Pinot Gris Info & Lipizzan Port

Brad Post:

As one of the fastest growing wine segments in the U.S., Pinot Gris is favored by many as a light, easy to drink, and uncomplicated wine.  My last tasting featured three Pinot Gris’ one from Italy, California, and a spectacular wine from Oregon (King Estates, Acrobat: Pinot Gris)!

We learn things when we taste vertically, meaning the same varietals from different regions, such as how winemaker decisions can really affect the contents in the bottle.  Same grape, different process yields wildly different wines.  I guess that’s why there is a winery on every street corner in California.  Nonetheless, there is much to be learned from these grapes beginning with the grape itself.  What do we know about Pinot Gris?

Thought to be a mutant clone of Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris/Grigo has been around since the Middle Ages making its way throughout Europe by the 14^th Century.  The name Pinot Gris is derived from two words: pinot, meaning pinecone (i.e., the shape of the cluster) and Gris, French for grey.  Unlike traditional white varietals that produce yellow to green fruit clusters and red varietals producing blue to red to black berry clusters, Pinot Gris produces light pink clusters whose juice, if pressed without skin contact, yields a clear to straw hued juice.  Extended skin contact will impart a rose color to the wine.  Generally made into light, innocuous white wines, Pinot Gris has lots of potential and depth of character.  Last week, after we finished with our three Gris’ we opened a bottle or Pinot Gris Port-styled wine from Colorado.  Here are my notes:

Graystone Vineyards, Pinot Gris, Lipizzan White Port (Cliffton, CO). (18% alc. Source: winery, Cost: $23, size: 375ml).

This past fall our wine tasting friends, Kurt and Lu, visited their son in Colorado and together experienced several wineries in the Grand Junction area. This particular winery features only dessert styled wines: a white port (Pinot Gris, called Lipizzan White Port), Port II and Port III.  The attractive bottle, features a Lipizzan horse on the label and a “double hand-waxed dip” top.  I began by trying to remove the stubbornly affixed “double hand-waxed” cap and ultimately was successful after a prolonged knife battle.  (Note to winery: this is a pretty addition but is potentially dangerous – I’d consider an alternative closure).  On to the notes:

First, I must confess I love the idea of a winery specializing on one product line, in this case crafting dessert wines.  I began my tasting in a good mood (remember we just finished tasting three traditionally styled Pinot Gris wines) and was greeted to a pleasantly tinted orange-red-tawny, but not quite crystal clear, white port. Hefty wafts of chocolate, hazelnut and caramel characterize the aromatics of this interesting port-styled wine.  My palate was awakened to HUGE chocolate-covered cherries, hints of caramel, and a little zing of orangey goodness.  Tasty.  Nice.  Makes me want to take a road trip to the Grand Valley of western Colorado.

Pinot Gris - Tasting Notes

Brad Post:

Pinot Gris/Grigio Tasting Notes:  If this is wine boot camp then last week must have been “hell-week” where our drill sergeant, Paul, pushed us to our sensory limits.  The last thing I remember, with my face in the mud, was his comment about me holding my wine glass incorrectly, he said something like “grasp by the stem not the bowl, maggot!”…everything after that was a blur.  Doing an about-face, this week we turn our taste buds to the innocuous Pinot Gris/Grigio.  Here are my notes, in the order we tasted:

1.  Torresella (2008) Pinot Grigio, Veneto – Italy.  (12% alc., Source: Hy-Vee, Cost: $12)

The first wine was a simple and easily slurpable white wine without much depth or personality. Light aromas of peach, strawberry and kiwi were barely noticeable in the pale light straw colored wine. In the mouth this summertime white was easy, if not a little boring, and exhibited a round, rich and tart (lemony zing) sensations.  A quickly fading wine leaving behind a slight sense of astringency mid-palate. Easy to drink. Not very memorable.

2. Francis Ford Coppola (2007) Presents - Bianco: Pinot Grigio (CA). (13.4% alc. Source: ? Cost: $11)

Subtle straw hues and flavors reminiscent of honeydew melon are the hallmark of this innocent white wine. Indistinguishably modest flavors from the citrus family were underwhelming with maybe a suggestion of light spice on the finish.  Quaffable. Warm to Hot and some bitterness in the finish. 

3.King Estate (2008) Acrobat Pinot Gris (OR). (12.5%. Source? Cost: $12).

Incredibly light straw to almost clear this Oregon Pinot Gris surprised my taste buds. Expecting another mass-produced, factory-made, and board-room conceived Pinot Gris, I was astounded by the aromatic and flavor profile of this seductively delicious Gris.  A blast of tropical fruit pleasantly captured my olfactory attention. Pleasing layers of apple, pear, and lemon zest accompanied by just a tease of residual sugar. Jam-packed with glorious, mouth-filling Pinot Gris that lasts and lasts.  Amazing!  Extraordinarily Yummy!  A bottle to fight over!

