Hello to all from Atlanta, GA.

[Maestro]

Greetings and salutations to you all!

I am Joe from Atlanta, GA. I am 32 and fairly new to the winemaking gig. I am looking forward to learning and growing in it and getting to know you all as I go along. My wife and I are nearing the bottling stage of our first ever vintage and are thoroughly excited.

--Maestro

 

[Tom]

Joe,
Welcome. There is a wealth of knowledge here to help you. When in doubt check here FIRST to get the answer. Just ask.

 

[Leanne]

Hello and welcome. This is a really friendly site. Ask questions, post often and get to know us all.

 

[djrockinsteve]

Welcome Joe and wife. It is very exciting especially your first time.....bottling. Check out some of the posts and ask away. There are no stupid questions. Leanne is right everyone here is very friendly.

 

[Daisy317]

Welcome to the board. There are a lot of great people with tons of knowledge around here.

 

[robie]

Welcome, Joe. You will enjoy the forum.

Guess everything is all greened up in Atlanta by now.
Not so in Colorado Springs; we are about a month behind you in that department. At least the grass has some green in it now.

 

[Wade E]

Welcome Joe, glad to have you here, what wine did you start?

 

[Maestro]

It is definitely greened up here in Atlanta. We have been fighting the evil pollen now for about 3 weeks. It's finally dying down.

Wade, we started the RJ Orchard Breezin' Pomegranate Wildberry Zinfandel. We bumped the sugar up a bit to bring it up towards a fruit wine instead of a mist. Initial SG readings indicate about a 12.5% alc. We are really excited to see how it turns out.

Thanks to everyone for the warm reception here. I like it here already and I'm sure my wife will too. She'll join here pretty soon I imagine.

--Maestro

 

[Wade E]

You be glad you did up the abv, it evens out the sweetness on these and also helps in the cellaring cause low abv wines dont last to long.

 

[Maestro]

That leads me to a question about cellaring this wine. My wife and I have decided to cellar one or two bottles from each of our batches and let them age for several years. I've read mixed ideas on this. Some say it is good, some say it is bad. What is your take on aging kit wines like this?

 

[Wade E]

With the upper abv on these I have a few that are 3 years old and starting to decline now. I think thats about the limit I would try and push these, I will also say that after 6 months they didnt improve anymore with these very low tannin wines so these dont need to be aged that long evn with the upper abv.

 

[Maestro]

Good info to know. Looks like we'll let a bottle cellar for about 6 months and one for a year to see how they do. Thanks for the insight.

 

[lloyd]

welcome Joe This is a great forum to learn about wine.