The Winter that Never Ends

Winter of 2018-2019 started early, with cold temps and 3 separate snowfalls before Thanksgiving. And it has not let up. Snowpocalypse 2019 left us with 17" and we have subsequently had at least a couple more snow events, with more in the forecast for this week.

So we're stuck inside, cooking and winemaking. 

Every so often at band practice on Thursday nights, we have dinner. Two weeks ago we had a dinner worth publishing. Chukar is a type of partridge. Josh and others shot these, and I thought they made a fine supper with cabbage casserole.

We have an abundance of crappie and made some killer fish tacos.

Today I worked on the wine. Traminette and Chardonel are both going to be at least decent and drinkable after cold stabilization. Both are slow to clear so I've treated both with SuperKleer. They're clearing already and we'll rack these next weekend. 

The results of cold stabilization.

The grenache rosé looks and tastes great. I racked one gallon off its tartaric acid crystals and bottled it. We'll sample this over the next few weeks and if it tastes fine, bottle the rest. I have 8 gallons of grenache rosé.

The Frontenac rosé unfortunately got a little bit oxidized. It doesn't taste bad, but the color is off. In retrospect, I brought this pH up too high; even though it got the standard dose of KMS every 3 months, the SO2 got too low. Lesson learned. I'm trying the milk trick, followed by Polyclar. I will only post pics if it works.

The other wine with color I don't like is guava/SB. I'm calling this "Psidium sauvignon." This wine has always had an unappealing color and the previous batches suffered the same way. I don't think it is oxidized, that's just the color you get from strawberry guava. I'm trying Polyclar to see if I can brighten it up. 

2018 OVZ went into the barrel. This wine got half of the oak cubes as compared to the 2017 OVZ, but after tasting, I think it's perfect. The 2017 OVZ has too much vanilla/cocoa flavor, but I expect it will settle down. The 2018 may actually be drinkable earlier.

The 2018 SB is bottle-able, but I ran out of energy and I had to cook this week's lunch.

This week's lunch is unintentionally paleo - Spaghetti Squash Meatball Casserole. Meatballs, greens, spinach, squash, tomatoes, and ricotta, topped with sauce and mozzarella.   

2018 Wines - Chapter 9 - Pear Batch #2

The first batch of pear wine came from Seckel and Bartlett pears. I think the Seckel added some needed acid to the first batch, which didn't go dry. We've already bottled a portion of the first batch on a trial basis, and it seems pretty darn good. So I had high hopes for this second batch, which is much larger. I may be disappointed.

I didn't weigh the pears but they were well over 100#. They weren't even fully thawed when I pressed, so I left lots of juice behind. Nonetheless I got 8 gallons of straight juice. I was disappointed in the brown color, I think maybe the longer time in the freezer and lower acidity contributed to some early oxidation. But must which starts brown can clear, so we forged ahead. Initial numbers not quite as good as the first batch: TA 5.4g/L, pH 3.75, SG 1.060. After a total of 44g of tartaric acid (1.47g/L), the pH was 3.25. I chaptalized to 1.080, and used the usual 15g Opti White, 1.3g Lallzyme EX, and a heavy dose of pectic. Also added 2t tannin, then rehydrated QA 23 with GoFerm and pitched. Fermaid K was step-fed.

Because the first batch didn't go dry, and it remains pretty cool in the basement, I didn't put the 10 gallon fermenter in the chiller. Still, this was (is) a very slow ferment. It took 7 days to get to 1.055. Six days later it was 1.026 with possibly a little off odor. I dosed with 1/2 dose of Fermaid O. At 21 days it was down to 1.014 and odor-free. At this point I moved it to carboy, added EC-1118, and moved the carboys upstairs into the warm pantry. There is has continued to bubble very slowly, but dropped only to 1.012 after another 7 days. That's still about 3.1% residual sugar. I'd really like this wine under 2%. And I'd really like it less brown.

2019 Deep Freeze

We've made it through the worst of the cold. Yesterday morning we got down to -8F. The greenhouse held at 52F and the plants seem to be fine. Too early to tell what the grape damage will be.

What Was I Thinking?

We're still in the middle of winter, but the winemaking continues. We bottled the 2017 OVZ and blueberry wines last weekend. We need the room and the bottles so today I bit the bullet and cleaned out about 3 cases of old stuff we are never going to drink. Here, for posterity, are some brief tasting notes

• 2012 Persimmon Mead - sweet, almost like a low alcohol port, with good aroma. Alas, this is the last bottle. If I had more I would not dump it.
• 2013 Lime Ginger - may be a good basis for a cocktail of some sort, but not wine. Citrus just doesn't make good wine.
• 2012 Plumeria - oxidized.
• 2013 Apple - very one dimensional, with little aroma.
• 2014 Elderberry Persimmon - the surprise of the bunch. A very nice light red wine which has aged well. Currant, elderberry are prominent but not overpowering. Persimmon is in the background. Might be the only persimmon wine we'll drink. Determined not to dump the rest.
• 2013 Lavender - smells like hotel shampoo.
• 2012 Crabapple - oxidized, too sweet, and unbalanced.
• 2015 Lemongrass Mint - smells like hotel bath soap.
• 2015 EB - too much elderberry, too little acid, unbalanced.
• 2013 Loquat - tastes like it was spiked with Amaretto (which it was).
• 2013 Hibiscus Cranberry - oxidized.
• 2014 Lemongrass Ginger - not terrible but could use more acid to better balance this wine.
• 2015 Blueberry Hibiscus - not flawed, but just boring.
• 2012 Bay Leaf - oxidized.
• 2013 Catawba White - this was a super acidic wine to start. I ended up backsweetening a lot to get it balanced. Of course now, the acid seems to have settled back leaving too much sugar. I still have a case of this wine left.

At the end of the day I've got 3 more cases of clean bottles. It's safe to say we won't be making most of these wines ever again.

Snowpocalypse 2019

Over 3 days we've had 17.5 inches of snow, so Lisa and I hunkered down.

We have yet to get the driveway plowed, so we do not know yet when we can get out. Saturday we had the standard winter supper: fish tacos!

The crappie was wonderful and we have plenty of extra for additional meals.

Costa Rica 2019

The blog is generally about our free time at home in Missouri, but there is precedent for publishing vacation posts. The family went to Costa Rica to ring in the new year. We had a terrific time in Guanacaste, but really, I'm just here to brag about the fish.

View from our villa

Dinner. Adam looking more serious than necessary.

We caught 16 of these, had to release most of them

Mahi mahi ceviche

Christmas 2018

Allie and Jake were home for Christmas. Allie brought Joe which was great because Joe is a breadmaker. Puzzles. Games. Good food. Family Fun!