Wine Thief

We sampled some wine for the first time tonight with our 

beautiful new wine thief from Jennifer and Brian.

First Racking

It was time tonight to do the first racking - taking the wine off the dead yeast 

that has settled to the bottom of the carboys.

First, Brad had to carefully weigh the sulfite to add to the wine. It had to be measured to the gram so he used a balance scale for accuracy.  The sulfite stabilizes the wine and kills bacteria.

Here we are preparing for the siphoning process.  In the picture below you can see that the dead yeasts have settled at the bottom of the carboy. 

 

                                          

                                     This is what's left at the bottom of the empty carboy.

                

                                     Topping off the transferred wine (a trick we learned in Woodinville)
             

Blending Experiment

Tonight we set up a very organized and systematic blending experiment.  After reading about mixing cabernet sauvignon or merlot with our sangiovese to achieve a more full bodied wine we arranged an experiment by blending in increments...100% of our Soldato Sangiovese, and then an 80/20 blend, 60/40, and 40/60.

Problem:  The tasters (that's us) are supposed to spit after each sample.  We can't figure out how to do that!  We tried every possible scenario, but we are simply unable to taste without swallowing!  (Don't judge until you've tried to do it)  I honestly don't understand how it's done, because until the wine hits the very back of my mouth, all I get is the sensation of wine, but not the taste.  However, being reasonable people on a Monday night, we tasted only the tiniest of samples from each blending!  Trust me...:)

The verdict:  After analyzing our notes taken during each tasting, our conclusion is that our Soldato Sangiovese stands alone.  When we added the cabernet sauvignon we lost the earthiness associated with the sangiovese and felt it compromised the wine. The addition of merlot was a disaster all around.

The bottom line:  We set out to make a Tuscan style red and we're sticking with it.  We like our wine!!

Lees

It's a new word for me.  Until today, I had no idea what stirring the lees meant, but this afternoon it happened at my very own house!  Lees is the dead yeast and sediment that settles at the bottom of the carboys, which hold the wine at this point.  During this second fermentation, stirring the lees up from the bottom promotes further activity (malolactic fermentation). This is a good thing.  Lucky for us, the carbon dioxide made for a little spillage, which we caught in a big pasta bowl placed underneath the carboys.  We poured most of it back in, but had to try a tiny taste.  It has changed a lot, and we were both very pleased that the wine is softening during this fermentation.  Our granddaughter Rian noted that the glass "smelled like a raspberry".  I guess the future of our wine making adventure is intact if our grandchildren are learning right along with us!!

The fermentation lock comes off
and the dowel goes in.

Two of our grandchildren observe
as the stirring begins to produce results.

This is the overflow that we caught for later sampling.

PRESS!

We're tired!  Tonight we were at 1 BRIX and it was time to press our fermented Sangiovese.  The process took longer than we thought, but with all our effort we extracted every bit of the juice from the MUST.  Our press resulted in 7 gallons of wine, which will eventually equate to 36 bottles.  If it's good, we'll wish we had more.  If not, we've got a lot of ho-hum wine on our hands!  You'll notice in one of the photos that we are toasting our vintage with a tiny bit of the wine. It has some wonderful characteristics. It is still quite fruity, but not at all sweet and the grapes seem to promise a good outcome.  On to malolactic fermentation and continued vigilance!  

The press

Extracting the last of the juice

Reminiscent of my days as the daughter of a raspberry farmer!

Working the press

Sangiovese

Getting ready to crank the press

Toasting the press and the vintage.  Cin Cin!

The fermentation locks are in place, and malolactic fermentation begins.

The wine settling in to its home for the next year.

2 BRIX

The winemaker and his tools

Two Brix as measured this evening means the press is on for tomorrow or Wednesday.  At the rate the sugar content is now falling, we think it will be tomorrow.  This will be the most exciting step so far!