Post Tasting Comment:  Pinot Gris is the second fastest growing segment in the white wine production world totaling more than $709 million in the past 52 weeks (according to Wine Business Monthly and Nielson – 2/2010). With almost more than twice the number of dollar sales than White Zinfandel, Pinot Gris is expanding at a rate of more than 4% per year (contrast that to Chardonnay with sales of $1.95 Billion and increases of 2.7%).  A neutral wine, mostly, and continues to build as a crowd-pleaser.  All the wines in this tasting were fine.  The Torresella and Francis Ford Coppola were both good wines and it is easy to understand why large numbers of consumers would enjoy this wine style.  Thankfully, there are variations on a theme and the King Estate – Acrobat: Pinot Gris was an extraordinary and sensational example of how this wine should be made. The winemaker notes for the Acrobat indicates cold fermentation and sur lee treatment.  All I can say is…I want more!

Testing & Tasting

Brad Post:

After reading my brothers posting yesterday about “writing on wine” I began to think more about the influences on my own writing.  As a relative newcomer to wine critique, mostly a response to my introduction to wine course, my experiences and insights are tainted from an academic perspective.  Understanding experiences of visitors was my gig for awhile, using a pragmatic approach, meaning it could be purely experimental quantitative or headlong into qualitative methods such as naturalistic observation. In any case my approach to wine appreciation or wine making is muddied from my screwy philosophical position: post-positivism / pre-constructivism.  It’s my own version of a philosophy of science that gives me lots of latitude in understanding things.  These days the experience I am striving to understand is Wine Appreciation and Wine Making.

Wine appreciation is totally different compared to wine making.  You see, as I am making wine a different part of my brain is activated, the part that gets off on science.  When making wine, I am critically looking at the various grape parameters; first I visually inspect the new grapes to make sure they look sound, then I take a good sniff to make sure they smell right (i.e., they don’t have an unpleasant, vinegary odor), and then a more quantitative process begins.  This quantitative process can be as simple as taking a refractor reading, a measurement of how much sugar the grape must possesses, and tests for pH, acidity, and calculations for additions (e.g., yeast, enzymes, tannins, etc.).  Not that wine making is formulaic but there tends to be a lot of science in the cellar these days.

Complementary to my wine making is wine appreciation, the artist side of my brain, where I am encouraged to release my inner-prose. The simple act of attempting to gain a deeper understanding of a wine by first viewing, then smelling, and finally tasting is more difficult than I initially anticipated.  When going through my tasting ritual, instead of identifying specific aromas like grapefruit or honey, I may have a recollection of a time long ago, a faint dusty, earthy quality of a memory and then romantically inspired words to spew forth.  A very different experience from wine making, one might even say there is a qualitative difference between the two.  I enjoy both immensely.

There is harmony between the craft of wine making and the appreciation of wine. Last Thursday I set-up my wine laboratory at the winery and spent the day conducting our regular, periodic wine tests.  My bench, a portable lab table, provided ample space within the cellar to construct a series of wine tests. Every so often wine makers need to assess pH, acidity, and sulfur-dioxide (SO2, aka: sulfites) in the aging wine and adjust, as necessary, to keep the wine happy and protected from micro-critters and oxygen.  In front of me (from left to right) is an array of scientific devices; first is a Titratable Acidity (TA) assembly where, just like in high school chemistry lab, we titrate to determine the acidity in the wine. Crowded next to that is my desktop pH meter where, after calibration, I take pH readings of the wine. And to my far right is a Free SO2 Assembly, another elaborate set-up that might look illicit to someone who hasn’t been in a lab for awhile. (Photo: from my home wine lab).

Lab days tend to be hurry-up-and-wait days.  It goes something like this: take samples from the various fermentation tanks, test for pH, run an acidity test and calculate TA, and then conduct a Free SO2 test (add additional SO2 if required).  Each test takes a different amount of time and precision: pH, quick and easy; TA, about 2 minutes unless I screw up the titration (then I have to re-do it); and finally the Free SO2 test which takes at least 10 minutes to run and a bit more for the math calculations.  All told, it takes a better part of a day to run a series of laboratory tests for only our white wines (I didn’t finish them all either).

I taste, I test, and I try to remember.  Testing is a meditative effort, repeated tasks, calculations and formulas; Tasting is also a contemplative process, smelling, tasting, and feeling.  Each aspect, whether tasting for learning or appreciation, or tasting to assess a fermenting wine, is a complementary process – one without the other and something would be amiss.  There are a lot of things I don’t know about wine – but one thing is certain, I will continue to strive to understand wine from both a scientific point of view and from an artistic/philosophical perspective.

