Recommendation For Next Year's Wine

How about a road trip to Virginia or Arkansas? Virginia has Chardonnay; Arkansas has Chardonel. Both make pretty darn good wines. This is the time of year to line up fruit for next year's crush.

Tom S

Hello, I make just fruit, veggie, and herb wines. Each year I try to make at least one or two different wines. One also needs to allow some of these wines to mature. So, what I thought I would like and what I do like are a bit different than 4 years ago when I started. It also depends on one's taste buds. My favorite frozen juice wines are apple cherry and apple. My favorite fruit wines are strawberry, blackberry, plum, and cranberry. My favorite veggie wine is pumpkin. I make oregano wine for just cooking with. I have high hopes for my peach wine. Darlene Wisconsin

I've had sucess with peaches; 1st batch of 50# from my own tree fermented out nice & dry- compared to a chablis w/ peach aroma & undertones. A dossage of domino sugar in the primary brought the alcohol level up to 14%+ . This year's batch, 35# fresh fruit from a "new friend's" tree (we'd moved, leaving our own tree behind, alas) and a case of frozen fruit from Restaurant Depot plus the ubiquitous domino, and a math error is pointing this years vintage towards 17% . All in all, the peach vino has been a crowd pleaser.

Does the peach wine maintain some of the peach flavor and aroma? I was a bit surprised at how little apple character remained in my apple wine. I mean it tastes like a nice light crisp german white but it would surprise many that is was apple. Do you add any sugar back into your peach wine?

Thanks, Charles

I've never heard of cranberry wine before. I'll ask the same question I asked bobdrob... do your strawberry, blackberry, plum, and/or cranberry wines maintain the character of the fruit from which they were made. My apple wine tastes nice but doesn't have much apple flavor or aromas. Also, how much residual sugar do you recommend?

Thanks, Charlie

I've never tried the Virginia Chardonnay or Arkansas Chardonel. I have tried some Virginia reds and found them to taste somewhat sulfuric. Do you know if that's true with the Chardonnays as well?

Thanks, Charlie

This isn't the first such comment I've read on country wines. One that sticks in my mind is hearing that onion makes a rather pleasant white wine, and bears no resemblance to its origin.

No, I haven't verified that personally - but I'll bet someone else here can. Frankly, I can hardly believe some of the weird stuff that people make wine from. A few even make wine from _grapes_! :^D

Tom S

I'm sure it's all a matter of how good the fruit was to begin with and how it was handled.

I first tasted Virginia Chardonnay at Dulles (airport) while I was waiting for my (delayed) flight. They were pouring several at one of the airport bars. A couple of them were indifferent, but the Naked Mountain barrel fermented Chardonnay was really nice! I bought a few bottles to take back to California with me (like we _need_ more Chardonnay in California!). :^/

My friend, Clyde Gill (who I first met online through this newsgroup), makes a really nice barrel fermented Chardonel from fruit he buys in Arkansas. To my taste, the fruit is very similar to Chardonnay. The heavy toast American oak he uses bears a passing resemblance to good French oak. All in all, it isn't either white Burgundy or California Chardonnay, but it's really nice white wine with enough oak to please me!

I didn't mean for that to sound like an advertisement for either of these wines. I'm merely pointing out a couple of good possibilities relating to the topic of this thread.

Tom S

it does... it's not like a "boones farm" exagerated or cartoonish aroma and flavor and it does catch people off guard when they're told its peach, not grape. Immediatley following is a huge gasp of recognition *of course it is!* We haven't added a 2nd dossage of sugar yet, as we like it dry.

say, charles, I'd swap a bottle... email me if interested regards, bobrob

Charlie, Sometimes the wines do and sometimes they don't...I believe it also depends on how much residual sugar you have left. Since I don't like dry wines or really dry wines (below ending SG of 1.000), I typically sweeten/stabilize before bottling, but I wouldn't say my wines are very sweet - just above 1.000-1.020. I typically add 1/4 -1/2 cup of sugar per 1 gallon of wine, but that varies depending on what the wine is like. I've found that the fruit plays a strong role in what the wine tastes like, so I am ready to adjust how much sugar I add depending on how things turn out. My cranberry smells and tastes like cranberry. My strawberry smells like the fruit, but the taste isn't quite like eating strawberries. My pumpkin wine tastes like a German Reisling wine. The blackberry and plum don't necessarily taste exactly like the fruit, but they certainly have some characteristics of the fruit. Hope this helps. Darlene

Maybe you would like to try some honey wine (mead)? Meads do not need to be sweet, and they can make lovely wines with a floral nose sometimes with hints of apricot. They also make very nice sparkling wines (using the cheating method of just adding sugar prior to bottling into champagne bottles). We opened a couple of bottles of my 2003 Mesquite Honey sparkling wine on New Year's Eve, and even the skeptical seemed impressed. Jon

That's very interesting about the pumpkin wine! I would have never thought pumpkin would make a good wine. Do you have a good recipe? I might like to try that one! Thanks again for the info.

Take Care, Charlie

I'm glad you said that. I was thinking "Boone's Farm" in the back of my head. Who knows what they put in that stuff! Sounds like you have a nice product. Would you be interested in trading a bottle of your peach for a bottle of my apple?

Oops! I should have read your previous post before sending my last response. A trade would be great! I assume your email address below is correct. If you don't receive a personal email from me tonight, please send me an email to snipped-for-privacy@charter.net but remove the numbers "6" and "3" from my email address (I hate spam).

Take Care, Charlie

I have no idea. Why don't you ask him? Clyde at Peaceful Bend Vineyards, Steelville, MO.

Tom S

Hi Darlene. Would you be interested in trading a bottle of your pumpkin wine for a bottle of my apple wine? If so, please send me your mailing address to snipped-for-privacy@charter.net. Just remove all the numbers from this email address (anti-spam measure).

Take Care, Charlie