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"On the move again" as someone here says!

This time a road-trip to visit my DNA in SOTX. Stopped off in Las Cruces to visit some longtime friends and get caught up on an overdue visit. This was a 2009 Saviah Cellars Reserve Syrah. I think it was their first from the Estate vineyard located in the Rocks District AVA. This was stored at 58F since I got it back in 2011 IIRC. Not even close to over the hill. Amazing juice! The cork was over the hill however! LOL We managed still. I forgot to bring my Ah-So cork puller.

Go big or go home they say!

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OK... But what I'd really like is 10 minutes of my open hand facing that geode!
 
2022 Raspberry Chambord

This is my favourite raspberry wine ever made from dead ripe, home-grown frozen organic raspberries (3 varieties) from over 40 years of making raspberry wines. Raspberries include Mettler and Lamberhurst. I have one bottle left after the glass of wine that you are looking at.

Here are comments on this wine (probably my favourite fruit wine right now:

Colour: perfect red. I would have predicted rose but this is red

Smell: kills. The Chambord really lifts the otherwise really good smell to excellent.

Acid: perfect

Tannin: perfect

Sweetness: next time I'd like to try it less sweet. Having said that this isn't too sweet by much since frozen raspberries even dead ripe are high in acid.

Flavour: absolutely first class raspberry wine. really rich and tasty. If you've never made raspberry wine from dead ripe frozen raspberries you have to try try this.

Aftertaste: great finish, really good

As a winemaking judge I'd give it a silver medal (slightly sweet) or gold medal (this is sensational)

How I amde it:

1. 6lbs frozen raspberries per 3 lbs cane sugar soaked for 2 days on top of the raspberries

2. added 1 Imperial gallon of water for each 6 lbs fruit + pectic enzyme

3. fermented once it warmed up to room temperature with Lalvin Bayanus yeast. No nutrient or sulphite added. Sprinkled Bayanus yeast on top of the must without stirring at all for 24 hours and then started gently stirring in the bayanus yeast just on the top. The next day I started stirring in the bayanus more vigoursly but only part way down the primary i.e. grow the yeast slowly into the ferment.

4. day five SG was ~1.050 i.e. starting from 1.090 i.e. about 5% alcohol and the entire must was pressed though a stainless steel bladder press to remove all seeds and pulp.

5. The pressed wine was sulphited for the first time to 500 ppm total sulphite i.e. 1/8th tsp potassium metabisulphite per Imperial gallont

6. French Chambord, 1 bottle was added to a 25 bottle carboy with dextrose to raise the seetness with sorbate to a total sulphite level of about 75 ppm i.e. 1/8 tsp potassium metabisulphite adds 10 ppm total to 5 Imperial gallons of wine.

This is so good that I will try to make 30 to 50 bottles of it this year.

I score it 9 out of 10 at current sugar level. If I can drop the sugar level without making it too acidic it could score 9.5 out of 10. I don't rave over it because I made it. I rave over it because it is actually that good.


Namaste

Klauus







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Good QPR on that wine! Not sure about the poppers though. :)

That ratio is very subjective, but I agree. Costco and Trader Joe's are the stores where I've had the best luck, speaking of QPR.
The poppers were delicious (and done in less than 15 minutes).
I press the "Easy" button a lot more often now, as I'm getting older... ;)
 
Cyser Pyment 2021-2022

Brehm Chenin Blanc juice 25 parts

Russet apple juice from a 3 month drought with no water or sugar to SG 1.090 with unpasteurized blueberry blossom honey 5 parts

Brehm California Chardonnay juice 25 parts (high acid buttered popcorn smell) 25 parts

Ambrosia apple juice from the Okanagan boxed apples ground and pressed 25 parts

The Russet juice was sky high in tannin and the Ambrosia was fragrant but flat as a board i.e. no tannin or acid.

The Chenin Blanc was very fragrant but too high in acid.

The Chardonnay was boring (i.e. no Carneros or Sonoma tropical fruit character) and high in acid.

The honey addition had a really good impact on the smell.

This blend is really good IMHO. I just bottled 15 to age and have 30 more in carboy. I'd give it 8.5/10 which is a pretty good score for an apple rich wine from unbalanced components coming into harmony via blending.
 

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This blend is really good IMHO. I just bottled 15 to age and have 30 more in carboy. I'd give it 8.5/10 which is a pretty good score for an apple rich wine from unbalanced components coming into harmony via blending.
This is an excellent lesson in blending. At first blush it sounds screwy -- Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Apple Pyment, backsweetened with apple juice.

I don't doubt it's delicious. Congrats!
 
This is an excellent lesson in blending. At first blush it sounds screwy -- Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Apple Pyment, backsweetened with apple juice.

I don't doubt it's delicious. Congrats!
thank you.

Yesterday I tasted Asian tofu asian bowl with tofu prepared like perfect roasted potatoes super soft on the inside and super crispy on the outside with mango, avocado asian spice. It absolutely killed. A mind bender at Cactus Club in Burnaby, B.C. What I am learning now is to forget about names and protocol and focus focus entirely on flavours and smells. Flavours and and smells is art. The technical part takes time to learn but gets easier over time. Once you master the technical part for me the fun is in the art i.e. just smell and taste everything in every way you can imagine until you get something that you like. If you get something you don't like, store it and then reconsider it with future wines or in a future year. We had a Washington Grenache, Malbec, Mourvedre blend that was totally out of whack as a "leftovers" blend. After 5 years in the bottle it was stunning. Absolutely first class i.e. sensational. The trick seems to be to store enough wine from different inputs anyway that you can so you taste all possible combos over time to find the gold nuggets. This for me after 55 years of doing this is the real fun of winemaking i.e. creating one of a kind events that you can't buy anywhere, ever.
 

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