Crimson Label Tempranillo

Brad Post:

As you may have gathered I am taking a wine appreciation class, called VIN 150 (Introduction to Wine), where the goal is to further our understanding of wine regions, varietal differences, and ultimately to be to gain the ability to speak the language of wine. Interestingly enough, we do this mostly via blended-format (meaning, 80% online discussions, research topic blogging, and 20% end-of-semester residential/tasting school).

So after this last assignment, what I am calling "the horrific Sherry experiment", in an attempt to enjoy the remainder of our evening with our wine tasting friends, we opened a bottle of Francis Ford Coppola Diamond Collection Tempranillo (2007).

Tasting Notes:  An enticing richly hued, deep ruby red wine gave way to initial bright cherry overtones followed by an freshly plowed earthy quality. Evenly balanced. An interesting interplay between dark fruit, hints of vanilla, and appealing astringency led to a suggestion of smoke and a beautifully, and moderately long finish.  

The Coppola 2007 Tempranillo was an amazingly good wine and deserves another tasting soon!

~Brad 

Tasting Notes: Sherry

Brad Post:

Sherry Tasting Notes: Each week I make an effort to keep an open mind to the varietals I am about to taste. This week I struggled to get past all of the Sherry horror stories told to me throughout my adult life. Surely this richly hued wine couldn’t be all that bad…

1. Sherry, Fairbanks (CA). Source: Fareway, Cost: $4.99

The familiar green label of Fairbanks Sherry bottle had dust on the shoulders of its clear-green bottle, an indication of the lack of attention given to the bottom of the bottom-shelf fortified spirits. Warm amber hued, with some degree of rim variation, this wine possessed a noticeably high amount of alcohol as evinced by long, silky legs coating the glass interior. Potently aromatic with hefty amounts of honey and butterscotch up front, while suggestions of anise and hazelnut lingered. The somewhat initial pleasantries were quickly dissipated upon first sip! Immediately I was taken aback by a very harsh and bitter, an almost antiseptic quality initially, followed by a lingering burning sensation throughout my mouth. Unpleasant. Bitter qualities gave way to a slight grassiness post-swallow. My face contorted as a result of the strong, bitter and ghastly nature of this awful product.

2. Sherry, Lustau Solera Reserva, Dry-Oloroso, "Don Nuño". Source: Johns Grocery (I.C.), Cost: $16.99.

Gorgeously tinted to a dark root beer and trending to light amber along the rim. Despite Sherry #1 (above), I was hopeful this Sherry, made in Spain following the Solera tradition, would yield something remarkable. If the first Sherry was a powerhouse of aromas, this Sherry was the antithesis, subtle scents of butter rum, nuts, and anise. Nice. Don Nuño clobbered me, metaphorically, in my taste buds: blasts of cherry, orange, quickly led to a nutty combo of mouth-puckering bitterness followed shortly thereafter by a high-octane explosion of lingering heat. My dry Sherry was remarkable – remarkably terrible.

After we rinsed our palate with crackers and water we opened a bottle of Coppola Tempranillo (2007)...but that's another story!


Happy Tastings,
Brad

Tasting Notes: Riesling

Brad Post:

This week four of us, two friends of ours, my wife and I, sat down around my dining room table to taste and evaluate the characteristics of four Riesling wines. The origins of these wines were: 1) Ohio, 2) Germany, 3) Australia, and 4) Washington. For this assignment, I guided our tasting following the advice given in Kevin Zraly’s book (Windows on the World: Complete Wine Course) and used the “60 Second Wine Expert” approach (p. 14). I intentionally chose wines that represented different geographic regions and flavor profiles. Each vertical tasting is conducted in the blind.

The Wines:

1. 2008 Riesling Reserve, Grand River Valley (Ohio), Debonné Vineyards. (Source: winery, price: $10.99)
This Riesling, our first, was a light, yellow-green wine that greeted us with a possible fault: a slight effervescence (bubbles attached to the inside of our glasses). First sniffs gave way to pleasant fruitiness, apples and apricot were predominant with a hint of tropical aroma. (Later we learned it was cold-fermented). Upon first taste we were welcomed to silky smooth, stereotypically sweet, medium bodied Riesling; and a slight spritzy quality, which I believe to be a fault since it was not bottled to handle the increased pressure (unintentional sparkler). Despite the light bubbly quality, the wine was enjoyable with a nice acid/sugar balance and a pleasant lingering aftertaste. Two small complaints: 1) the bubbles and 2) a little residual heat in the back of my throat post-swallow.

