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Zeno-25 (via pork never goes bad) posted:"reserve bottles of Malbec or Carmenere" Yeah, I didn't take issue with that part; Zeno-25 knows his/her family a lot better than I do. Maybe those are perfect pairings for the food on their table. Dry rose. Also bubbles. Beaujolais is the right answer... -- The goony wine thread
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Nov 24, 2014 17:30
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An Alright Guy posted:Have you tried Two Hands wines? Same manipulated Aussie juice at a little less the price. Go for something like the Angel's Share Shiraz. Two Hands has a pretty nasty reputation for screwing over their harvest interns, including docking their 2009 crew half a week's pay because they only worked four twelve hour shifts Easter week. I know you said you hate their style so you're not going to buy their wine, but I, and a bunch of my friends, would appreciate it if you wouldn't recommend it either.
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Apr 7, 2015 17:21
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bartolimu posted:Hello Winefriends. I'm going to be traveling up the coast of California from San Diego to the Russian River area and would like some suggestions of wineries to visit. I'm partial to really interesting/unusual wines, not a fan of stereotypical California chards. In or around Santa Rosa/Healdsburg/Sebastopol: Salinia/Natural Process Alliance (I can't find a website, I hope Kevin's still up and running.) Idlewild Ryme Wind Gap Frick Preston Kieran Robinson
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Oct 25, 2015 02:27
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bartolimu posted:Hello Winefriends. I'm going to be traveling up the coast of California from San Diego to the Russian River area and would like some suggestions of wineries to visit. I'm partial to really interesting/unusual wines, not a fan of stereotypical California chards. Kalin Cellars sprung to mind for their sheer oddity (and amazing website) but I'm not familiar enough with other options to plan for much. Any suggestions? Central Coast/Sonoma area stuff encouraged, it's a long drive to the Bay Area and I'll need something to entertain me on the way. So are we going to get a trip report or what?
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Nov 14, 2015 00:07
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bartolimu posted:...if you're in the Sebastopol area and like cheese you should totally drive out to Joe Matos Creamery and buy a few pounds of their excellent raw milk cheeses. It's a great experience, and they're good wine cheeses... I work just North of Sebastopol, but I've never heard of that place. It's really near the carnivorous plant nursery where I bought the plants that eat all the fruit flies that get in my office. I drive by Bohemian Creamery on Occidental Road twice a day, but haven't heard good things so I've never stopped. Did you happen to taste there? I went to a natural wine tasting in San Francisco last weekend at Terroir. I'd say that most of the wineries pouring were decent, a few were quite good. Here's the website to check out a list interesting wineries. Incidentally, I may have lined up a ton or two of Abouriou for 2016 which would be a horrible choice for a grape to start a label with, but I might do it anyway.
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Nov 20, 2015 03:12
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bartolimu posted:Tried to, but they were closed. I chatted with the bartender at one of the local breweries and he said Bohemian was okay, but I should really go to Joe Matos instead. My son needed a car ride for napping so i drove out there and it is exactly as you described except there were cars everywhere, and there was a group of people cutting a small mountain of bread out of bread bags; there must have been two cords of bread in that heap. I wonder if they feed that to the ducks that lay the eggs sold in the cheese shop.
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Nov 22, 2015 01:24
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Jerome Louis posted:Any suggestions for bretty American wines? I'm a big fan of bretted beers but have not had much success finding something like that in the wine world and my impression from winemakers is that brett is the 100% the devil. Nalle Winery Zinfandel is the first wine that I think of that includes a blending component that is inoculated with brett. Their website is actually pretty funny: Nalle Website posted:ahh, the wines...
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Jan 8, 2016 17:12
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Kasumeat posted:Have you ever been at a sorting table? All sorts of poo poo gets into ferments. I've spent a lot of time fruit sorting and overseeing sorting crews. We sort a bin (~0.4 ton) of Pinot in around 8 minutes, two cluster sorters three to five berry sorters. I know that the fruit from every block of the vineyard contiguous to the winery goes to tank leaf free. I also know that blocks b1 & b2 are the only blocks under eucalyptus and are the only two blocks that every year display that Halls cough drop character. I think its eucalyptus oil building up on the skins. This year after flowering I'll try to remember to stick a plank or something more inert out there in the fruit zone to see if it picks up the same character. I bet the trellis is scratch-n-sniff euc, but you could never tell because everything on that hillside smells like that. Well typing that makes me think soil to vine transport is another possibility.
