Thanksgiving 2016

Adam stayed in Florida with Joy's family for the 2016 Thanksgiving, but Jake and Allie were home. I think we were all hoping for a better November, as both the election and The Game didn't have the desired outcomes. Still, it was great to have everyone together.

The weekend had an inauspicious start. 

The sole occupant, not from our family, was unhurt. Not sure the tree will survive however, as the wound is large and deep. It takes a lot of alcohol to total a car without leaving the yard.

On to the food.

The new breakfast dish had apples and pastry topping. Easy and delicious.

Breakfast casserole is tradition.

I finished some limoncello that has been sitting in the closet for a long time. Vanilla is the secret ingredient.

For the first time, we smoked our turkey. The turkey was injected, and thus the big controversy was over whether we should wet brine it starting the day before. In the end, I gave it a 12 hour soak in a diluted wet brine, then smoked it for 6.5 hours around 275F. 

It was good, but not that smoky. All of the online sources say the perfect smoking turkey is 12# and we used a 20# bird. So maybe next time we'll try a little smaller bird.

We drank 2015 Elderberry-Blackberry with dinner and while nobody commented on the wine, the bottle was emptied, so I think that is a favorable review.

Before the weather turned on Sunday, Jake and I got some outside work done. We did some fence repairs, adding a fifth board where the cattle are still pushing under the fence.

Then we rented yet another great tool, a T-post driver, and went to work in the vineyard.

With this tool, the in-line T-posts went up in under 2 hours.

The cattle watering trough is gone, replaced by a hydrant. We're almost ready for grapes. In April we're getting 36 Norton and 36 Vidal Blanc, for 2 rows of each. I'm also trying Frontenac, Marechal Foch, Chambourcin, Traminette, and grafted Chardonel.

On the winemaking front, MLF of the Chambourcin and the Syrah was more or less complete 2 weeks ago.

 

Today we hit both batches with Kmeta and racked off of the oak. Naturally, we sampled both. The Chambourcin has a deep color, medium body, firm tannins; it tastes of dark berries with a nice long finish. The Syrah is, oddly, light in color and body; tannins are soft, and it is quite fruit forward jammy. While it is lighter than I was aiming for, Lisa will love this wine.  Jake too! Happy Thanksgiving!

2016 Wines - Chapter 9 - Elderberry

I'm only making one 3 gallon batch of straight elderberry wine this year. The rest will be either cofermented with other fruit or used in experimental rosé wines. Nothing new here except for a new yeast. The Pasteur Red proved to be a little troublesome.

We started with 15# of elderberries, thawed.

The berries were simmered in 10.5 qt of water. When the berries were thawed, but not yet too hot, I hand crushed them in the pot.

Initial SG was 1.058. Roughly 6.5# of sugar later it was 1.090. The pH started at 4.60. Although I initially used less acid than last year, I overshot the pH and drove it down to 3.29. I don't like this wine that sharp, so I added 2t calcium carbonate to bring it back to 3.53. Opti Red, Booster Rouge, and pectic enzyme were added, then I covered the surface with plastic wrap and put the bucket in the fridge for a 3 day cold maceration.

After 3 days I warmed it up and pitched a starter of Pasteur Red. I step fed as usual and removed the skins and seeds on fermentation day 4.

Now normally I don't have any trouble moving this wine right through the primary fermentation. And I understood Pasteur Red to be a strong fermenter, with no unusual H2S tendencies or nutrient needs. But this wine stalled around 1.020. Around day 5 it got a slight off odor. I added another pinch of Fermaid K and warmed it up a bit, and that did the trick. The odor cleared up, and at 1.004 I racked it to secondary. Three days after that I racked it off the gross lees.