1st batch... bottled!

Everything was tasting OK as of today, so the Malbec is now bottled! That gives it about 1-and-a-half months of bulk aging. It's drinkable now, but should be better after Christmastime.

Degassing, tasting and gravity measurement.

The vacuum pump and new bung arrived on Monday, so I've been degassing for the last two days. There is a significant difference in taste, so I think I'm on the right track. I'm gonna give it another day or so to degas and give it another taste. From there, I'll decide if it's time to bottle.

I took a gravity reading today too. The final reading is 0.993. The starting reading was 1.089. That makes alcohol content is roughly 13%.

Tasting and degassing

I gave my Malbec another taste today and there's still a little tingle on the tongue. That can only mean there is still CO2 suspended in the wine. I recently saw a video on YouTube on how to degas wine with a simple wine preserver pump. You can check it out here.

It's $10 for the pump and $1 for the new bung, which is comparable to the $23 drill-mounted stirring spoons. Plus, the pump works an a lot better as there is no chance of introducing unwanted oxygen into the wine, causing additional oxidation. I went ahead and ordered the pump and the bung, so I can degas for 2 days then go ahead and bottle. They should arrive later this week.

Viognier coming up next.

I went to my local retailer to pick up a couple really cheap ingredients so I can make a cheap fruit wine eventually, or at least a small batch of grape wine from frozen concentrate (yes it can be done, and it's not too bad).

The lady that co-owns the store offered me a great deal on another wine kit. Close to half off because a customer special ordered it but refused to pick it up. This time I got a Viognier; my first attempt at a white wine.

I'm gonna wait at least a month or so before I start this kit as it's too hot here for fermentation to happen without creating any off flavors.

Racking yet again...

Since their was quite a bit of lees still in the bottom, I racked the wine into my other carboy. But since I want to be able to keep a better eye on the sediment, I cleaned out my glass carboy and racked it back into there. I also degassed it, then topped it off and put the airlock back on. So far so good. Oh, and I gave it a taste... it's getting there!

Amador County tasting.

I went tasting in Amador County yesterday, up near Sacramento/Folsom. We hit three wineries, none of which had tasting fees. That's nice, but I'd almost rather pay the $5.00 and not feel like I have to buy a bottle. We went to:

(1) Youngs Vineyard (www.youngsvineyards.com). There were some pretty good wines here. My friend noted that their wines are on the more expensive side in Amador, the least expensive being $26. The highlight: 2007 Petite Sirah. Oh and the really cool wine labels...

(2) Montevina (www.montevina.com). They had a ton of wines to taste; probably 20-30 different wines. They have two different labels here, one being Montevina and the other Terra d'Oro. The highlight: Zinfandel Port. Also, getting to taste about 8 wines for free was cool.

(3) Dobra Zemlja (www.dobraz.com, pronounced "DO-bra ZEM-ya". It means "the good earth" in Croatian). They had a cool tasting room crankin' some pretty good tunes. They offer a cool 1L, refillable, screw-top jug wine, which they call Milan Ruž (pronounced almost like Moulin Rouge). The highlight: 2007 Kikas Zinfandel, which they call a dobra-style port. The story behind this wine is that the grapes were harvested so late, that they had basically become raisins on the vine. They obviously yielded very little juice. But they distilled this juice twice and fortified it with grappa (Italian liquor distilled from pomace, which is the leftover skins, stems and seeds from winemaking). Traditionally, ports are fortified with brandy (liquor distilled from wine). And the wine is pronounced "kick ass", but they had to alter the spelling to put it on the label.

Overall a great time. If it wasn't so far away, I would frequent Amador County more often.

Oh... and don't forget my grapevines!

Chardonnay, if you must know. And they're growing like weeds...