2. 2007 Riesling (dry), Way Kühl, Mosel (Germany). (Source: First Avenue Wine House, Cedar Rapids; price: $12.99)
Our second wine was a light yellow to straw hued and very clear Riesling from Germany. They say you can only make one good first impression. Unfortunately this wine was anything but “way kuhl” as was made brutally evident when we were greeted by the smell of rubber, burnt rubber to be exact. I may have been able to discern a hint of butterscotch, but I suspect neither that, nor the burnt rubber (sulfur compounds) were an intended goal of this winemaker. One of the notes I wrote to myself describes it as leaving a “residual, clingy nastiness in my mouth”. No fruity character at all.

3. 2009 Riesling, Yellow Tail (Australia). (Source: Target, price: $5.49)
Number three in our lineup was the ubiquitous and often ridiculed Yellow Tail. The saturated yellow color of this Riesling separated itself from the other three wines at first glance. Aromatically, the brand-new 2009 Riesling from Australia, failed to evoke much in the way of anticipated Riesling characteristics (i.e., apricot) but did provide a slight fruity quality reminiscent of pineapple. The bouquet from the bottle suggests a hint of a sulfur compound, but only slightly, and not to the absolute detriment of the wine. Perhaps calling this wine vinous would be an apt descriptor. A few characterizations from my notes: “lifeless, dry, boring, uninteresting, snoozer…not as bad as #2 and lingers, but not in a good way in my mouth”.

4. 2008 Riesling, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Columbia Valley (Washington). (Source: Target, price: $10.99).
I used to live in Seattle in 2001 and I even visited this winery in Woodinville – and quickly left overwhelmed by its grand scale. Beautiful place, but HUGE! Back then, I was just getting into wine and flailing around a wine shop was about as much as I could do at the time. Had I to do it all over again, I would be a frequent visitor and an enthusiastic advocate for Washington wines. So, by now you shouldn’t be surprised by my evaluation: Visually it is a lovely yellow, straw hued wine. The glass opened up with gorgeous hints of apricot (yes, apricot, lots and lots of apricot) as well as gentle undertones of tropical aromas. It only got better! Not that it took two tastes, but after I re-tasted this wine for the second go-round, I was blown away by the tantalizing fruitiness, everything I had been hoping for in a Riesling, the aromas and flavor profile reminded me of hiking in the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon! That’s never happened to me before. Here are some of my notes: “very nice acid/sugar balance, round, fuller, epitome of a Riesling…begins lightly sweet and lingers on and on in a very good way”.

Post Tasting Notes: What an interesting tasting! I was let down by my choice in German Riesling and surprised by the Ohio wine (only slightly bummed there was a slight fault there) and stunned and pleasantly surprised by the Washington Wine (Chateau Ste. Michelle) – great taste and fabulous value! One thing that I didn’t mention but something I heard/read about was training my palate (my research topic, by the way) is that one should try to smell as many aromas as possible. For this exercise, knowing that apricot is a common aroma, I pulled out a package of “Sun Maid: Mediterranean Apricots” I had in the cupboard. I went from package to glass (sniff-sniff) and sure enough, WOW…apricot is there!

Tasting Notes: Marechal Foch

Brad Posts:

My affinity for Marechal Foch, a French-American hybrid red wine grape (a cold-hardy varietal), is well established.  As the Rodney Dangerfield of the Midwest wine grape community – it doesn’t get much respect!  That’s unfortunate because if you were to investigate Marechal Foch, commonly referred to as “Foch”, you would soon recognize its real potential.  Foch is made into world-class wines in Ontario’s VQA region and most notably in Oregon where it is grown next to its relative, Pinot Noir.

Even my wine club, the Eastern Iowa Wine Club, has a soft spot in its heart for Foch.  Each year, during our annual amateur wine competition (Eastern Iowa Amateur Wine Competition), we honor the Marechal Foch with a special category and award known as the “Fochy”.  A true honor to win this inspiring trophy!

Recently I have taken to learning more about wine appreciation by enrolling in a class at Des Moines Community College.  In my VIN 150 class, I am learning about the wine industry, wine appreciation, and sensory analysis of the traditional wine grapes – vitis vinifera.  It is too frigid for vinifera in Iowa so we grow cold-hardy grapes, such as Foch.  Intrigued by my new education, I sought to learn more about the varietal tasting characteristics of Marechal Foch.  In my firsthand experience as a vintner and occasional drinker of Foch I’ve developed my own way of understanding this grape – and use the term “Fochy” to describe it.  Not being terribly satisfied with my ability to describe Foch in a thoughtful, wine-guy sort of way I thought I’d spend some time reading and compiling a list of common tasting notes.

Here goes!

