So, what's everybody made this season, and whaddya sipping?

I'm new at this but it's really fun and I've been reading everything I can get my hands on:) I've only made fruit wines by the gallon so far. I've made apple, blackberry, cherry, peach, raspberry and chamomile ( experiment). Right now I'm sipping the cherry. It's not too bad for being only about 4 months old. the other ones are scheduled to be ready in spring and summer of next year but I'm an impatient person and will sneak a bottle probably in January(apple..dying to taste it! this is the first time I used a juicer machine to get just juice from a fruit, usually I just smash the fruit up and put it in a bag and throw it in the fermenter) Is anyone out there as impatient as I am? what is the earliest you've ever tasted a wine after fermentation is complete and the wine has been bottled? Just curious :)

That is normal after you first start. After you get a few hundred bottles in the cellar you will not have to hold out to enjoy a bottle of wine while everythign else ages.

Normally though, whatever I have left at bottling that will not fill a full 750 ml bottle (I do not have any splits) goes down the hatch.

In message , snipped-for-privacy@billybooger.com writes

Hi Bill,

I've done 2 grades of blackberry, heavy, using 6lbs of fruit to the gallon, and medium using 3 - 4 lbs per gallon. As you'd expect, the version with more fruit produces a much fuller-bodied wine, which is ready to drink in 9 months. The lighter-bodied one was acid and over-tannined at 9 months, so much so I nearly threw it out, but after 2 years had mellowed extremely nicely.

Both follow the same recipe, except for the amount of fruit used; it's probably worth going for a lower initial SG for the lighter one, maybe

1085-90, to complement its lighter body. I freeze the fruit before making the wine. The recipe lies roughly half way between Jack Keller's and CJJ Berry's.

Heavy blackberry wine (2 gallons)

12 lbs blackberries 4 lbs of sugar More sugar later 14 pints boiling water Campdens, pectolase, Vit. B, Yeast nutrient

Don't bother unfreezing the berries, just dump them in the primary, pour on 6 pints of boiling water, and mash the fruit. Add 4 lbs of sugar, and the rest of the water, and stir to dissolve. Leave to cool, add 2 Campdens, and 4 level teaspoons of pectolase dissolved in lukewarm water, clamp the lid on, and leave to fester for 2 days.

After 2 days, set a Burgundy yeast starter going. Strain off the pulp and pips, or the wine will end up with way too much tannin. Add yeast nutrient and Vit. B, and add more sugar to bring the SG up to 1105. Pitch the yeast, stir, and cover.

Leave it a week or so, stirring twice daily. About day 4 it'll develop a peculiar smell a bit like H2S, and you'll begin to fret about the loss of your precious blackberries. Relax, and keep stirring; it's just the smell of blackberry wine fermenting. When the fermentation slows a bit, and SG gets down to about 1010 - 1020, rack it in to demi-johns and fit bubblers.

Leave it in a cool place - and very important - protect it from light, which will fade the lovely colour. I put mine in the gloomiest corner of the house, and wrap them in black bin bags. After a month, it will be sparkingly clear, and have dropped an unfeasible amount of nasty-looking lees. Rack again, and leave for 3 months, as dark as possible. Rack again, leave for another 6, or as long as your patience lasts, and then bottle. It will end up about 15.5%.

If you go for the lighter recipe, it will end about 13.5 - 14%.

Good luck!

cheers, robin

Thanks Joe! Email on its way to you :)

Ian

Hello, I actually enjoy reading about what everyone is up to around here. I just finished a primary ferment on some cucumber wine, and my next 2 batches will be blackberry and pumpkin. Although, I will buy some cranberries when they go on sale after Thanksgiving and then freeze them, I probably won't start that batch until the first of the year. As to what we've been tasting around here, it is a bit of a blend of wines which have aged properly - Blackberry, Pumpkin, Apple, and Apple-cherry. It has taken almost 3 years of being patient, but it is so nice to be able to walk down to my wine cellar and have more than a few choices of what to try. Enjoy. Darlene Wisconsin

Wine made this year

12 gallons Chardonnay 16 gallons Cabernet Franc 10 gallons Merlot 15 gallons Grenache / Carignan blend 16 gallons Cabernet Sauvignon / Sangiovese blend 18 gallons Chambourcin / Chancellor blend (estate grown) 44 gallons Merlot / Cabernet Franc blend (estate grown)

No wonder I am running out of space in my basement winery!!!!

Stop sipping that store bought stuff. Not all wine needs to be aged for years. Make some wine that is ready in 2 or 3 months. Most of these are whites but what the ... Try some of the kit whites or even Jack Keller's Welch's Niagara.

Ray

Looking back, it has been a slow year and I seem to have taken a different turn in my experimentation. I have so much grape wine laid down that I did not start any. Leaning more toward Meads rather than traditional wine.

5 Niagara (Wech's Concentrate) 6 Niagara/Tuppelo Honey Mead 6 Tupelo Straight Mead 8 Huajillo Straight Mead 5 Bueberry/Huajillo Melomel

Soon to start

Dueberry/Huajillo Melomel

16 gal. Marechal Foch 6 gal Seyval Blanc 11 gal Traminette 20 Gal Riesling 14 Gal Zinfandel

All from our little vineyard in NE Oregon. Would have been more if the possums and racoons stayed away.

Bill Moats Pau Hana Farm Milton-Freewater, OR

320 litres / 86 gal US Merlot (Okanagan - Osoysoos Fruit) 300 litres / 81 gal US Pinot Gris (same)

I've been sipping store bought and patiently waiting for our first vintage (last year) of Merlot conclude its quiet time in oak. Ok - the truth then - more than a few litres of last year's Merlot have found their way to the decanter.

Cheers, Darin Vancouver

In US gallons ...

5 Riesling 5 Sauvignon Blanc 5 Niagra (from Welch's frozen concentrate) 1 apple

I'll be turning some frozen rhubarb into wine soon, and I'm sipping some dry Concord from Welch's frozen concentrate.

Erroll Seattle, WA, USA