Méthode Champenoise - things that go splat

Sometimes in the wine making process, for one reason or another (through no fault of the wine maker, of course!) one ends up with a wine created in less than ideal conditions. Perhaps it was an experimental blend, perhaps something needed to be corrected during fermentation, etc. In other words, there are many different things that can happen along the way to cause you to end up with a decent, but not great wine. What's a wine maker to do? Make Champagne, or course!

We were sampling a bottle of the latest batch, and testing it for readiness. As traditionalists, Jan and Steve had used the Veuve Clicquot method of aging the bottle on its side (to increase the surface area of yeast contact) and turning the bottle periodically to ultimately push the dead yeast into the neck of the bottle. Jan then chilled the bottle upside-down to freeze the yeast cap. Here, Jan is inspecting the frozen plug.

The theory here is that once the bottle is uncapped, the pressure from the dissolved CO2 will shoot the frozen yeast plug from the bottle, and you are left with drinkable Champagne. At this point, the Champagne is traditionally re-bottled for later consumption, but as we were testing it for readiness (cough), down the hatch it was going.

With eager anticipation, we waited for the uncapping. Then, splat! A semi-solid goo shot forth, pretty much all over the place. I guess the plug wasn't quite frozen, but the CO2 did its job anyway. A little sugar to taste, and we were ready to toast a successful bottle of the bubbly.

More grapes?

Ohh, the excitement of sourcing grapes! We have been looking for a few more pounds of Zinfandel. Our first shipment was a little short of our initial goal, so we are looking to supplement. Today we saw a new listing. This time from Dry Creek. Dry Creek isn't half bad as far as Zinfandel regions go. In fact, it's probably one of the very best known. If we are going to get zin from Dry Creek, we might as well get more and make two distinct wines.

A winery proclaimed they have more than they need, so they want to sell the rest. Perfect! We contact the winery. They return our inquiry with a very positive message, indicating a price when picked into large containers. However, the contact is also saying our best bet is to contact the vineyard. Apparently the winery has contracted with a vineyard, and now the winery decides it doesn't need quite as much as they have contracted. At least that is how we read the situation. Next is to contact the vineyard - the answering machine says something about a concrete company - no mention of grapes. When the owner returns the call, he just refers to the vineyard management company. I guess his heart is in concrete after all. That's exciting, though It still sounds possible! The only remaining questions now are:

• Is it going to happen?
• If there is a chance, what are the conditions of the grapes (most Zin has been harvested)
• Will it happen tomorrow?
• If not tomorrow, when?
• How much will it cost?

But for hobby winemakers, these are odds we can live with. Stay tuned.

...

By late Friday it was clear this deal fizzled out.

I can see your house from here

I remember reading about Palin, who from a small outpost in Alaska (Little Diomede Island) could see Russia, at least Russia's Big Diomede Island. Funny, he (he? yes "He" - Palin of Monthy Python fame) doesn't make any grand statements regarding foreign policy expertise, even though he traveled around the earth, and it looks like that earth includes more than Canada and Mexico.

And how does this relate to our winemaking?

The Crush

Jan met up with Steve and I at Steve's house after we picked up the Zin grapes. We were greeted by a clean garage, and Steve's mighty crushing machine.

I must digress here and mention the all importance of cleaning in the wine making process. In a nutshell, here's how to make wine: clean everything, do some stuff, clean again, do some more stuff, clean again,... you get the idea. Once everything is clean enough to eat off of, clean it again to be sure. Happily, Steve is a big proponent of the "clean it good" mantra, thus the well organized, clean garage (good job Steve!)

Now on to the crusher. A glistening steel beast, it sat there quietly waiting for the opportunity to shred anything unfortunate enough to venture close to its yawning mouth. Jan and Steve quickly pointed out all the places NOT to put an appendage, lest I want it ripped off and mixed into this year's vintage. That pretty much encompassed the entire machine. Hmmm, maybe I'll just watch.

Once we got the crusher fired up though, we were well on our way. In went the grapes, spiders, nests, any leaves we missed picking out, and perhaps a small woodland creature or two. I'm not sure, I was pretty focused on keeping myself out of harm's way. All of the stems were considerately shot to the side and down into the black garbage bag.

Thanks to the ferocity of the crusher, we made quick work of the grapes. Now it was time to add meta (to keep the grapes from spoiling) and cool the crush with dry ice.

The cans soon turned into a bubbling witches brew, coating the surface with CO2.

Now that the wine was safely protected, it was once again time for everyone's favorite activity - the alpha and omega of vinting - you guessed it. Cleaning! Soon all the goo was scooped out of the crushers underparts and everything was hosed off. Another successful crush!

Crushpad?

