Believe me…

OK, so lets fall back to one-hundred years or so before Edna S.V.M. to the early part of the 19th century and read a bit of verse by Irish poet Thomas Moore. This is one of his most famous poems and I am fond of the sentiment. So much so, in fact, that I read it as part of my toast to my brother and his wife at their wedding some years ago. Sadly, although the happy couple liked it a lot, my brother’s new in-laws did not. (I don’t think they had as much of a problem with the poem as

A Few Figs from Thistles…

In the early part of the 20th century, Thomas Hardy said that America had two great attractions: the skyscraper and the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay. If I had to choose a single favorite poet, well, there’s no question it’d be her. I assure you she’ll be gracing the pages of this blog multiple times this month.

For now, though, let’s start with a few easily approachable verses from her second book, A Few Figs from Thistles. The great majority of her work may

April is National Poetry Month…

National Poetry Month is a celebration of poetry first introduced in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States. It’s been held every April since 1996 and, of course, I want to do my part to expand cultural literacy wherever and whenever I can…

Over the course of the next several weeks, I intend to share with you selected works of poetry. Some will be from renowned writers and some may be lesser known. But all have appealed to me on a very visceral level and hence made it into my Notebook of Favorite Writings.

<digression> OK, it’s really a Word doc that I append to every time I come across an appealing poem, essay, or bit of prose. If you want to know who I am, what I believe, and how I think, this

Oh, for the Southern Hemisphere!

Why wait? Grapes, and apparently good ones, can be had now in the spring as well as the fall.

This past Saturday, I went over to Rob Hamilton’s house for an afternoon tasting event that quickly became an evening tasting event. Rob runs MD Crush from his home in Mt. Airy, Maryland, and has brokered some outstanding grapes for me in the past. He’s been providing Chilean grapes each spring to his customers for the past year or two and, based on the wines I tasted Saturday, made by other customers using those grapes, I had to say “Count me in!”.

The southern hemisphere grapes and juices that Rob has access to are primarily from the Curicó Valley located in the middle of Chile’s Central Valley wine country. The Curicó has a mild Mediterranean climate: relatively hot dry summers and cool humid winters — and with its microclimates it’s perfect for both red and white vinifera grapes. So what to do, what to do…

Filtration…

OK, I have to tell you…after one complete vintage, I’m pretty pleased with my new Buon Vino Mini-Jet overall. I’ve used it on a number of wines now at all three filtration levels with good results. I haven’t noticed any negative impact in the flavor and aroma profiles of my wines and it reduces racking frequency which helps alleviate some of the carboy-crunch I seem to always encounter when I’m moving wines. (Carboys are like women’s purses or closet space. The more space you have, the more stuff you keep, the more space you need. No matter how many carboys I buy, it seems I never have more than one to rack to and I always end up doing the dreaded (to me) rack/wash/rack/wash/rack/wash dance. It’s a battle that can’t be won…

Cornflakes…

Well, they look like cornflakes to me, anyway.

What you see here are flakes of potassium bitartrate that precipitated out of my wines during a few weeks in December when the temperature in my basement got down to the mid-50’s. The yellower flakes are from the free run and press fractions of my Maryland Chardonnay. The grayer flakes are from a Chardonnay “second” that I’m attempting. Though harder to see, the light colored clumps of crystals are from the free run and press fractions of my Maryland Seyval. The crystals fell out of suspension as the room got colder and formed crusts on the bottoms of the carboys. I caught what I could in a colander during clean up and let them dry out for your viewing pleasure. (For all you REALLY boring people, I’ll post the webcam capture showing them drying out very soon.

But is it Art??

Rule #1: If you CAN measure it, you probably SHOULD measure it. If you CAN take a note you probably SHOULD take a note. You’ve nothing to lose, lots to gain, and if you go back and review once in a while you’ll learn a thing or two along the way.

After (or perhaps along with) pH, in my opinion, the most important number you should know about your wine is its SO2 level. Proper SO2 levels protect wine from spoilage organisms and the effects of oxidation without imparting an unpleasant chemical odor or taste. The good news is it’s easy to monitor. The bad news is that the test is a little pricey — a 10-pack of Titrets is now pushing $15 at the Flying Barrel in Frederick MD. Buck-an-a-half a pop. And when you’ve got 6 or 8 different wines in various stages of production those tests can add up over time.

Still, too much or too little SO2 can really impact the quality of your final product so judicious use and management of sulfites is essential. As an added benefit, taking these measurements allows you to develop a feel for how the sulfite levels vary in your wines as you process them. As your intuition develops you’ll be able to get away with fewer tests.

Gumpoldskirchen

Your attention please! Your attention! Thank you… I am so pleased to be able to annouce today that my wife and I are no longer European virgins. Yes… Thank you… Thanks… Please… Thanks…

We had the good fortune this year to spend 10 days in Vienna, Austria, with lots of side trips to nearby cities, like Budapest, and to little towns and villages like Melk, Gumpoldskirchen (shown here), and Heiligenkreuz. We’ve decided that 10 days is the perfect amount of time to spend in a new country. It’s long enough to get comfortable and appreciate all the things about the place that are better than back home (can you say “mass transit”?) but not so long that you come to notice what’s lacking. Needless to say, we had a blast!

2006 Seyval Blanc

September 8th, 2006 — My Seyval Blanc hangs on the vine at J. Rose Vineyards in Damascus, Maryland, just prior to harvest.

Yes, I’m finally making the move! For better or worse, my future grape wines will be made from fruit that I choose, I harvest, I crush, I press, and I ferment.

In the past, the wines I made were either “country” wines made from local fruits such as peaches, apples, blueberries, etc., or they were grape wines made either from kits or from fresh juice purchased from Brehm Vineyards in California. Well, no more…

To date, all of my wines have turned out to be more than satisfactory (IMHO, and a high-pH cherry not withstanding) and many have won prizes. Nevertheless, I’ve always felt the need to be an apologist for my grape wines since I only controlled part of the process. It’s not so much that I’ve heard, but more that I’ve felt, the following: