What's in your glass tonight?

[winemaker81]

not a scotch - u know that!
irish whisky

Apparently I saw "single malt" and stopped reading!!!

Either way, it's good. Funny thing is I also purchased an Irish Whiskey for his birthday, and we'll sample that tomorrow.

A few years back the sons & I decided to exchange bottles of "something interesting" at birthdays and Christmas. I like this as I'm hard to buy for, and I don't have to worry about junk hanging around. The items exchanged include Cognac, tequila, Japanese whiskey, Scotch, Irish Whiskey, different types of gin, high end vodka, etc.

 

[RevA]

Testing Oakes vs unoaked Dragons blood...

 

[winemaker81]

Note on "interesting bottles": we agreed on a price limit, as some (e.g., Scotch, Cognac) get to stupid $$$ levels very easily.

I wanted a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue. Locally the bottle is $240 and the 1 oz "sample" is $20 USD.

Edit: nope, didn't buy it. I've had it, it was great! But not that great ...

 

[Hazelemere]

I tasted my 2022 cyser SG 1.000 from Russet/King/Cox apple juice and unpasteurized blueberry blossom honey with overly dry otherwise decent Brehm Chenin Blanc 2021 juice. As a blend "cyser pyment" this is better IMHO than either. I'll figure exactly how much Chenin Blanc I want in the cyser (apple mead) during the Xmas holidays. I never contemplated making this but now it makes perfect sense i.e. very fragrant balanced rich table wine. I also tasted a dry homegrown Siegerrebe Madeleine Angevine 2022 which I find to be slightly flat but otherwise very tasty and fragrant. The Chenin Blanc improves this also by raising the acid which long term should also maximize the fragrance. I never contemplated making this either but again now it makes perfect sense. So the lesson here to leave wines alone so you taste them before bottling once they clear and play around with flavour combos to find nice surprises.

 

[David Violante]

Testing Oakes vs unoaked Dragons blood...

What did you think? How did they turn out?

 

[RevA]

What did you think? How did they turn out?

I kind like the Oaked a bit more it adds a bit of depth. Both are still a bit young, but tasty.

 

[jswordy]

Note on "interesting bottles": we agreed on a price limit, as some (e.g., Scotch, Cognac) get to stupid $$$ levels very easily.

I wanted a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue. Locally the bottle is $240 and the 1 oz "sample" is $20 USD.

Edit: nope, didn't buy it. I've had it, it was great! But not that great ...

Interesting bottles?

I guarantee this will be unique. Get to the website, make your arrangements, and get some of this... The last batch was $50 per 750 ml bottle. But you have to be quick! He only sells limited quantities and only when the time is right. It sells out fast. Heaven.

 

[Boatboy24]

Interesting bottles?

I guarantee this will be unique. Get to the website, make your arrangements, and get some of this... The last batch was $50 per 750 ml bottle. But you have to be quick! He only sells limited quantities and only when the time is right. It sells out fast. Heaven.
View attachment 95754

Next time I'm in Huntsville...

 

[Hazelemere]

2022 Moraine (60/40 blend of deacidified homegrown Marechal Foch and Regent on SO4 rootstock on glacial moraine soil on a south facing hillside 3 degree slope 5 miles noth of Blaine, Washington. (malolactic fermentation, potassium carbonate and Acidex) and tannin reduced (via egg white) from hand destemmed grapes fermented with RC212 for 2 weeks. These grapes were unchaptalized but had too much tartaric acid some of which has settled out as potassium or calcium tartrate after being outside for 3 days with water and vodka in the airlocks so they wouldn't freeze. Most of this was used as a blender into a repaired Washington Syrah from 2020 (had a burnt rubber tire smell from low nutrient malolactic fermentation after RC 212 yeast fermentation + wild blackberry/dried elderberry table wine with a bit of black currant liqueur to make a balanced decent house red/cooking wine.

Back to the 2022 Moraine:

The acid and tannin are fine and in balance.

This is inky purple with a decent smell of, blackberries, red currants, black cherries, leather and coffee.

This has a good after taste and I will definitely make this again with or without the addition of wild blackberries and wild black cherries with dried elderberries.

The deacidification and tannin reduction i.e. 15 mL of egg white into 15 mL water plus a bit of salt with 3 day ice cold storage around freezing temperature worked perfectly.

