WineXpert The fruits of my labor...

[pizzaerick]

3 months to the day, I have opened my first bottle of WE riesling.

Good. Not great, but good. The best part is knowing this was my first kit.

It is certainly drinkable, not at all offensive. It does however lack a certain fruitiness. It has just a little hint of apple and pear, and I mean hint. It is however well balanced IMO. I will be proud to serve this all through the holidays this year.

1 bottle down... 29 to go!

 

[laneygirl]

Which WE Reisling did you make? Is it the Washington Valley Columbia Riesling of theEstate Line or something else?




Way to exercise patience...it's one of the most challenging things I've found about winemaking is giving it time to be in the bottle. To compensate, I've just made a lot of kits and built 2 120 bottle racks to hold the upcoming ones which I think will help.

 

[Dean]

Once that wine gets another 6 months on it, you will notice the bouquet really start to open up. The fruitiness will also start to appear around that time. It takes a while for it to come out of hiding from the "vinosity" of the wine. I'm not sure if that's a word, so if not, it means "wine like". Good patience for a first kit!

 

[Trubador]

really good patience! I drank a lot of my first kit and the last
bottles were definitely the best of the bunch. See if you can
limit yourself to two bottles per month. This way you can drink
some and also taste the difference as it ages and by my calculations,
you will be drinking it for the next 7 months (the 7 months assumes
that eventually you just cant contain yourself and start drinking more
than 2 per month!).



In the mean time,
make another kit and don't drink the first bottle for at least 6 months
and follow the same logic with that one. hard to do, I
know. but if you keep making kits, I think the theory is that you
get too much wine to drink it all and also once you've tasted one of
your wines with a bit of age on it, you realize how important it is.
Edited by: Trubador

 

[Jackie]

Pizzaerick,


Which riesling did you make? I'm considering making one this year.

 

[Trubador]

Jackie,



I am thinking of a riesling for my next as well



I am either going to make the WE Estate series Riesling or going to
take the plunge into "all-juice" with a Mosti Mondiale riesling.



But seeing as I live in the northeast and I don't keep the house any
warmer than 68 degrees, I won't be making it until the Spring when my
fermentation temp could be held in the low 70s.

 

[PolishWineP]

Jackie,

But seeing as I live in the northeast and I don't keep the house any warmer than 68 degrees, I won't be making it until the Spring when my fermentation temp could be held in the low 70s.

I don't keep my house in the low 70s but that doesn't keep me from making wines in the winter. Brew belts are on sale this month! George has them for $15.99 instead of the regular $19.99. I'm thinking of getting one...

 

[Trubador]

Jackie,

But seeing as I
live in the northeast and I don't keep the house any warmer than 68
degrees, I won't be making it until the Spring when my fermentation
temp could be held in the low 70s.

I don't keep my house in the low 70s but that doesn't keep
me from making wines in the winter. Brew belts are on sale this
month! George has them for $15.99 instead of the regular
$19.99. I'm thinking of getting one...

You're right, I "could" make wine in the winter. But what I do is
change over to making beer between November and April/May. The
beer yeasts LOVE my winter house temps, so it's perfect. Also,
having some homebrews to enjoy is going to make it easier to keep my
mits off my ageing wines.



I'll be making my first "ALL-GRAIN" Pale Ale on Sunday Nov 18th.
I'll be drinking it by Christmas. One of the beauties of beer is
the "wait" is not long at all, about 6 weeks and the beer tastes great.

 

[Dean]

oooooooooooo! Let us know how your first all grain turns out. What type of equipment are you using? I love seeing all grain brewer inventions to deal with sparging, collecting trub, etc. What did you make your mash tun out of?

 

[pizzaerick]

Which riesling did you make?

I made the "cheapest" as it was my first.

I have since bottled a merlot, and I have several carboys of real grape wines sitting around right now, as well as a few gallons of fruit wines.

Will start the Choc Ras port in a month or so, and do a kit or two until next grape harvest just to keep in shape.

Believe me, I will never drink all I have made!

What I want to try next is a carbonated cider.

 

[dfwwino]

So I assume it was a Vintner's Reserve Riesling:


http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDet.asp?PartNumber=3174Edited by: dfwwino

 

[PolishWineP]

I have since bottled a merlot, and I have several carboys of real grape wines sitting around right now, as well as a few gallons of fruit wines.

Will start the Choc Ras port in a month or so, and do a kit or two until next grape harvest just to keep in shape.

Believe me, I will never drink all I have made!

Sure you will! You'll be amazed at how fast it goes!

 

[NorthernWinos]

It is amazing how the wine disappears....You think you have a good stash...then the racks start looking barren about the time you are ready to bottle something.


I know the 'Wine Fairies' have been back...and many aren't giving back the empty bottles....going to have to talk to them....Started putting on my labels again..."No Deposit - Please Return" Hope they can read.

 

[Wade E]

I think you are going to have to change that to " No return, no chance of ever getting more!" That oughta make them think about bringing em back.

 

[Trubador]

oooooooooooo! Let us know how your first all grain turns
out. What type of equipment are you using? I love seeing all grain
brewer inventions to deal with sparging, collecting trub, etc. What did
you make your mash tun out of?

I made a mash lauter-tun out of a 9 gallon Coleman Extreme
Cooler. I replaced the spigot with a ball valve and am using a
stainless steel braid inside to let the liquor out and leave the grain
behind during the batch sparge.



I have a 10 gallon stainless steel boiling pot with a ball valve at the
bottom as well. I'll take some pics when I do it and post them
somewhere on here. I have to look to see if there is an
appropriate folder, probably friendly chit chat.

 

[PeterZ]

Trub, there's a beer general discussion forum all the way down at the bottom.