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Mar 19, 2016 06:23
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Kasumeat posted:This is more or less what I was thinking, but I disagree on oxidation being the responsibility of the buyer. Bottling using cork is a winery decision and thus any potential issues that wouldn't have happened under screwcap are on the winery. Aging a bottle under cork standing upright isn't a winemaker's fault.
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Apr 8, 2016 22:30
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PT6A posted:EDIT: Out of curiosity, are there any sparkling wines that have moved to non-cork closures? I can't recall seeing any sparking wine without a traditional cork-and-cage closure at any price point. Yes, there are lots of cheap sparkling wines bottled under screw caps, and the natural scene seems to embrace crown caps.
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Apr 10, 2016 16:50
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Kasumeat posted:Aging a bottle under cork is a winemaker's fault. Winemakers are partially at fault, but so are restaurant owners, somms, wineshop owners, clerks, "wine educators", and whoever else has failed to convince the wine buying public that screw caps are less risky than cork. I can't put our To Kalon under screw cap and watch it gather dust even if I think it is the right thing to do.
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Apr 10, 2016 16:56
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PT6A posted:How did all the winemakers Down Under convince people that screw-tops were perfectly acceptable, I wonder? ...Were their primary consumers less picky, more informed, more open-minded, less attached to tradition...? I would say exactly the opposite. Protectionist trade policy and good old Aussie pride have made it really hard for imported wine to compete in any given price point, so when the entire industry decided that because Overwined posted:...almost all of the world's organic corks come from Portugal, the Portuguese made sure that other Europeans got the best cork first, then the Americans (because they had all the cash) then finally they gave whatever garbage they had lying around to winemakers from SA, NZ, Australia, etc... they were going to switch to screwcaps the wine drinking people of Aus had no other real choice. You're going to drop $35 on a bottle you can either get Cuvee Juveniles, or a bottle of Gigondas that the rest of the world has decided is worth about $18. (Torbreck is a bad example because the top end stuff is still under cork.)
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Apr 12, 2016 03:54
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Jerome Louis posted:Disagree completely. Most people want to buy a $10 bottle of wine and have it be consistent. This absurd romanticism is unrealistic and out of touch. Most $10 bottles aren't under real cork.
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Apr 12, 2016 05:34
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How do you guys feel about bag in box, tetrapak, keg, or other non-bottle packaging? I mean in any circumstance; are you good with kegged wine at a restuarant, bag in box at home, or do you prefer bottles only?
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Apr 14, 2016 14:41
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I quit my Assistant Winemaker job at a high end winery making Russian River Pinot & Chard and Napa Cab and am starting next week as Winemaker for a little producer of Zin, and Rhone varietals just south of Healdsburg. I'm going from managing a crew and crushing ~475 tons to being the crew and crushing ~90 tons. I'm so loving glad to be done making cougar juice Chardonnay.
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Jun 6, 2016 20:01
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Overwined posted:Speaking of RRV, what the hell happened there?... Wine Spectator in 2009 posted:New Owners for California Pinot Noir Star Kosta Browne then... Wine Spectator in 2015 posted:...None of the parties involved in the new deal would talk numbers, but industry sources said the price tag is substantially more than what Vincraft paid five years ago. Scrape together some cash, make some Pinot, get bought out, be rich and famous. Easy as that.
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Jun 6, 2016 20:23
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Murgos posted:So I should plan on stopping by in 2-3 years so I can compare your first bottles with your predecessors? Yes, but I don't intend to make big changes. My predecessor made great wine, and I hope to carry on the style.
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Jun 7, 2016 22:35
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Who was it that worked a vintage in Hungary? I think it was an Aussie goon.
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Aug 12, 2016 05:03
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HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:While helping the family clean my recently departed aunt's home, I became the owner of an unopened bottle of cream sherry. It looks fairly old, but with it being unused, it should still be okay, right? It's from a local Michigan winery, St Julian. I'd say it should be safe to drink, whether or not it's palatable is another question, can you post a photo of the label?