Color: Deep color, deep purple, dark ruby

Aromatics:

Fruity:

Berry: Blackberry, Raspberry, Strawberry

Tree Fruit: Cherry (spicy black cherry)

Fruit: Prune (black plums), figs – dark fruits*

Herbaceous/Vegetative*:

            Fresh: Bell Pepper

Spicy: Black pepper

Earthy: Forest floor, earthiness*,

Woody:

            Burned: smoky*, charred buckwheat, coffee, chocolate

Gamy aromatics*

Floral: Rose

Palate:

Fruity:

Berry: Dark berries, raspberry, loganberry

Tree Fruit: Cherry (spicy),

Fruit: Dark fruit, plum

Herbaceous/Vegetative:

            Fresh: celery-like, ripe beet

Earthy: Forest floor, earthiness

Saddle leather

Reminiscent of: Syrah, Pinot Noir, Gamay, Grenache Noir, Mourvedre

Common Marechal Foch Adjectives: unique, distinctive, rugged, hybrid, gamy, herbaceous.

FINAL THOUGHTS: With Foch it seems you either love it or hate it.  I cannot help but be inspired by the winemakers of Ontario and Oregon who continue to work with this challenging grape.  The wine industry in Iowa is young and the first plants we planted were Foch and frequently the first grapes to be pulled out were also Foch.  There is much to be learned by this wine grape, first of which is Patience – patience in learning its peculiarities, patience in learning how to craft delicious, albeit, unique and distinctive wine.  And secondly, patience from our vineyard, in understanding and enhancing its growth potential.  Finally, there needs to be an appreciation from wine consumers, a daring, a spirit of adventure to try something that is “earthy, gamy, spicy, and smoky” – that sounds like a real treat to me!

Learn more about Foch at: http://viticulture.hort.iastate.edu/cultivars/Marechal%20Foch.pdf.

Wine School

Brad Post:

During the past year I have chronicled my experiences in wine making, first as an amateur and now as a assistant winemaker at a local winery. From my experience in the cellar I have learned a good deal about the process, and in particular how to identify wine faults or problems that we (winemakers) can strive to correct. I feel relatively confident in my ability to detect a fair range of wine faults and to distinguish amongst the wide array of Midwestern grown wine grapes - helpful as a wine judge.

My perpetual problem, in life and education, is the more I learn the less I feel I really know about the subject. So I immerse myself in a subject (part of my obsessive/compulsive self, I guess) to feel more confident in my abilities. This too for wine. I lack the necessary vernacular when it comes to describing wines. Surely I can identify a Zinfandel from a Cabernet but I'll have a more difficult time detecting the lychee (what the hell is lychee anyway) or the asparagus in my glass of wine.

In my typical response to a life-challenge, I hit the books, or should I say: hit the books and the wine! As part of my enology certificate program at DMACC, I have enrolled in VIN 150 - Introduction to wine: "This course presents introductory information on wine appreciation, focusing on sensory analysis, production, classification, and culture of wine."

Throughout the course of the semester my class and I (via blended format: meaning, we'll do 90% of the course via online, recorded lecture followed by a two-day tasting workshop) will learn about the world of wine and get serious about appreciation and sensory analysis. Follow along as I stumble through the course and offer your insights and suggestions to help my wine education improve.

Paul, the course instructor, asked us to find 3 bottles of Chardonnay and to just taste the wine. Try to describe the color, aroma, and tastes. He gave these basic instructions intentionally in an attempt to challenge us. Later he'll provide specific guidance to help us along.

Here are my first tastings notes on Chardonnay

After reading another students comments about blind tasting, I thought I'd follow suit and try my Chardonnay tasting semi-blind (i.e., I bought the wines but someone else poured them blind for me).
 

Prior to this tasting, I must admit, I hadn't tasted a Chardonnay for several years. My past experience with this varietal was as an over-oaked and buttery snoozefest. Every Chardonnay I'd drank tasted the same and I eventually stopped drinking it. Bonus for me that I took this class and was greeted with a variety of yumminess.

1) Louis Jadot Pouilly-Fuisse 2007 (white Burgundy) - 14.99 Hy-Vee.

1a) Color: gold-green, maybe a light straw color. All three wines were very similar in color/hue.
1b) Aroma: bright and lively fruity aroma, maybe green-apple or peach.
1c) Taste: Initial sensations were very fruity, thin, tart on the tip of my tongue.1d) After-Taste: Slight lingering finish, nice, some burning in the back of my throat, a zing at the end.

*Dramatically different from another students bad experience (she detected sulfur compounds).

2) Tisdale Chardonnay, NV (California) - $3.99 (Fareway).
2a. Gold-green, a smidge darker than the others (richer color) - might be slightly oxidized.
2b. Aroma: completely different than #1 (above). Notes of butterscotch and vanilla. Lacks fruity characteristics of #1.
2c. Taste: smooth, round.
2d. After-Taste: no lingering aftertaste. Flat and lifeless.

Thoughts: for the money ($3.99) it really was alright.

