Yesterday was the 3rd annual J 2 Steakers race here in Sacramento. It went well, we ate steakers (steak tacos), and we had an actual trophy for the winner for the first time.
Chinotto and Exciting News
Here’s the quick version of my biggest winemaking triumph to date: I brought bottle of my cidrata (limoncello made from citrons) to Darrell Corti on Saturday, because he’s been giving me advice about things to make and so I’ve been bringing him things I make to get his feedback. He appreciated it and said he would …
Lemon Wine!
My neighbor has a Meyer lemon tree. They mentioned to me last fall that they don’t know what to do with the fruits and don’t particularly like the taste of them. So, back in March, I grabbed a bunch of the lemons, did some research, and made a gallon of wine out of them. I …
Help! I’m running out of ideas!
It turns out that writing a weekly article is difficult….mostly just because I have to keep coming up with new stuff–even when everyone in the world is visiting, I have a million appointments, and I’m furiously working to get the winery insulated and fully functional before the hot weather arrives (I’ll post pictures soon!). So, …
Grapefruit Wine Update!
I pulled a sample from each of the two kegs today and brought it home for testing. The wine in both was pretty clear, but one is noticeably darker than the other as a result of the miracle we performed after the last racking.
Here are the results of the tests:
Keg 1 (the darker one): pH 3.43, 50ppm free SO2
Keg 2 (the lighter one): pH 3.40, 50ppm free SO2
These numbers are good.
Both taste about the same, although the lighter colored one tastes a bit thinner…which might be good, because both still have a very abrasive grapefruit finish. The sugar we add before bottling and 4-6 months of bottle aging mellowed it out last year, and I’m sure it will be the same this time. There’s nothing “wrong” with the wine right now, and so I’m happy!
One thing I’m going to experiment with this weekend is trying to smooth out the bitterness and clarify the wine by fining it with skim milk or egg whites. Here’s a short article about how this works.
At this point, I’m thinking we’re going to bottle in April or early May
Online Gambling: Just Legalize It Already!
Check out my latest column on InternetEvolution.com and post lots of comments. Thanks!
Announcing the 2007 Comet Colombard!
Jeff, Margaret, and I bottled the 2007 French Colombard on Saturday. Sam came by and cheered us on too. This is the white that Margaret and I bought as grape juice from Delicato Winery back in the fall. We had 17 gallons, which ended up being 6.5 cases of wine (78 bottles). And, it’s really good.
It’s unfiltered, but very clear due to the cold weather we’ve been having, which causes the wine to clarify naturally. If you put it next to a white wine that’s been filtered, you’ll see that it’s hazier, but you’ll still be amazed at how pretty this wine is.
Sunday, we took a bottle down to John Carvalho at Carvalho Family Winery in Clarksburg. He was impressed with it, and said it has a nice nose, good acidity, apple and melon flavors, and that the mid-palate was surprisingly and pleasantly smooth.
Later on that evening, we took a bottle to Revolution Winery and had the winemaker there, Jason Fernandez, try it. He also had very nice things to say about it. Since this was my first non-fruit white wine, I was extremely thrilled to be getting such a glowing review.
Bad Astronauts Announce Comet Colombard!
Over at the Bad Astronauts Winery Blog, I just posted something about our latest release, Comet Colombard.