What's in your glass tonight?

[Boatboy24]

a smaller cup wouldn't have room for the whipped cream!!!

 

[jswordy]

Life... is... short. With apologies to those who have to go to work tomorrow morning.

 

[jswordy]

Gone back to the South tonight.

 

[ibglowin]

2011 Sleight of Hand Cellars Funkadelic Syrah. Rocks Funk! DNS!

 

[Hazelemere]

2022 Dry Gulch Cyser

This started fermenting on October 28 with Bayanus yeast with nutrient from pure Russet/King/Cox juice unpasteurized blueberry blossom honey and pectic enzyme with no water and no sugar. The ground apples turned brown in the electric grinder ahead of a bladder press due to high tannin in the russet skins undergoing oxidation. On November 3 it was racked at SG 1.030 with hot bentonite slurry stirred in with a polyethylene stirrer on the end of an electric drill. It was sulphited on Nov 11 at SG 1.002. On November 17 it was put into my cooler and this is what I racked into a glass and tasted. This is crystal clear on November 30 and tastes like it could be ready to bottle around Easter 2023. It is still slightly tannic but the flavour is decent and the smell is really good. If the tannin drops enough in the cooler I may add some high Chenin Blanc to it to raise the acid. I posted this for people to see what bentonite can do when added mid fermentation. I use bentonite on all of my whites to remove protein and always ~6 days into an active fermentation. "Dry Gulch" refers to the fact that the apple trees received no rain for almost 3 months and were picked at the end of the drought mostly as windfalls.

2022 Dry Gulch Cyser blended 50/50 with high acid Brehm Chenin Blanc white wine made from frozen juice.

This drops the tannin to something reasonable, boosts the acid and drops the Sg to ~1.000. The honey flavour is still there. I'm tempted to make ~2 cases of this as a Chenin Blanc Dry Gulch Cyser Pyment 2021-2022. This is very rich, with a good complex smell and flavour. It has a long finish and tastes like it will age from the high tannin and acid. I may even go 2/3 Chenin Blanc and 1/3 Cyser. 2/3 to 1/3 is better. I'm tasting 3/4 to 1/4 which is also good. Honey aftertaste is still there but 2/3 to 1/3 may be the best so far.

 

[ibglowin]

Slumming it tonight. Screw cap Pinot but hey its from Paso. DNS!

 

[David Violante]

 

[Hazelemere]

2022 Dry Gulch Cyser blended 50/50 with high acid Brehm Chenin Blanc white wine made from frozen juice.

This drops the tannin to something reasonable, boosts the acid and drops the Sg to ~1.000. The honey flavour is still there. I'm tempted to make ~2 cases of this as a Chenin Blanc Dry Gulch Cyser Pyment 2021-2022. This is very rich, with a good complex smell and flavour. It has a long finish and tastes like it will age from the high tannin and acid. I may even go 2/3 Chenin Blanc and 1/3 Cyser. 2/3 to 1/3 is better. I'm tasting 3/4 to 1/4 which is also good. Honey aftertaste is still there but 2/3 to 1/3 may be the best so far.

10_3_17_ryan_and_david_thilbault_making_modern_mead_pyments

 

[Hazelemere]

10_3_17_ryan_and_david_thilbault_making_modern_mead_pyments

I just blended 2 gallons of Brehm high acid Chenin Blanc with 1 gallon of Russet Cyser (blueberry blossom honey unpasteurized) with 1/16 tsp sulphite to get ~25-28 ppm free so I can leave the blend on my winemaking bench at about 18 Celsius to let it it drop any protein that the bentonite missed on both wines before bottling e.g. Easter 2023. (~16 bottles).

Here are my comments:

colour is much better i.e. lemon yellow vs the original "golden" for the cyser.

SG is 0.998 (sugar from the honey)

smell - intense and fragrant. The Chenin Blanc has a good smell and the apple/honey improves it.

tannin and acid - if you like dry wine then tannin and acid are perfect for what looks like a truly age worthy wine (I'm guessing 5 years in a cooler is no problem)

flavour is clean and crisp like a good Loire Vouvray.

the finish is good and long. All in all a pleasant surprise for a dry wine made with high tannin/high acid russet apples.

