Friday, March 30, 2007

2007 Spring Wine Grape Workshop

A well-rounded, all-day workshop. We toured the facility, the vineyard, and watched Bruce Bordelon (Purdue University, Ag Dept, Small Fruit Specialist) prune several variety of vines. There was LOTS of wine tasting and trying it various glasses.

It happened at Ertle Cellars in Batesville, Indiana. This cellar and winery is a brand-new, state of the art facility. Energetic and determined winemaker, Brian Ahaus and and Gary Ertle, the seasonsed vineyard manager are running a very nice and clean operation with all areas well thought out. I plan to write up more here in the future, so check back.

Labels: cellar, grape, spring, vineyard, wine

posted by Jason Morgan at 12:48 PM 0 comments

Thursday, November 09, 2006

The WinePod

A friend sent me the most interesting link and I just had to blog about it. For the winemaking yuppy, try this on for size. A completely contained and integrated vessel for pressing, fermenting and making wine.

For me, the biggest challenge in making a stellar wine lies between tasting, interpreting and making changes. That is, truly understanding what you are tasting, making educated interpretations and ultimately the best decisions in changing the chemistry of the must now for your future award-winning wine. These interpretations are subjective in nature and you will not know how the decisions you make now will affect the wine several years down the road.

I could see using something like this to sharpen such decision-making skills... assuming one could afford it. However, once you own one, why would you need to learn anything since this thing will do it for you. It's probably not for me, but I love the idea of checking the temperature, pH, brix etc... from work!

The WinePod is a state-of-the-art tool for small lot artisan winemaking. The WinePod integrates fermentation, pressing, and ageing in one elegant unit yet it is simple and easy to use. The WinePod controls the heat of fermentation and maintains appropriate ageing temperature using electronically controlled thermoelectric heating and cooling. Your wine ferments and ages in a variable-capacity stainless steel tank with an integrated wine press. The WinePod collects and transmits fermentation and temperature data wirelessly to your PC where our software offers winemaking guidance and manages your processes and records.

You would think they'd at least make it resemble a barrel? If you haven't heard of the WinePod yet, you should in the next couple years as it will be marketed to commercial wine makers in 2007. All for now.

Labels: jason, wine

posted by Jason Morgan at 11:56 AM 0 comments

Monday, September 25, 2006

Ice Wine: CAN$30,000 for a half-bottle

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.

Labels: ranting, wine

posted by Jason Morgan at 12:37 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Wine and Beer... coasting in the cellar

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.

Labels: beer, cellar, wine

posted by Jason Morgan at 9:21 AM 2 comments

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

More progress on the wine cellar

Yet another weekend of workin' the wine cellar. It's getting down to the exciting, yet frightening part. Frightening in that one wrong cut and I can screw a lot of things up. The latest pics show the plank paneling about done. There's still a little more to put up. You will notice I have the 8 holes cut for the smal 3" cans that will circle the perimiter of the wine racks. These can be aimed down towards the racks and will provide the mood one needs when retiring to the cellar to bust open a bottle of the finest.

Still to do... the lower sofit under the racks. I expect this to be the most difficult part and the part that can make the whole plan work... or suck. I also need to plumb in the stationary tub. I've been aching to do this but I've held off so that it does not get in the way of the other millwork happening around the room. This thing has been waiting to go in since Oct. 2005! The last things to do are finish the tile behind the sink, install the racks and put up the crown molding. The crown molding will set this space off like nothing else. I'm telling you, it will be on fire! I got my sights set on some awesome crown molding and I'm holding off until my budget allows. Yes people, I'm talking musuem-like crown molding. This is the stuff you just can't justify putting in many places.

Stay tuned for the next update in a week or so.

Click here for the latest pics

Labels: cellar, jason, wine

posted by Jason Morgan at 8:36 PM 2 comments

Monday, March 13, 2006

Another hit on the wine celler

Over the weekend and a half day on Friday, the wine celler took a big step. Oh if I only had another 1-2 days on it. After extensive preparation and re-preparation within the walls, I got the 1/4" ply walls up and all the tonge and groove cedar planks installed.

I set the racks in the room just to get an idea of where it's all heading. Not bad. I hope to finsish this thing up by the end of March. Stay tuned for the final pics.

See the latest pics

Labels: cellar, jason, wine

posted by Jason Morgan at 8:38 PM 4 comments

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

My wine cellar is prepped and ready to install racking

For a wine lover, a cellar is nice to have. For a winemaker, at least one who has turned out just over 100 bottles a year for the last two years, a cellar is a necessity. Otherwise, all that wonderful juice just sits in large carboys or demijohns all year.

Don't get me wrong, I buy my share of wines just out of curiosity. Fine wines are worth paying for if you can store and eventually serve them in good condition. It is this reason and the fact that I make my share of wine that led me to build my own wine cellar.

The principles behind storing wine are neither difficult to understand nor to achieve. If you can't achieve all factors, then some are better than none.

If you're interested, here are the factors to consider if you are going through the effort to build a private wine cellar... as I am.