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Oct 2, 2016 16:22
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HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:Perhaps it will be acceptable for cooking then. Took a tiny sip and it is definitely sweet, smooth and creamy... It's going to get nothing but worse from the minute you opened it, so either make some nog, or enjoy it over the next few days. Stitecin fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Oct 3, 2016 |
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Oct 3, 2016 04:57
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Subjunctive posted:I live alone (well, with a 9-year-old, but she doesn't drink her share), and I've been looking into half bottles as a better size for an evening. A friend told me, though, that wineries put their "worse stuff" in half-bottles, for reasons that were honestly not articulated very well. Making (and selling) .375s is a pain in the rear end. You don't bother for your high end stuff, just the big blends. Purchasing dry goods to bottle .375s (glass, cork, labels, etc.) cost pretty much the same per bottle, and sales folks have difficulty with 9l equivalents. That said, the wine that goes into .375s is coming from the same tank(s) as .750s, 1.5s, 3s, 6s, etc.. Who gives a poo poo anyway, as with all things wine, trust your palette above all else. Do you like what's coming out of the .375s? If so keep buying them, but know that buying .750s will save you money and give you a much bigger world to explore.
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Nov 8, 2016 06:18
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I put our Rosé in Flint Hock 1.5L. I made 30 @ 6packs and we are selling out quick. It's a hell of a package. Will be awesome to bring to a 4th of July party.
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Jun 20, 2017 14:52
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I have 11 tons of Syrah still out by Santa Rosa Airport. I have never made BBQ sauce before.
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Oct 10, 2017 03:07
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First time online since my last post. Grower allowed us to cancel contract on the remaining syrah. Thank the gods for crop insurance. My winery stands. I am pressing the syrah from the south facing side of the rows. (Edit: we picked it 13 days ago because it was 1.8° Brix ahead of the north facing cordon.) I now have just ~2.25 tons on skins (of 100% whole cluster carbonic syrah). I guess my harvest is over... Double edit: personal bitching redacted. Stitecin fucked around with this message at 07:11 on Oct 11, 2017 |
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Oct 11, 2017 06:57
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Back in my intern days I walked into a cellar hungover and late and expected to be told off. Insteadeveryone was standing around watching the winemaker's wife hug a tank. I quietly asked another cellar guy what the gently caress was going on and he said "reiki". I said, "I have no idea what that means, but I am going to grab a coffee and go set up the crush pad." I still don't know what reiki is, but if you hug every tank every day you're in a good position to notice things like reduction, temperature stratification, glycol settings and functionality, fermentation kinetic, and if you happen to fix the wines chakras while you're at it, then maybe the wine will taste better with its chakras fixed.
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Nov 10, 2017 10:01
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Kasumeat posted:Yep. I agree 100% with the others. Two weeks is the point at which you will often see some development, and often they will stay sound for up to two or three months depending on the wine and ulage. Definitely not forever though, I tried a bottle that was Coravined for a year and it was totally oxidised. I posted about this back in like 2013, but we trialed an early version of Coravin on some Chardonnay. We poured one glass out of 3 bottles using the Coravin and stored them with 3 "control" bottles for six months. In a blind tasting the winemaking team couldn't identify the Coravined bottles. Worth noting, these bottles had the highest grade of cork available from the supplier, were sampled with a brand new Coravin with a fresh needle and full gas cylinder, and were stored in ideal conditions.
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Nov 27, 2017 21:45
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Yeah, it was a really half assed trial. These were prerelease wines bottled only a few months before the trial at like .4 Molecular SO2. We had a better trial planned, but I think everyone lost interest. We didn't end up buying one until like a year and a half later. It was a 10 year anniversary of a 100 point score and a vertical was being presented at a thing. We didn't have enough inventory of a couple of vintages to send back up bottles, so we used the Coravin to make sure the bottles that the owner brought to New York weren't flawed. He poured them 36 hours after I tasted them, I could have probably just opened them normally and recorked them. Luckily that thing came out of Sales & Marketing's budget and not Production's. It's probably still in its box in the cabinet under the tasting room sink where I left it. Ola posted:Home solution? Finish the bottle once opened, have shitloads more stored. This is the right answer.