3. McWilliams Chardonnay (2008) - Hanwood Estates - South Eastern Australia: $7.99 at Fareway. (Oaked).
3a. Color: gold-green, light straw
3b. Aroma: green apple, fruity - similar to #1
3c. Taste: good acidity in mid palate; fruity and something else
3d. After-Taste: nice long finish...looooonnnng.

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Post Tasting Notes: All three wines were okay. Number 2 wine (Tisdale) was my least favorite; and the Pouilly Fuisse and McWilliams were both very nice. I think my very favorite was the McWilliams. With only a light touch of oakiness, I was surprised to find such fruit in this wine. Chardonnay is back on my list of wines to drink.

Typical Bottling Day

Brad Post:

Industrial wineries can afford the luxury of state-of-the art bottling machines; glistening stainless steel assembly lines that automate the entire process from fill to cork to label.  In scaled down versions cellar workers have to unload the new, clean bottles which are then fed, one by one, through a circuitous bottling path ultimately returned to the boxes from whence they came. And then there are the rest of us, smaller wineries who fill bottles using the traditional method.  Traditional method - that's a nice way of saying by hand, using lots of help.

A Glimpse of a Typical Bottling Day

Just yesterday, in an attempt to replenish our stock of a customer favorite, we bottled 300 gallons of a white wine which yielded about 1,500 bottles - or a pallet (4'x4'x8' high) full of cases and then some.  Here is an account of our bottling morning:

8:30am - Arrive at winery.   Get instructions from winemaker.

8:35am - Clean and sterilize bottling line.  Our bottling line is comprised of a bottle filter unit, a stainless steel cylinder housing unit that contains three membrane filters designed to remove anything larger than .45 microns (i.e., bacteria and other nasties).  The entire pre-bottling line (filter) and bottle filling assembly must be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized.  The bottle filling machine is a six-spout filler with a 34 gallon reservoir that allows the filler "me" to nearly continually fill and replace six bottles in quick succession.

While this is happening others are bringing in the pallet of bottles, setting up the semi-automatic corker, a device that vacuums the headspace (i.e., the distance from the top of the wine to the cork) and inserts a closure/cork.  The foil heater, a stainless steel unit designed so a bottle with a heat-shrink foil can be inserted, is plugged in and warmed up.  And the last piece of equipment, the semi-automatic labeling machine, is set-up with the appropriate label to be affixed on each of the 1,500 bottles of wine.

9:30am - Getting Ready to Bottle.   By now everything is cleaned and sanitized.  One more task must be accomplished before we can begin to bottle.  Next, I take a clean and sterile hose and connect it to the tank full of wine (the origin tank) and connect the other end of the hose to a diaphragm pump to gently move the wine from the tank through the membrane filter into the bottle filling reservoir.

9:35am - Bottling Time!  Let me see if I can paint a word picture of how this looks:  there are four of us, all facing the same direction and each working a different piece of equipment.  I am working the first of the series of equipment (from left to right), the bottle filling machine.  Directly behind me is a portable table filled with boxes of empty bottles waiting to be filled.  In front of me is my 6-spout bottle filling machine.  I insert each bottle into its respective spout and they fill, nearly simultaneously, and once filled I remove it and quickly replace it with a clean, empty bottle and pass the filled bottle to the cork machine operator.

The corking machine operator receives the full bottle of wine and promptly places the bottle into the machine, triggering the corker to insert a cork into the bottle.  This takes about 1/2 of a second.  The bottle is handed to the next station.

Another person is responsible for applying the decorative foil capsule onto the bottles.  The corked bottle receives the foil top and is inserted into the heating machine.  In about 1 second the previously over sized capsule is heated which nearly immediately shrinks the foil tightly to the bottle.

Next, the bottle is placed on the labeling machine and rotates as the labels become affixed. The labeled bottled are then placed into the awaiting boxes and when filled are loaded on the pallet.

12pm - Wine is Bottled!  This was a relatively fast bottling day (only 300 gallons) and four people who had the opportunity to rotate jobs.  After a quick lunch I went back to tear down and clean the bottling line.

12:30pm - Cleaning and Putting Away.  Another round of cleaning and sanitizing is necessary before putting the bottling line away.  As I've mentioned before, working in a winery is probably as much, if not more, about cleaning and sterilizing as it is about wine making. I may exaggerate a bit...but there is a ton of cleaning.

By 1:00pm the bottling line is cleaned and I am off on another cleaning job.  There is always something to clean in a winery, or wine to move, and then more to clean after that.

