Correcting oxidized wine

November 22, 2009

If you are diligent in tending your wine, you may never experience ozidation. However, if you are like me and tend to experiment a lot, you might have more wine going than you can sometimes keep track of. Don't get me wrong--it's not at all that I put it off... I just have way more obligations than one man should have. As such, while wine generally takes care of itself, sometimes I may check in on it a little later than I should. Meanwhile, perhaps the S02 levels may drop while I'm not looking. But let me be clear, I definitely won't neglect my prize batches.

The reality of the situation is, I keep a cellar that is like a big test tube of experimentation. Tehy say a good winemaker has a lifetime of experience. I believe that. My goal is to pack in more experience in less time to produce a better wine, sooner. So I experiment a lot and log everything.

I have experienced oxidation a time or two. The best way to describe oxidation is to cut up an apple and watch within seconds while it turns brown. There are several facotrs that can contribute to oxidized wine. The two most common are too much headspace in your carboy, or too low of S02 levels in your wine. Be sure to mind these two things, and you may never experience oxidation.

Many people think when a wine has oxidized, its bad. Really, oxidation can be reduced, and in some cases eliminated by the use of powdered skim milk. Mind you, it won't win any awards, but it can become a good, drinkable wine again, reminicent of the base you fermented. That is better than dumping it down a drain.  Try this before you dump it.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Calculate the amount of wine to be treated, in litres, and for each litre of wine measure out 0.5 gm of powdered skim milk into five (5) mL of cold water. Stir into a solution making sure all the skim milk is dissolved. NOTE: It is important that you use powdered skim milk, not de-creamed whole milk or malted milk/
2. Now bring the SO2 level of the wine up to the required amount with respect to the pH.
3. Stir the wine vigorously and while it is swirling, add the skim milk solution by making sure that it enters well below the surface of the wine. There may be a bit of foaming, but it will dissipate. Continue to stir the wine to ensure all the skim milk is well distributed. It is important that the skim milk solution enters well below the surface. If you pour it on the surface, little, or nothing, will happen. Once the skim milk is fully distributed, brown curds will develop in the wine and will ultimately settle out.
4. Replace the airlock and allow the wine to settle for 2-3 days. Meanwhile, prepare a fining agent for fining the wine.
5. After 2-3 days, rack the wine off the oxidase curds into a clean carboy and stir in the fining agent. Allow this to settle for about 10 days, then rack the wine off the lees. Add an airlock. Filter and bottle.

Tags: wine , how-to

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Make apple wine, a beginners guide to winemaking

November 01, 2009

A lot of people ask me questions about wine making and it frustrates me that I can't give them a specific answer. The reason is because the answers are not always the same.

Example, "how many apples or how much grapes does it take to make wine?" Or, "how much sugar do I add to my wine?" "What all equipment do I need to make wine?"

I use the leftover apple cider from our cider smash to make 3 gallons of apple/pear wine and at the same time, attempt to answer some of these questions. I also talk a little about acidity in wine, fermenting fruit and how the hydrometer can tell you how much sugar to add to your wine (must).

Tags: wine , how-to , cellar

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2009 Wine Cellar Pics

October 23, 2009

Here's just a little business in the wine cellar around the end of summer. All these pics were taken by my friend, Jimmy Kinker. Since I'm never in my own pics, I really dig it when he comes over on Thursdays and takes great pics of the goin's on.

Jim has a new found interest in the elderberry wine... maybe because he has access to a lot of real good ones! Together, we've rustled up enough berries to make a solid 10 gallons this year. Even after that, we had our "apple smash" that gave enough juice to make 20 gallons of apple wine.

As we nestle down for the winter, we can kick back and feel good that we truly harnessed the essence of the summer and fall this year, and we have the bounty to prove it.

I hope you and your family are maximizing your enjoyment of the present.

 

Tags: wine , friends , cellar

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Pressing the Syrah Specter

October 18, 2009

A visit to Dave and Sara's made for a great food, wine and friendship experience. It's almost as if the fall saw us coming and gave a couple beautiful days to accomplish the tasks at hand. The pressing at the Specters was a good primer for the smash at the Kinkers.

After a very organized process or pressing the Syrah and getting it under airlock, great lasagna, jalepeno poppers and couple fine Pinots were on hand! I very much enjoyed myself as I helped a friend and knocked another notch in my knowledge post

All said and done, let not the most important bit of knoledge be forgotten. There's all kinds of ways to get the juice out of your media at hand. When you're dealing with grapes, you gently press. When you deal with apples, you violently destroy! In both cases, the end product is something to be hailed, enjoyed and most importantly, shared.

Tags: wine , friends

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1st Annual Apple Smash yields 47 gallons of cider

October 18, 2009

The word for this weekend is most certainly "extraction" - that is, getting the juice from what mother nature has given us. Gently pressing, or violently smashing, it's all good. On Saturday, I helped the Specters press their grapes in Dave's refurbished grape press. On Sunday, we did our "1st Annual Apple Smash" using the cider press my dad refurbished but never got to use. Many years later, it finally did it's maiden smash. Two truckloads of green, red and yellow apples, a dedicated cart, wash, cut and smash crew, and we have 47 gallons of liquid gold. Everyone took home more then enough, and I have enough left to make 20 gallons of apple wine... and 5 gallons of Apple Jack.

Thanks to Dave and Sara Specter, Mark and Tracy Webster, Libby, the kids and my wonderful wife Susan. Special thanks to the Kinkers for providing the beautiful venue, the means, and some mysteriously good coconut curry soup.

With a week of gloomy, dank, cold rainy weather a week before, and a frost the night before, it turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL day and a perfect end to a summer with a very strange crop cycle. I look forward to doing it again next year!

Tags: nature , wine , family , friends

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