I added nutrient to the RC212 ferment and got a good smell post malolactic.

High tartaric acid is attributed to low night temperatures during ripening in a cold drought. There was no wasp or bird damage on any of the grapes. The Regent were spaced at 4 feet and allowed to grow 12 single clusters on 4 feet of single cane. The Marechal Foch were spaced at 6 feet and allowed to grow 16 single clusters on 6 feet of single cane. Moraine on my property is basically powder rock mixed with sand and a bit of brown clay with about 6 inches of humus on top from lawn mower deciduous leaf compost from trees all over my property except for black walnut.


The grapes hadn't seen any rain for 3 months and I didn't water them.

 

[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.

 

[ibglowin]

 

[cmason1957]

This is what is in my glasses tonight. My wife and I went to a Dewers Scotch Tasting. Three finished in different casks, French, Japanese oak (it had a fancier name than that) and one in rum casks. Followed by Dewers 12, 15, and 18. The Japanese cask one and the 15 were very nice. Those six blended Scotches were followed by Aberfeldg 12 and 15 and Cragkelleyke (or something similar to that) 13 year Olds one finished in bourbon barrel, the other in Armagnac. All very tasty.

 

[Boatboy24]

Dark, boozy, tannic and maybe a little oxidized. Not what I would expect coming out of France. Probably an experiment gone wrong that was sold to Costco.

 

[cmason1957]

Dark, boozy, tannic and maybe a little oxidized. Not what I would expect coming out of France. Probably an experiment gone wrong that was sold to Costco.

View attachment 95907

I think my wife and I bought one of those. It has to have some air for a Long time, think an hour or more to tame those tannins. We discovered it by accident, had a bit left in the botlle and we thought it was all gone. Nice surprise.

 

[Boatboy24]

I think my wife and I bought one of those. It has to have some air for a Long time, think an hour or more to take those tannins. We discovered it by accident, had a bit left in the bootie and we thought it was all gone. Nice surprise.

Even an hour and it still smacks you in the face. I read a review that said they had it breathing for a day or two and it still needed a little calming down.

 

[ibglowin]

Properly named! 5 Star QPR.

 

[sour_grapes]

At a happy hour, this Vino Nobile di Montepulciano was reasonably priced AND delicious. I was worried it may not be sufficiently food-friendly, particularly since 2017 was a challenging vintage (and recent!). However, the wine was very approachable and quaffable -- and so we quaffed it!

 

[ibglowin]

Retired life is pretty good. And so is the wine!

 

[Hazelemere]

This my homegrown 2022 Carol's Muscat

Carol is my wife and the wine is a blend of Siegerrebe and Madeline Angevine

This is 60% un-chaptalized Siegerrebe (a pink muscat) at SG 1.084 in a dry cold drought and 40% Madeline Angevine (a non-muscat) at SG 1.075 chaptalized to SG 1.085 with cane sugar and fermented with Lalvin 71B yeast. The colour comes from the Siegerrebe grape skins and not from oxidation. If you live in the Pacific Northwest e.g. Puget Sound, Vancouver Island or the Fraser Valley (where I do then these are 2 grape varieties that you should grow. Madeleine Angevine dead ripe smells like nutmeg. Siegerrebe dead ripe smells like Gewurtraminer e.g. lychees.

Here are my comments on this wine:

very fragrant i.e. I'll use 71B yeast again which I used for the first time based on this site's recommendations.

acid level is perfect for a young wine and should drop as it ages as acid and alcohol react to form esters.

flavour is fine - I get lychees and nutmeg in the aftertaste.

This wine is tailor made for Chinese food containing ginger or seafood linguine containing prawns or scallops with mushrooms and garlic with onions or leek, yellow/orange/red peppers, celery or broccoli, lemon thyme, base, purple sage and oregano with roma tomatoes and parmesan, asiago, or romano cheese

I have 2 bottles that I can taste on or before Easter and I think that I will leave it alone until August 2023 at the lastest so I can adjust its sulphite level and give it time for any protein to drop that the bentonite treatment that I used missed. My gut says that if I leave it alone in my wine cooler until August 2023 I could get a really good white wine. So that is what I will do.

Finally, I have to say that this web site is a blessing and just learning about 71B yeast for whites was worth becoming a member.

 

[tullamore]

dam! - nothing
i best be getting something from the cellar - i'm dry as Dirt!