The "traditional" method of bottling wine is labor intensive but much more interesting.  During our bottling run I had a chance to hear stories about the winery owners historical ties to the land (his great, great grandfather grew up here) and how to deal with prolapsed uterus of a birthing cow.  Well, that story will have to wait until another time.
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Brad Johnson is a contributing writer for Make Mine Wine Magazine, an artisan winemaker, researcher, teacher, and proud member of the Eastern Iowa Wine Club. He Tweets as "Iowine"

Lost at Sea

Brad Post:

I’m no slouch when it comes to wine. Well, perhaps I do possess certain slouch-like characteristics such as yesterday when I visited a local wine store. With some time to kill before I had to pick up my wife from work, I decided to gather some supplies at the grocery store and to poke my head into the wine department.

What began as a “poke” became an extended browse as I inched my way from Argentina to New Zeeland, around the corner to Cabernet Sauvignon and by-passing Chardonnay land, with a brief stop by Iowa wines to say hi, and slowly crept past my old friends: Zinfandel and Petit Syrah, and finally ending in a colorful foil enshrined and encapsulated sparkler section – a magical place.

The dizzying selection of wines captured my attention as my eyes darted from cute to sophisticated labels, checking out prices, and scanning for the occasional wine review and numerical evaluation assigned by some faraway wine snob. Without much else to go by the 91 (out of 100, I assume) seemed like a fair bet. Only once, while standing there in my slouch-like trance, did a wine store employee stop by to ask if I had a question. I must have mumbled something like, “well, I am just looking at the pretty labels” or words to that effect, and she promptly did an about-face, never to return. I was abandoned!

I was lost in a sea of choices! Just like the damn ice cream stores with their 83 varieties – what evil monster is behind this vast kaleidoscope of oenophile opportunities? For a second I looked over both shoulders to see if there was a curtain from which some master-mind orchestrated this wicked play. But alas, it was just me and the wine, and then looking down at my watch I realized I had overstayed my brief visit and it was time to go.

There are worse things than leaving a wine store empty handed. Right?

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Brad Johnson is a contributing writer for Make Mine Wine Magazine, an artisan winemaker, and proud member of the Eastern Iowa Wine Club. He Tweets as "Iowine".

Best of the Best

Brad Post:

On Saturday morning, with my back cooking from the unusually warm November sunshine, I sat in a nondescript room in a conference hall with nine others waiting for the first pour. In front of me rest ten small empty wine glasses in an convex arc laid upside down upon white linen; one at a time during the next several hours (with replacements at the ready) wine was poured, slurped, sipped, tasted, evaluated and scored.

We slogged through the fruit wines, one at a time, and some were very good. Others were not so good. With each evaluation, I carefully tasted and made comments to the winemaker in hopes of providing a fair assessment of their wine – hopefully something one could use to improve a bit (at least that was my intent).

The group sitting opposite of ours was responsible for judging the wine (grape wine) and mead, while ours critically scored three dozen fruit (or country) wines. Tastings began with light and dry and eventually ascended or descended into a syrupy mêlée of 10% residual sugary wines.

For some wine judges inexperienced in judging fruit wines this can be a turn-off, chore or simply beneath them. In fact, I noticed at least two judges scurry away from my table once learning it was the fruit wine table. Of course who could blame them with the reputation of fruit wine as an overly sweetened nasty concoction crafted from grandma’s dandelions, elderberries, and God-knows what else? What are Elderberries, anyhow?

Common problems: 1) Sediment in bottle, haze or cloudy plumes in bottle, 2) evidence of oxygen ingress (e.g., browning and orange-hued wines; acetaldehyde (sherry aroma); and way too much headspace between cork and wine) – probably the single most problematic issue and one so easy to remedy, 3) lack of fruit flavors.

Ultimately our group faced-off against the wine group to pick the best of the best. Theirs was a California wine-kit red wine, and mead, and ours an Elderberry wine. We tasted their wines and they tasted ours and we were all convinced “our” picks were best!

And in that warm, sunny room, on an unusually warm November day, we decided that we had already picked the best of the best – And the truth is that one cannot compare an Elderberry wine to a bold California wine, not to mention the Mead!

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Brad Johnson is a contributing writer for Make Mine Wine Magazine, an artisan winemaker, and proud member of the Eastern Iowa Wine Club. He Tweets as "Iowine".

Lots of Cleaning!

Brad Post:

Behind the tasting room door is another world most visitors never see – the wine cellar. There is a flurry of activity in a wine cellar and most of it is preceded and followed by cleaning. Lots of cleaning! Here is a quick example from just the other day:

For the past several weeks, in a 1,000 gallon stainless steel tank, our last batch of wine (fresh Merlot grapes transported via refrigerated semi-truck from California) has been slowly fermenting. Yesterday morning I performed a pump over operation on this wine.

Pumping over is a process where the ferment (juice/wine and grape skins) are suctioned from the bottom of the tank through a hose connected to a pump and sprayed “over” the top of the must (the floating grape skins on the surface) – while perched precariously atop an 8 foot ladder. This important process, something most winery visitors don’t see frequently, is needed to extract all the wine goodness (e.g., color, flavor, tannins, etc.) and helps prevent bad bacteria from taking over.

