New Member Info

[texasermd]

Call me optomistic or ambitious. This is my first home winemaking
experience so I decided to go big! Why not start off with the legal
limit of 200 gallons with 12 different varities? This is a pic of me
in my garage based winery with the wonderful smell of fermenting
grape juice.

Here's a pic of the place before all the action began.

Here's a view from the other side. Lot's of glass waiting for something to
put in them.

That was a cold ride!!! That's my 15 year old son Johnathon just as we
arrived back in Frisco after a 5 hour trip from the cold storage warehouse
in San Antonio. We have 36 pails of frozen juice, 3 each of 12 different
varietals. It was 90 degrees outside and about 35 degrees inside the
Suburban. By the way, I think we exceeded the maximum 1458 pound
payload by a little ;-)

It's not long after that things really get going!!

I set aside reserve of each for later sweetening. I also have frozen water
for temperature control of the whites while they ferment. Notice the
Johnson Control's temp. probe. I can set the freezer temp from about
-5F up to ambient. Should be good for cool fermenting and cold
stabilization.

How about a little vacuum assist in racking that white wine?

Now that's a lot of wine!!

Ditto! The 2 3-gallon carboys on the middle shelf are my first attempt at
port. They are based on a 50-50 base of Cab. and Merlot. They were
fermented dry, brought up to 18% abv with everclear, and some Keller
tannin and french oak chips were added. Finally they were sweetened
to about 9 brix. Both have 1L of Pinot Noir concentrate and 250ml of
double sweet cherry concentrate at 68 brix. Finally, one has 250ml of
red raspberry concentrate and one has 250ml of blackberry concentrate.
Thank you to Mr. Pearson for making the little square to help me with all
my dilutions and mixtures.


I'm in the process of using some of my left over frozen juice to make
icewine style wine. I took 4 gallons - 1 each of Merlot, Chianti, Barbera
and Cab and cut them out of their gallon plastic jugs. I let them sit in
collanders for about 4 hours while the syrup and concentrated juice
dripped out then threw away the remaining nearly plain ice. I had to re-
freeze the whole batch since I ran out of time but can't wait to get started
again.


I welcome any comments or questions.


Thanks,


John - Mr. New Winemaker Guy

 

[jobe05]

Welcome Texas ER Doctor,

Is that one of Georges new starter Kits????

Very impressive and a good way to make sure you don't go over that 200 gallon a year limit. Unfortunately, when complete, your done for the year....... and still nothing to drink till next year.

Do you have pics of your wine room? What wines do you have going?

This couldn't possibly be your first wine making experience.........

 

[NorthernWinos]

Way to go....Nice set up you have going there....keep us up on your progress.

 

[texasermd]

Yes, this is my first go at it. I decided to give this a shot back in May of this year and have been in the planning and purchasing stages since. I ordered every back issue of WineMaker magazine, subscribed to Wine Business monthly and bought as many books as I could read.
The good news about the 200 gallon limit is that the year ends in about 75 days then the clock starts over! I actually have delusions of going commercial at some point based on my experience here.


The garage is basically my wine room. I had a truck show up at my door with pallets of glass - carboys and bottles as far as the eye could see. I have 80 cases of glass bottles stored here and another 60 in an off site storage garage, all waiting for wine to put in them.


Currently, I have Barbera, Chardonnay,Cab, French Columbard,Johann. Reisling, Chianti,Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, White Zin, Petit Syrah, Pinot Grigio andPinot Noir going now with some preblended ones as well.


Thank you for your interest.


John

 

[Wade E]

Welcome and Holy $%^*! Looks like your nest egg just went into fermentation! What is that mounted on your wall behind your desk? Some wine making equipment store has a new friend!
Edited by: wade

 

[masta]

All I can say is WOW!!!!!! That has to be the most impressive setup I have ever seen for a home winemaker never mind a newbie with his first attempt.

How much research and time did you spend before picking up that juice?


Edited by: masta

 

[Wade E]

Do you have a wine cellar bult yet to house all that wine once its done?

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

That is the most beautifulthing I have ever looked at!