Punching Down

Morning Wake Up

12 hours with yeast and the wine/laundry room smells like a bakery!  The aroma is powerful but not bad.  Punching down has now begun because the yeast bubbles at the top and needs to be redistributed several times each day.  It also pushes the skins back down and distributes them among the juice.  

Now I just have to resist the urge to get out some good olive oil and have a nice hunk of bread.

Yeast. It's not just for bread!

The crushed grapes reached 68 degrees this evening so Brad measured Brix and Total Acid at that temperature.  He liked the numbers so tonight the yeast was "pitched".  Thus, the journey from grapes to wine begins officially this evening!

Soldato 2010 Sangiovese

Winemaking chores for Sunday, December 5th

Stirring the must to distribute the grape skins

Cleaning, cleaning...this time the fermenter

Moving crushed grapes to the fermenter

Measuring the Brix level of the warming juice

Winemaker's notes

Checking acid level

The temperature is just about right for fermentation to begin

New name.  Soldato.  That's it.  Plain and simple.

We opened a bottle of Jarhead Red to see how it is progressing.  Our first taste a couple of months ago did not leave us feeling very optimistic!!  However, bottle shock may have been the reason.  After getting our courage back up we decided to give it another try.

Upon opening:  Nose is improving but still not great.

After breathing for 30 minutes:  Kind of smooth on the tongue; drinkable for sure; taste is better than the smell; very dry; light and fruity with a floral scent; easy drinking.

Maybe there is HOPE!  We know that Jarhead Red is probably never going to be anything but passable.  We didn't start with great grapes, and I know from cooking that it's all about the ingredients.  Still, we are hoping for a wine that doesn't make us shudder on a Wednesday night.

After posting this I'm reminded of a cartoon I saw recently.  I think we need to improve our tasting vocabulary so it sounds more important!!

Day in the garage winery

A full day of work in the garage resulted in a spiffy and spotless repainted garage floor, painted shelves, and laid in supplies.  Brad borrowed an old fashioned oak press from a friend but later decided we would return it to him and rent a stainless one.  We don’t want to do anything that might taint the juice early on.  We are feeling a bit impatient now since we still haven't received the date of the arrival of our grapes.  We're ready...but we need our FRUIT!!

Field Trip

Woodinville winemakers invited the public to crush day and we took advantage of the opportunity to see what was happening and taste the juice at various stages in the process of becoming wine.  Plus, Brad was able to have some long and informative conversations with winemakers from Page, Edmonds Winery, Tempest del Sol, and Barrage.  He asked some really good questions and it was obvious that he has been doing his homework and is eager to learn everything he can.  Linda and Mike joined in the fun and the conversations, and Brian and Jen and the children also joined us for a short time.  Of course we made some delicious purchases, and to round out our day we had dinner with Mike and Linda at La Fontana in Belltown.  Yum! 

What Are We Thinking?

We’ve been talking about it for years.  Bitten by the wine country bug over 10 years ago, we’ve been fascinated with both the delicious wine made in our country and the interesting and amazing stories that the winemakers share with their visitors.  During every wine tasting adventure we always end up saying, “we should try making our own wine!”  After all, I love to cook, Brad likes to build and carve, so we clearly like making things on our own.  He also loves chemistry, and we both love wine, so it’s a perfect match...except for the part about knowing how to do it!  We finally decided to take the plunge.  After a summer of reading, asking questions, internet research, phone calls, and wine-making-from-a-kit, we still don’t know much, but we’re going for it anyway.  Wish us luck, and we’ll let you know down the road whether adding our own wine to our collection is a good idea!  

We have a name...

Soldato Del Mare.  

In Italian that means “soldier of the sea”...or Marine.  Bowing to the old Marine Corps phrase “Whatever it takes”, we have decided we are going to figure out how to make good wine.  However, since it takes so darn long to make, I decided I needed to have something to do in the meantime, so I’ll be documenting this latest idea of ours.  We hope you’ll come along for the ride!