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Nov 28, 2017 08:26
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I have had buying a mixed case of birth year (2014) wine for my son in the back of my mind for a while, and am starting to realize that I have missed the boat. If anyone's bored and wants to suggest stuff for me to buy him please chime in. Ideally available online and deliverable to Sonoma County or within a short drive. (I already have a few magnums of the Napa Cab I made that vintage, so im thinking more about nonCalifornia.)
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Dec 22, 2017 15:50
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I don't have a real plan for what to buy, but I definitely want to get more than Sauternes and Port. How do you plan a birthday meal pairing with just those? There is of course a possibility he'll be a wine hating Luddite, but at the age of not quite 3 he knows how to do punchdowns and comes over to smell every glass I pour so it seems unlikely. I have a good frien who runs a wine shop in Canberra coming to visit in April, so obscure Aussie wine isn't a problem to get.
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Dec 23, 2017 22:30
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Trimson Grondag 3 posted:...These are all pretty safe conventional recommendations but probably harder to get outside Australia. I worked two harvests in the Barossa at Torbrek and Two Hands, I like that inky ketchupy over ripe poo poo sometimes. I have a 2003 Basket Press under my house that should be drunk soon. Good call there, maybe Rockford's sparkling shriaz for a curveball.
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Dec 24, 2017 01:25
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pantsfree posted:Twice in the past few months, I've encountered what the internet is telling me is a reduction fault - wine that smells/tastes strongly of canned corn (Dimethyl sulfide?). First in a cheapish St. Chinian red, which was absolutely vile and undrinkable, and then an Aussie (Mornington Peninsula) pinot noir, where it was noticeable and spoiled the wine but not as overwhelmingly awful. Yeah, Dimethyl Sulfide is about a bitch. You can try to fine it with a course of ascorbic acid followed by copper sulfate (sulfite?) I have never produced it, or tasted it naturally occuring in wine, but I have had samples at various concentrations prepared by Enartis Vinquiry at one of their faults seminars. It's gross. Like most things everyone's threshold is slightly different for detection, but I have never heard of it being seen as a positive.
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Feb 22, 2018 08:00
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bartolimu posted:Where does DMS come from in wine? I've never heard of it outside of beer making context, where it's widely understood to come from grain - especially under-boiled grain. Are the "bad warm-climate Chardonnay" producers chaptalizing with maltose for some crazy reason? Chapatalizing is illegal in most of the new world. When it happens it usually happens with plain white sugar, no one would ever admit to it but on the rare underripe years in Napa the grocery store shelves will be bare of sugar. The real answer is struggling yeast. Lots of things are at play; fermentation temps too high or low, osmotic pressure too high, alcohol content too high, YAN (yeast assimilatable nitrogen) too low, lack of oxygen, competition with ML bacteria, etc. can all contribute to yeast stress and different strains of yeast handle different stressors better/worse than others. The same factors contribute to regular reduction. Most of the time when I have pointed it out to friends it has been in lots that stuck and had to be restarted. The association with bad Chardonnay could be high Brix/low YAN must plus reductive winemaking to preserve the little bit of freshness plus yeast strain meant to brighten up the aromatics that aren't suited to style. Edit: I realize I just contradicted my previous post. When I said I have never tasted it naturally occurring I meant as the canned corn expression. The restart expression is more like burnt hair or home perm. Stitecin fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Feb 24, 2018 |
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Feb 24, 2018 06:17
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bartolimu posted:I'm very open to reading a source if you can find it. Organic chemistry is a strange beast, and weird things can happen. ETS Labs posted:From the linked article: Diethyl And Dimethyl Sulfide (H3C-S-CH3) I guess concentration can rise in bottle. I am going to try to make time tomorrow to look into it more. In the meantime here are more sources: Bobet, R. A., Noble, A. C., Boulton, R. B., Kinetics of the Ethanethiol and Diethyl Disulfide Interconversion in Wine-Like Solutions. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 1990, 38, 449-452. Zoecklein, B., Managing Sulfur-like Off Odors in Wine. Wine Business Monthly 2008, Feb, 106-115 A.C. Clark, E.N. Wilkes, G.R. Scollary, Chemistry of Copper in White Wine. Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research Volume 21 (3): 339-347 https://www.enartis.com/us/library/prevention-and-treatment-of-reductive-aromas_5150.htm Stitecin fucked around with this message at 07:04 on Feb 27, 2018 |
