finished off the last glass from a commercial bottle of Chianti that I used for top up for my Super Tuscan kit, and we actually preferred my Trinity Red to the Chianti! WHAT?!

I'm so excited

We also sampled the Super Tuscan (RJS En Primeur), started over the fourth of July, and it's WAY better than the Trinity, even though it's a month younger and a big skins kit. I'm sold - you get what you pay for, and I'll stick to the big kits for my future reds.

Thank you to all the past and present forum peoples, whose threads and posts I've poured over for four months for tips, tricks, information, help, etc. I appreciate you all!

 

[bkisel]

Wow, just reading your post I can tell you've come a long way having just recently started this hobby. I think you're ready to try a fruit/country wine. Peaches are in season and then there is always frozen berries; both can make an enjoyable quick drinking wine. I still do a lot of kits but the frugal in me loves making wine where what your drinking can cost less than the bottle and cork.

 

[lilvixen]

Bill, it's funny you mention country wine and peaches - I harvested my peach tree in July and started a 4-gallon primary of peach wine two weekends ago. I racked to three 1-gallon jugs last weekend. Hubby and I are super excited about it, but we're not expecting a quick wine. I plan to let it clear naturally and expect to enjoy it next summer.

We won't taste the Super Tuscan until next summer either. I'll let it bulk age until January and bottle age until summer. While I'd like to credit that to an unusual newbie patience, it's more that grad school picks back up in a couple weeks, and I won't have time to breathe, let alone play with wine. Who'da thunk that school was good for wine too?!

 

[ceeaton]

While I'd like to credit that to an unusual newbie patience, it's more that grad school picks back up in a couple weeks, and I won't have time to breathe, let alone play with wine. Who'da thunk that school was good for wine too?!

Take your patience where you find it. I know, it is in short supply when you are thirsty for a wine you made. I bet most of that off flavor you tasted in your newly bottled wine will be gone by Christmas.

If you can, get some 375 ml bottles, when you bottle, do 24 x 750's, then the rest of the batch in 375's. Then you can pop a 375 ml bottle every few months and learn how the taste changes over time, plus you'll leave the other two cases untouched, and be better able to get it aged a bit.

Hard lesson to learn, but if grad school helps you keep your mitts off of it, that alone might be worth the tuition!

 

[lilvixen]

Thanks, Craig. Going back to school in my mid-30s certainly taught me more than just the curriculum:
- I'm better at time management (juggling work, school, and home life)
- I have more patience for delayed gratification (going half-time makes for a long program)
- I'm more humble (I sure don't retain class material like I did at 18)
- I'm no closer to figuring out what I want to be or do when I grow up than when I started grad school. I have 3 more semesters to figure out if I'll be changing careers or sticking with the current career. Meh.

Back on the wine topic, I plan on doing at least 6, if not 12, splits at future bottlings. Hubby and I will continue to use the Trinity as our learning experience - opening a bottle a month and enjoying it over two dinners, so we can see how it tastes first opened and after a day with just a stopper. And we'll make notes with each bottle to see how it ages. For the Super Tuscan and beyond, we'll give them a year to develop before enjoying. Wine isn't too expensive here, and we have affordable favorites that we enjoy, so it's more the novelty of drinking wine I made than anything. At least at this point. If my wines are so amazing that we just can't help ourselves... well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there

 

[Mismost]

We were drinking the Trinity Red last night...been in the bottle since Feb. I too followed the kit instructions. DON"T DO THAT.
Should have let it sit months longer in the carboy. Bottling "on schedule" it still has CO2 even after stir degassing per instructions.
I have taken to opening the bottles the day before and giving them a good shake...taste is better without the CO2. Still a bit thin, but much better...like you say, a decent sipping wine.

But, we did this kit to learn, and get some wine in the bottles while our bigger kits sit on their butts for months and months! Almost everything in the carboys now has been in there almost as long as the Trinity has been in the bottle. Adding time is one of the best things you can do for your wines.

 

[ceeaton]

That's a good plan, as far as opening a bottle and drinking over two meals. It is amazing how a little air exposure changes a young wine. It was only after reading here a bit that I realized I didn't have to finish the whole bottle.

I get a hint of what you are going through juggling tasks and managing time. My wife is in her late 40's, four kids, full time job, and a class a semester. Hoping she'll graduate in 2019 or 2020 and pass her clinicals. Then she may go back for a teaching certificate in nursing (all so I can retire and grow grapes and make wine and drink wine). Luckily my Mom raised us to cook/clean/do laundry/grocery shop and plan meals, so I'm of some help. But sometimes there is no substitute for Mom when it comes to the kids.

 

[Scooter68]

YAHOO! Another wine making crew.

If you like white wine - you will love peach wine. How many pounds per gallon did you use? My first was one gallon with 4 pounds - a mild wine ( I used the phrase 'light on the palate') but very good.
Our second batch, (January start) still relatively young at 6 months is a little monster in taste - Feel like I can taste the skin and the fresh peachyness! I used Fresh peaches, frozen peaches, canned peaches, and even some 100% juice white grape and peach drink (Walmart) got a little carried away but the first batch was almost gone, and I knew it would take at least 6 months to have an enjoyable wine.
3rd batch was started mid July 5 gallons 28 pounds of peaches only water added was simple syrup.
Ok, enough - Great that the first kit wine has been declared a success. Start planning your next seasons efforts.

 

[lilvixen]

Scooter, I used 20 lbs of fresh peaches, one banana, 2 cans of frozen white grape/peach concentrate, 1 can of frozen white grape concentrate (the store only had 2 cans of peach), and 1 gallon of water to make 4 gallons of must. OG of 1.082. Added pectic enzyme, acid blend, wine tannin, bentonite, and 71B yeast (not in that order). I plan to use the white grape/peach concentrate as my f-pak.

I gave away over half the peach harvest before deciding to try wine, so next year I'll have more, and I'll wait another month for my friends' harvests - my peach tree is sheltered from the elements and produces earlier.

I already have my kit list planned for the winter break, which I'm hoping to order on Black Friday or Cyber Monday: Old Vine Zin, Merlot or Cab/Merlot blend, and an Italian Pinot Grigio over spring break, if classes aren't too crazy.

 

[NorCal]

I too am amazed at how much wine changes with time. Wine, the ultimate teacher of patience.

 

[Scooter68]

I remember the old line - "Sometimes if you want something very badly - that's how you get it."

Rush things and reap the 'rewards.'

 

[Spikedlemon]

We were drinking the Trinity Red last night...been in the bottle since Feb. I too followed the kit instructions. DON"T DO THAT.
Should have let it sit months longer in the carboy. Bottling "on schedule" it still has CO2 even after stir degassing per instructions.
I have taken to opening the bottles the day before and giving them a good shake...taste is better without the CO2. Still a bit thin, but much better...like you say, a decent sipping wine.

That was my early lesson as well. I had even some wine made by a local HBS that were full of CO2 as well (I couldn't identify it myself).

I used to laugh at those on-bottle aerators but, with the one I have, it has worked wonders getting rid of the CO2 on my Pinot Noir that I previously disliked due to the sour CO2 taste.
My prior approach had been, as you do, open it early and let it sit.