Way to kick off a new hobby! And, as stated, the year will be over very soon, so perfect timing to start on this scale. Welcome to the forum, and please do keep us updated. Next winestock at your garage!

 

[PolishWineP]

Oh! My! Gosh!

I was just telling Poor Bert today that I want to get rid of most of our stuff and just dedicate ourcastle to our hobbies. Now I'm really, really jealous. I don't get jealous often, I can usually be happy for others, but the green-eyed monster is roaring!

This is truly amazing. I'm glad to know that you did a bunch of reading and research before you ordered your stuff. If you change your mind, just post notice here that you're having a sale!

Congratulations on doing this in a big way!

 

[dfwwino]

Very impressive. I just showed your photos to my wife to demonstrate that I have not yet lost all of my mind with my winemaking obsession, i.e., things could be worse, very worse. She replied that you must be single. I am hoping that you are married.


By the way, do a lot of research before you make the jump to go commercial. About 8 years ago, I did a serious amount of study and opted to remain an avid hobbyist. I spoke to several winery owners, including a close personal friend who told me it was like owning race horses. You have to start with a large fortune to make a small fortune, especially if you own a vineyardas well as the winery. In 15 years, he has yet to realize a profit. Vineyard owner is just another label for farmer. You are subject to total crop loss due to weather, pests, etc. It takes great patience. There is a Yahoo group called Texas Winegrowers where several winery and vineyard owners in Texas exchange posts. You might try to join it to find out more about going commercial. By looking at your tremendous setup, you might have that fortune to make an endeavor worthwhile.

 

[Waldo]

WOW !!!! Hell, I can say it backwards.......WOW

 

[Venom]

Lol, I bet we all can say it backwords.

 

[Wade E]

Welcome Venom, you dont by any chance have a master wine room to do you?

 

[Venom]

no

 

[SB Ranch]

You are doing what most of wish we could do. Some guys have it all, and then some more...


Keep us informed to your progress and obviously you read a great deal so feed some info here!


Glad to see an over achiever in action!

 

[Dean]

Welcome to the forums John! You certainly are "Mr. New Winemaker Guy"! You've certainly done your homework, and it's great to see you have no qualms about getting good equipment to work with. Keep us in the loop on the progress.

 

[Venom]

 

[texasermd]

I basically looked into the possible sources for juice and went with M&M Wine Grape Co. They were able to get me thevarietals I wanted for a decent price considering I wasn't getting a whole truck load. I did have to go to San Antonio go get it but it was a fun little trip with my son. Much more work went into making sure I would have the right equipment, chemicals, etc. I still have yet to purchase filtering and bottling equipment but I knew there would be plenty of time to make final decisions about that kind of stuff.

 

[texasermd]

Very impressive. I just showed your photos to my wife to demonstrate that I have not yet lost all of my mind with my winemaking obsession, i.e., things could be worse, very worse. She replied that you must be single. I am hoping that you are married.


By the way, do a lot of research before you make the jump to go commercial. About 8 years ago, I did a serious amount of study and opted to remain an avid hobbyist. I spoke to several winery owners, including a close personal friend who told me it was like owning race horses. You have to start with a large fortune to make a small fortune, especially if you own a vineyardas well as the winery. In 15 years, he has yet to realize a profit. Vineyard owner is just another label for farmer. You are subject to total crop loss due to weather, pests, etc. It takes great patience. There is a Yahoo group called Texas Winegrowers where several winery and vineyard owners in Texas exchange posts. You might try to join it to find out more about going commercial. By looking at your tremendous setup, you might have that fortune to make an endeavor worthwhile.

Well, I am actually married with 5 wonderful childrenand 1actuallydue in January. Our oldest moved out last summer so I guess we are on the "replace them when they leave" plan.


On the commercial side, I have a high school buddy who moved with his parents (when they "retired" from corporate life)to Walla Walla, WA. They have 2 vineyards up there with 200+ acres each and a pretty amazing winery. I don't think I would be much into the vineyard aspect but the winery/tasting room, meeting hall, homemade chocolates-to-go-with-your-wine venture sounds like fun to me.

 

[CajunTim]

Welcome texasermd! Great looking wine setup. Wish you nothing but good luck with your wine making.