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Feb 27, 2018 06:59
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Jerome Louis posted:Anyone know anything about the UC Davis Winemaking Certificate program? I'm accepted for it and work will pay for it so I'll probably just do it but wondering if it actually helped anyone start making wine at a commercial level. I am half(ish)-way through it, though I haven't worked toward finishing it since I left a previous position 3 years ago. I would say the value of it isn't zero, but it won't make your career. Like, I started as a harvest intern. I did six vintages in three years (US, US, AUS, US sparkling, US, AUS) as an intern before taking a full time cellar gig. Then I worked three years as a cellar hand before being promoted to Assistant Winemaker. I worked four more years before taking a Winemaker job. Maybe if I'd had that certificate to go along with my Urban Planning degree I could have advanced faster, but I passed on a full-time cellar hand gig after the first trip to AUS so I guess I could have done it quicker anyway. If you are just starting a career leave it off your resumé. Then mention it to the interviewer after you've established yourself as someone who realizes you have no experience, will work hard, keep your mouth shut, and is truly interested in learning the craft. TL;DR Don't pay for it, but if it's free through work do it.
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Apr 21, 2018 05:42
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Jerome Louis posted:Fortunately I do already work in the industry for a big alc mega corp, just not in Winemaking. I'll ask to shadow some winemakers after a class or two. Ask to shadow someone wearing clothes that will dry quickly. At booze inc. the winemakers blend, write work orders, and do sales trips. That’s not what you’ll start out doing. Find a cellar master that speaks English and ask him to teach you how to sanitize fittings. Spend a bit of time doing it and if it’s still fun after half a day a career in wine production might be for you.
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Apr 22, 2018 03:12
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Professor Shark posted:My partner and I enjoyed an excellent bottle of champagne this weekend, however I noticed the cork was funny: Something, something, something, you and your partner something, something, because soaking a cork can actually add to the enjoyment. I am too distracted to come up with the  I know your post was a set up for.
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Apr 30, 2018 02:23
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It's a composite cork body with a slice or two of normal cork at the bottom right? It looks like gigantic but normal pores with maybe some mineral staining. Usually they cut the last slice out of nicer cork, but I am phone posting and can't zoom in.
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Apr 30, 2018 03:36
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Crimson posted:I'm trying to understand what you're saying. Certainly neither of those two extremes is true. It's not just the yeast, it's the interplay between the yeast and how it reacts to the structure and nutrient levels in the must. Commercial yeasts can get stressed too and produce those same compounds. Although if the commercial yeast is a more durable, stronger strain then yes, it might theoretically produce less of these compounds than a weaker ambient yeast. There is a lot at play in fermentation, you definitely couldn't just say ambient yeast gives minerality, commercial yeast doesn't. Scott Lab’s BRG claims to increase Minerality. I have never used it, but selected strains typically deliver on their claims to an extent.
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Jun 19, 2018 09:45
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Tibalt posted:A bit of an odd question - I've been homebrewing wine with my fiancee, and we're planning to (maybe) produce the wine for our wedding next year. Before I got deep into winemaking as a profession I worked in a home brewing/wine making store in Fargo. If you are using the kits that come with a little can of concentrate my advice would be to forget about making something that will impress wine snobs and think about making something the bridesmaids are going to smash way too much of. No matter how well you manage sanitation, fermentation, oaking, bottling, aging, etc. you can’t complete with even a mediocre fine wine winery. But you should still do it. Who gives a poo poo about impressing a douche bag uncle that takes himself too seriously, (we are all that uncle) your goal should to provide your party with ethanol that people will want to put in their bellies. If you like the Zinfandel with the chocolate syrup make two batches.
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Aug 1, 2018 04:59
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Trimson Grondag 3 posted:Redefine old world as meaning only from pre phylloxera grapes Old World = ungrafted. I love it. The Old World is now pretty much just the Barossa and Columbia Valleys.
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Dec 12, 2023 04:03
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