Well whoever said making wine is easy; "grapes just want to turn into wine" may have some inside info.
I had chronicled my first attempt with 50 lbs of frozen malbec on this forum and I could not have tried harder to trip up these grapes on their way to winehood. But somehow they made it.
From probably killing most of the yeast before pitching them to all of the other stumbles I made it's hard to believe I felt it was worth putting them in a bottle. But I did.
The "ready, fire aim" technique was mostly due to the fact that I was learning on the fly. No real pre planning. Hard to get your mistakes out of the vessel and start over during the wine making process. You just have to move forward.
I ended up blending the Brehm Vinyards Malbec with approx 30% commercial merlot. I didn't want to drown out my efforts with a higher percentage. But I did bottle three of 100% just to see how it turns out. I did try it before the holiday and I was surprised that it did not induce a gag. Actually not too bad.....
Still had what I describe as a metallic taste and other off notes. But for a first try, I was pleased.
I learned everything from yeast to corking.
Fast forward a month or so to Thanksgiving. The family gets a taste. Everyone liked it. They are polite. Is it good. No. Was it a great learning experience with 15 bottles to show for it.
You bet.
I had chronicled my first attempt with 50 lbs of frozen malbec on this forum and I could not have tried harder to trip up these grapes on their way to winehood. But somehow they made it.
From probably killing most of the yeast before pitching them to all of the other stumbles I made it's hard to believe I felt it was worth putting them in a bottle. But I did.
The "ready, fire aim" technique was mostly due to the fact that I was learning on the fly. No real pre planning. Hard to get your mistakes out of the vessel and start over during the wine making process. You just have to move forward.
I ended up blending the Brehm Vinyards Malbec with approx 30% commercial merlot. I didn't want to drown out my efforts with a higher percentage. But I did bottle three of 100% just to see how it turns out. I did try it before the holiday and I was surprised that it did not induce a gag. Actually not too bad.....
Still had what I describe as a metallic taste and other off notes. But for a first try, I was pleased.
I learned everything from yeast to corking.
Fast forward a month or so to Thanksgiving. The family gets a taste. Everyone liked it. They are polite. Is it good. No. Was it a great learning experience with 15 bottles to show for it.
You bet.