For cellar rats, a term of endearment for those who work in the cellar, this is a thrice daily (at least) activity during the early stages of fermentation and a task many would call “work”. To me at least, performing a pump over or doing the traditional punch down (same function as the pump over but requires the use of a hand tool where one plunges the must below the surface) is almost a meditative endeavor. I punch down, pull back, submerge the must, in a Zen-like state or trance trying not to be overcome by the oxygen-depleted environment. You see, during fermentation a tremendous amount of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is released and if a cellar rat (figuratively and literally) breathes in too much can die or lose consciousness. A dead body in a vat of wine, despite what you may have heard, doesn’t add complexity to any bottle of wine!

After carefully cleaning the hoses, pumps, and thousand-gallon tank there were countless other tasks that needed attention. For the rest of the day I conducted a panel of wine laboratory tests, including pH, TA (acidity) and Sulfur Dioxide (SO2). And of course there was plenty of cleaning! Always cleaning, lots of cleaning!

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Brad is a contributing writer to Make Mine Wine Magazine and can be found on Facebook at the Eastern Iowa Wine Club (Fan/Group) pages.

The Sound of Fermentation

Wine Lab 2
Originally uploaded by iowine

Brad Post:

As I walk into my back porch, a 3-season porch, I am greeted to the sound of 17 gallons of La Crosse (white, hybrid grape) fermenting like mad! I know this because on the top of my primary fermenter (a closed container) is an air locked filled with a sulfur-citric solution that keeps critters out and air from entering the vessel.

The exiting carbon dioxide gas burping from the air lock has a nice rhythm that goes: burp, burp, burp....bubble, burp, bubble. The sound
of fermentation is a comforting sound to me because in its own way it is saying everything is going fine. Then there is the smell, some would say fragrance, of fermentation. I know many a winemaker widow (the wives of friends who make wine) who complain about the nasty stench of fermentation. To which I shake my head in complete lack of understanding.

The scent of fermentation, like the sound, tells me everything is going well. And similar to the smell of bread dough rising on the counter, the smell of fermenting wine is similar. Comforting. Soon, when all the sugar is consumed by my yeast friends, the scents and sounds of fermentation will be no more.

And this winter as I visit my wines, patiently waiting for the heavier particles to fall to the bottom so I can rack and transfer the wine to a new container to wait some more, I'll think back to these short few weeks and reflect.

I love the smell/sound of fermentation in the morning! :)
~Brad

Winemaker Notes

Brad Post:

While most people were enjoying their Labor Day weekend at the beach or picnicking with friends, many of my fellow Iowa winemakers were busy picking wine grapes and processing them.

I thought it might be interesting to share some of my winemaker notes with you. These particular notes represent my efforts to craft a medium-bodied, Marechal Foch red table wine.

~Brad

Grower: Tom and Vicki Capper (Old Mans Creek Vineyard)
Quantity: Purchased 156lbs.
Quality of Grapes: After two weeks of heavy rain (3-11 inches) the berries we picked were in remarkably good shape. Although there were some indications of rot in some berries (we left those) but some probably got into our bins. The berries were mostly sound, few greenies, and few light red berries, but overall the berries were very good. We harvested on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend (9-6-09).

Marechal Foch Table Wine
Background: We wanted a medium bodied, low-herbaceous Foch wine, so we wanted to press early.
Brix: 21.2 (potential alcohol: 11.7%)
pH: 3.41
SO2 Addition: 1.5 grams (30ppm, sound quality grapes).
Pressed: 9-8 (t=36 hours)
Yeast: Inoculated at t=18hours (9-7) in morning (8 gram yeast).
Go Ferm: added with yeast (10 gram).
Quantity of must before pressing: ~11 gallons. (note: I didn’t press as hard as I could).
Quantity of juice after pressing: ~5.5 gallons

Notes: We had spontaneous fermentation on the morning of 9-7 and promptly inoculated must with cultured yeast. We also added 4 grams of VRSupra Tannin (2x more than I was supposed to – doh!).

9/7/09: Inoculated with yeast
9/8/09: Pressed must; very dark juice
9/9/09: Hydrometer: Brix = 13.5; added 4 grams of Fermaid K
9/10/09: Fermentation going very well
9/11/09: Fermentation slowing down and nearing completion; tastes and smells good.
9/13/09: Added: Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) - rehydrated with Acti-ML (nutrient). FYI: The LAB will convert the sharp tasting Malic acid in the wine to the more smooth Lactic acid. *Note: need to be careful about oxygen ingress from here forward as alcohol fermentation is nearly complete.