Ice Wine: CAN$30,000 for a half-bottle
September 26, 2006
Man, ice wine too damned good. And so, I'm actually making a batch of it. That is, I got a kit that has the juice of Reisling grapes that were allowed to freeze on the vine, then harvested pressed. 3-gallons for US$75.
It is a lot of work (with risk of failure) for a vinyard/winery to grow and produce ice wine. The government will not let anyone sell a wine labeled "Ice Wine" unless it has went through the true process. Instead, you may have seen it labeled (Iced Wine). Take a look at the difference in price, but you may still notice it can be higher then the traditional bottle of wine.
Ice wine is here to stay and people are paying big bucks for it. Naturally, I wanted to try it out at home. And I don't have to wait for the first frost to start it this time :) I'll follow up later with updates.
I'll let the link to below say the rest.
Tags: wine
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Wine and Beer... coasting in the cellar
September 19, 2006
I just got another batch of wine going Sunday night. Chianti. It's a red wine and more dry that I usually make. I thought it was about that time in my process to try something new and different. That makes a total of six batches of various wines and two batches of beer rippin' in the cellar.
In my efforts to stock the cellar, I started most batches in the spring. I did start another batch of Watermelon wine over the summer, but it was just too delicate and didn't survive the fermentation process. It smelled and tasted horrible. That was 3-gallons I dumped about a month ago. After much research, it turns out indeed that Watermelon wine is pretty difficult to make. It is usually better when fermented with another fruit that has more body. I'll try it again one day.
Most of the wines will be ready to taste around Christmas. But really, they'll be tasted, adjusted if needed and then bottled to do another 6 months or so in the cellar. I of course always hand a few out 'round the holidays.
I didn't want all the wines to be done at one time, so hence my efforts to stagger them. It's my goal to always have something new ready to be tasted, or bottled.
I have always been a fan of country wines i.e. wines made from fruit instead of grapes. I think it may be mainly because I don't like spending money on base ingredients. I get that from my dad. I am fine with buying my supplies etc., but it gets costly to always have to buy your base ingredients. I grow my own cherries and blackberries in the back yard. While I do have 7 grapevines of various variety going now, they won't be producing grapes for another year or so. I am planting additional grapevines (and a shitload of various garlic varieties) next Spring.
I did bite the bullet and bought 4 gallons of Gewurstiminer grape juice in late spring just so I could have a grape wine going. I have three other cherry type wines going. One of them also has blackberries in it. Damn that sounds good don't it? One batch is going on 4 years old. All the wines are going great and they are coasting. That's why I decided to start a red wine. Yeah, I bought that juice too, and that's all for this year I promise! Again, my reasoning was because I've never made a red grape wine yet and well, I guess you can't be a vintner without those under your belt.
Anyway, I have about 40 more gallon freezer bags jammed with cherries for other evil experiments :) Ok, that's all for now.
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Lunchbreak thoughts of 9/11
September 11, 2006
I was thinking about life a moment ago and of all the things I love to do in this world. Things like, kiss my wife, chalk up the sidewalk with the kids, make music, sniff a bottle of un-corked vino, plant a garden and watch friends prosper. I was thinking about Sept. 11, 5 years ago... and then, all the things in life I take for granted. For a moment, things went quiet and dim.
Shit, life is fast today. You can miss a lot in just a wink. There's so much to think about now days that it's easy to forget most of it.
Today, I'm only urging everyone to do nothing, but contemplate what it means to you to do what you really love to do and to give gratitude to those who make it possible. There's so much I have to forget today, but NOT the people who mean everything to me... and NOT the people in this world who give what they give... to ultimately enable me to forget about life for a while.
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Our 5th wedding anniversary
September 05, 2006
It was all Susan's idea. Of the many things she could choose from for our 5th anniversary, she wanted to do a canoe trip with just the two of us... something that has not happened since "before kids."
It was a great idea, and it turned out in a manner that is noteworthy. It was Labor Day weekend. The weather was already if'y. Since it was just the two of us, we didn't have to pack bottles, a ton of food and countless other articles. We simply took one dry-bag with our camera, a couple towels and a small cooler with some tuna salad and vodka and cranberry... of course.
We were ready and even expecting rain. We did get misted on a little but I think it made it all the better.
It was a great trip and I wouldn't have changed a thing. It reminded me that we are still capable of taking a lightweight trip and willing to take whatever Mother Nature intended.
By the time we got off the river, Greg had some people setting up the field for a huge fireworks display. These were genuine Class 6 works (see the picture of launch tubes) - They took the whole day to set up and the field was staged for a huge, private display. There couldn't have been more then 30 people (family) here watching this awesome display.
The show lasted longer than the WEBN fireworks and of the same caliber too. The picture here does it no liberty, but my accompanying video does.
These guys just got back from Japan to "test out the latest" at the canoe livery. It turns out they struck a barter (canoe and camp for fireworks display)
I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate 5 years with my lovely bride.
Tags: anniversary , brookville , canoe , trips
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