 

[jswordy]

Slumming it tonight. Screw cap Pinot but hey its from Paso. DNS!

View attachment 97202

As you know, a screw cap is no longer the mark of inferior wine. They are gradually taking over the industry for so many practical reasons.

 

[ibglowin]

As you know, a screw cap is no longer the mark of inferior wine. They are gradually taking over the industry for so many practical reasons.

Don't have to worry about Taint that's fo-sure! LOL

 

[jswordy]

Don't have to worry about Taint that's fo-sure! LOL

Yep, and a cap doesn't go dry, no matter what position the bottle is in. You wanna drink New Zealand, it's almost all gonna come capped. Then there's screw cap Hill of Grace... not just for cheap wines anymore!
https://www.estatewinebrokers.com/h...icJhaypY80IZMeCBhD5r3DxFwaG7xaD0aAj56EALw_wcB

 

[jswordy]

Gone back to the South tonight.

View attachment 97119

(Notices an old boah from Carolina liked his post. Reckon he knows Duplin.)

 

[Hazelemere]

Brehm frozen California juice Chardonnay 2021

On its own this is what I get:

high acid

smell of buttered popcorn

I've had moderate acid "buttered popcorn" from fresh Washington Sheridan Vineyard grapes crushed and pressed which I liked better so have worked on ways to fix this which is out of whack but not unpleasant.

The Chardonnays from California that I like come from Carneros and Sonoma in a non-fire season e.g. Sangiacomo is stunning but I can't get it anymore. Chateau St. Jean from Sonoma when Dick Arrowood made it was equally good.

So I have a few carboys of this high acid buttered popcorn Chardonnay that I'm trying to fix to drop the acid and make it more of a fruit bomb.

So here is the result of today's experiments:

2/3 Chardonnay 1/3 Cyser, then 1/2 Chardonnay 1/2 Cyser (look above for the Cyser). I didn't like it. I'm fussy. The Chenin Blanc 2/3 Cyser 1/3 blows it out of the water.

Then I tried adding dextrose to the Chardonnay from SG 1.000 to SG 1.010.

This improved the sugar/acid balance but still gave me the "buttered popcorn smell"

Then I added about 1/2 gallon of Cyser and 2 bottles of Chenin Blanc plus sulphite + sorbate at about SG 0.999 to 4.5 Imperial gallons of Brehm Chardonnay..

Voila..... this is much better i.e. the smell of the Cyser and Chenin Blanc really improve the Chardonnay.

So for me winemaking after 55 years of doing it is to focus on flavours and smells i.e. forget about names. Blend anything with anything to improve anything.

PS I've never made the same wine twice because fruit flavour and smell from fresh or frozen fruit which is all I ever use, except for dried elderberries, (i.e. no kit wines) changes year to year and sometimes dramatically.

Van Gogh said he never stopped trying to learn how to improve his technique. We can all learn from Van Gogh
.
Namaste

Klaus

PS I ended up at SG 1.000 for the Chardonnay which I will retaste and likely bottle at Easter ( 29 bottles)

 

[jswordy]

And we're in Lodi! Brickmason - turkey - salad. Mmm...

 

[ibglowin]

And we're in Lodi! Brickmason - turkey - salad. Mmm...

View attachment 97240

I see your turkey is basically a BBQ sauce delivery system! LOL

 

[jswordy]

I see your turkey is basically a BBQ sauce delivery system! LOL

I guess you don't know about Country Bob's out of Centralia, Illinois. Good, more for us!

 

[Boatboy24]

A little Pinot Grigio at the Japanese steakhouse. Now settling in with two (ish) fingers of this:

 

[ceeaton]

A little Pinot Grigio at the Japanese steakhouse. Now settling in with two (ish) fingers of this:

View attachment 97248

So not being much of a drinker, two fingers is when you keep pouring and drinking until you can't identify when someone puts up two fingers, right?

 

[Boatboy24]

So not being much of a drinker, two fingers is when you keep pouring and drinking until you can't identify when someone puts up two fingers, right?

Or, when they hold up one, but you see two.