Building your own wine cellar

Labels: cellar, jason, wine

posted by Jason Morgan at 8:01 PM 1 comments

Thursday, January 12, 2006

10 basic things you need to make wine at home

I've had a few people ask about the equipment to make wine. So, while I have pushed this in other areas of the site in the past, it's time for an official blog entry.

I was lucky to inherit much of my dads old equipment, but to your surprise, you would probably have 5 out of the 10 basic things you need to make wine. You can get all 10 things for under $75 if you bought it new. Take a look.

Labels: jason, wine

posted by Jason Morgan at 4:21 PM 0 comments

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Wine racks are assembled and ready for install

After several hours across 3 days, I have the wine racking assebled and ready for install. Thanks to my ever-faithful helper on alternating Saturdays, Brian. I am still working on the walls of the wine cellar and plan to have these buttoned up soon. After that, I have to build the upper and lower sofits of the wine racks before they can go in. This will be a job and one that will make or break the aesthetics of this project. Stand by for fun... Click here to see the pics of the racks.

Labels: cellar, jason, wine

posted by Jason Morgan at 8:04 PM 0 comments

Tasting of the Dandelion Wine

I bottled up the first bottle of the dandelion wine for my brother the other day.

Of course, I couldn't help tryin' a little taste for myself. Mmmmm, not too bad for the first attempt. Check out the photos so you can see how the cloudy mess of before has turned into the sparkly delight it is now :)

Labels: jason, wine

posted by Jason Morgan at 4:23 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Building your own wine cellar

The principles behind storing wine are neither difficult to understand nor to achieve. If you can't achieve all factors, then some are better than none. I have set forth to build my own wine cellar and here is what I have learned.

Since wine is alive, it reacts either positively or negatively to its environment. How it is treated will determine how fast or slow it ages and how it will turn out in the end. Wine wants to be kept in a clean, dark, damp place with good ventilation, where it can be stored, vibration free, at a constant temperature.

Temperature is the most important factor that should be sought after above all others. The ideal temperature is 50 to 55F. You will get different opinions depending on who you talk to. However, any constant temperature within 40-65F will do.

More important than the actual temperature you will be able to achieve, is the degree and speed of temperature fluctuation the wine is subjected to. A slow change of temperature of ten odd degrees between winter and summer is not a big deal. But this kind of fluctuation on a daily or weekly basis will cause damage to your wines and age them prematurely.

You will notice damage of this nature from the sticky deposit that often forms around the capsule. In time, as the wine expands and contracts, it will damage the integrity of the cork. When this happens, small quantities of wine may make its way alongside the cork even allowing oxygen back in.

Wines kept at too high a temperature will age faster than wines kept at a cold temperature. Theoretically, wines kept at 68F will age twice as fast as those kept at 50F. At 55F wines will age so slowly--with ultimately greater complexity--that you will never have to worry about them. This is not to say the colder the better. Wine that is stored too cold can develop deposits or other suspensions in the wine. White wines are affected far more than red wines by temperature problems.

Moderate humidity is important so as to keep the corks in good condition and thereby preventing them from shrinking. A relative humidity of 50-80% is the acceptable range, but about 70% is recommended. Excessive humidity will not harm the wine but will cause the labels and any other paper products--like cardboard cases and boxes--also present in the cellar to rot. Insufficient humidity may cause the corks to dry out, lose their elasticity and thereby allow air to get into the bottle. Bummer, especially on a $500 bottle of cabernet that I don't have... but would like to try.

Light will prematurely age a bottle of wine. Naturally, clear bottles are most susceptible to this problem, but ultraviolet light will penetrate even dark colored glass. Ultraviolet light can even give a wine an unpleasant aroma and ruin it. Extra care should be given to sparkling wines as they are more sensitive to light than other wines. It should be noted too, that incandescent or sodium vapor lights are better for a celler than fluorescent lighting.

Calmness... Believe it or not, constant vibration from machinery or even a nearby road disturbs a red wine's sediment and can be harmful to all wine. This is not a common problem in the average home as extremes are rare and obvious... not to mention bad for the wine. It should be remembered that excessive sound creates vibrations that are harmful as well.

Wines should be stored in such a way that you don't have to move them around to get at a particular bottle. Once a wine is laid down, it should stay there until it is opened.

Clean and Airy... Keep your cellar clean. Extraneous smells can enter through the cork and contaminate the wine. Proper ventilation will help with this problem and keep the cellar from giving the wine a musty taste. Finally, debris that could be a home to insects that might infect the corks i.e. untreated wood, food, etc. should be removed. Never store fruits, vegetables, cheeses or any other food that is capable of fermenting.

Angle of Storage... Table wine is stored horizontally so that the wine stays in contact with the cork. This keeps the cork moist thereby preventing air from entering the wine. Fortified wines other than port, are stored standing. If bottles are stored with the labels up, it will be easier to see the deposit of sediment that forms on the opposite side of the bottle when it comes time to open it.

This is it for now. These ideas are my thoughts, some of my experiences and even factual information about wine cellars gathered via the wonderful Internet. I plan to maintain this information through time and I will update you along with pictures of my process over the next year. Your input or story about your own wine cellar is welcomed.

Labels: cellar, jason, wine

posted by Jason Morgan at 2:51 PM 0 comments