Someone asked me today if I (we) make wine at Crushpad. Crushpad is the commercial and licensed outfit in San Francisco (what happened to their Los Angeles branch?) that partners with you to make your own wine. Over the years I've heard about a few who do make wine at Crushpad, but I don't know anyone myself. You can't sell your Crushpad wine, so that's just as any amateur winemaker, unless you sign up for Crushpad's business services. But Crushpad helps you "register" your label... What's that about? Amateurs don't need to register labels, so it's not quite the same as homemade wine, in that respect. It's not homemade wine in many other respects either, but we'll get to that shortly.
Crushpad will ask you 30 questions, and they use the answers to match you up with the perfect wine for you. It sounds like an eHarmony approach to wine matching. eHarmony, of course, uses 29 dimensions (not questions - dimensions) to find your perfect match. The difference there is that eHarmony matches you up with - hopefully - already existing product, while the Crushpad product is still in the planning stages.
How does the Crushpad experience match up with garage wine? At Crushpad, you can be involved as little or as much as you want when making wine. I agree with the "little" part: You don't have to be present. Actually, you can live in Omaha and watch on the Crushpad Cam while the couple of handfuls of winemakers on staff make "your homemade" wine. You can even control the camera for 60 seconds at the time so you don't miss a thing. Is that "making wine"?
I don't agree with the "as much as you want" part from above. There are sooo many things you will miss at Crushpad. One is to source the grapes. You don't have to search for available grapes, talk to vineyard owners and make agreements. You might be able to drive to the vineyard to meet the truck that picks up the grapes... maybe even touch a few clusters. But how about picking the 1000 lbs of grapes to go into the barrel of wine, or figure out how many gallons of containers you need to transport it? You won't purchase any equipment - Crushpad has everything. Do you crank the basket press? No, you press the button. You'll miss the challenge of trying to figure out how to work a piece of machinery, make a cooling system out of a picked-apart AC or figure out how to construct a cheap impinger for your analysis lab. There are probably tons of other aspects of amateur winemaking you'll miss and I'm forgetting right now.
On the other hand, you risk much less at Crushpad than in your own garage. The consulting staff at Crushpad should be able to guide you through the maze - much like a cab driver in Manhatten - while you're in the back seat on the phone discussing with someone how good your wine is going to be. Also you get to pay upto $50 per bottle for the wine you "make" at Crushpad. Something needs to support the 11 people on the management team and 8 people on the winemaking team (according to the web page).
Since the Crushpad hobbyists are making wine in a commercial facility, they won't be able to enter their product in some amateur winemaking competitions - at least not the California State Fair. I wonder if that's enforced? I wonder if the Crushpad folks even know there is such a thing as home-wine competitions?

The Zin Pick-Up

It was a chilly, overcast day as Steve and I drove out to the Shenandoah Valley (Amador County, CA) to pick up the Zin grapes on Saturday. Perfect weather for hauling grapes! As we got closer, the beauty of the region came to light. Acres of head-pruned old vines dotted with Tuscan style homes greeted us at every turn.

Pulling up to our grower, we saw that he had most of the grapes already picked, and our only job was dumping his picking bins into our garbage cans (don't worry - they're food grade) for hauling back to Steve's house. Well, that and sampling the grower's wine! As the cork popped out of the grower's 2007 Zin at 10:00 in the morning, I couldn't help of but appreciate how much fun it is to make wine!

Although his harvest wasn't as bountiful as he predicted, we were happy with the quality of the grapes. With our fleeces zipped up and the AC cranked, we made our way out of wine country, and back to the Steve's garage to ready the grapes for the cold soak.

Sauvignon Blanc nearing dryness?

The Sauvignon Blanc is puffing away. Some are probably pretty close to the finish. I haven't looked or opened the chamber in a couple of days, and the AC is still keeping it cool. I'll remove the AC tomorrow afternoon, so the juice can finish and hopefully without problems. With the higher temperatures in the fermentation chamber (around 56-57 average), and the issue a few days ago when the AC didn't kick in, the fermentation has been going faster, and I have been smelling the familiar yeast smell in the garage.
--Jan

and then there were three

This is the first post from a group of three home winemakers on the San Francisco Bay Peninsula in California. Our location gives us driving-distance access to several high quality grape growing regions, such as Napa, Sonoma and the Sierra Foothills. The Central Coast, Livermore and Central Valley regions are accessible as well, but we haven't gotten grapes there - yet.
This year Hank has joined Steve and myself - and then there were three - after years hearing stories about previous endeavors. I don't know what pursuaded him. It could be the potentially consumable end-product, but it could just as well have been our fables from the past, such as the pickers who ate the pruners.
Three is also the number of varieties we are getting this year, and you'll see progress reports from those run in parallel. As a way of introduction to what to expect, we think we know we are getting Sauvignon Blanc and Petite Sirah from Russian River Valley in Sonoma and Zinfandel from Amador County's Shenandoah Valley. There will also be mention of work done on wine from previous vintages, as we still have wine in barrels from both 2006 and 2007.