Farewell to a teacher turned friend.

My older son invited his spanish professor to our home the other weekend for dinner. She is leaving Albright College to return to her home country of Argentina. He became good friends with her this past year, respected her as a teacher, and wanted to treat her to some hospitality before she left. He made made the meal himself; all Greek dishes oddly enough, including souvlaki sandwiches, a bean salad, and a cucumber, tomato and feta salad. He served baklava for desert, rounding out a delicios meal. We had an evening full of interesting conversation, as she has been all around the world, and she educated us all about her native country. Her gift to us was a bottle of Argentinean chardonnay from Trapiche Winery. It was different from most chardonnays that I have had in that there was no oak aging, and probably no secondary fermentation. It was crisp and fruity, very much like a Riesling. We enjoyed it very much, and I will definitely look for it next time I go wine shopping.

A great time.

The town I live in is not exactly a metropolis. Don't get me wrong, this has been a great place to raise my children, and I believe my wife and I made the right choice as to where to build our home. The downside is that the town has just three main cultural activities: churches, bars and pizza restaurants. Besides a small take-out Chinese restaurant and a members-only sportsmen club, there are in fact four pizza joints serving this quaint borough. Luckily there is one that stands above the rest, named "Sal's Pizza Style." The owner, oddly enough named Sal, makes some great meals, including a red clam sauce that I think I could drink like a cocktail. His meatballs are almost as good as my wife's (and that is saying something!). We ate there last night (my wife, father, younger son and I) and had a great time. An additional benefit is that it is BYO, and I brought a 2007 chianti classico from Rocca delle Macie. A medium-priced wine; nothing fancy, but with a balanced taste that went well with our meals. Good food and wine, with some good conversation and a few laughs; like I said, a great time.

College chemistry finally pays off.

I hated; no, make that despised, my college freshman chemistry class. Topics like molarity, Avogadro's number and electron clouds; what do they mean? How is learning this really going to help me? This past weekend, almost 32 years after taking the class, it finally was of some use. I purchased 6 gallons of Chilean cabernet sauvignon juice, and prior to doing so, decided I needed to be more precise when it comes to analyzing and monitoring the winemaking process. So I purchased a number of "sciencey" items from a wine and beermaking website that in total looks like a big boy chemistry set. I must admit that the tiny amount of knowledge I retained from freshman chemistry made taking this next step in winemaking fairly easy. I analyzed the juice for sugar content, total acidity and pH. All of these parameters were in the required ranges, so no adjustments to the juice were necessary. I pitched the yeast and alcoholic fermentation has begun, as evidenced by a gentle bubbling coming from the air lock. As I continue developing this wine, I will also be using paper chromatography to monitor malolactic fermentation, and measuring sulfites in the wine using an oxidation-reduction test kit. Hopefully all of this effort will result in a better-tasting wine. I'll let you know...

An Italian Feast

Last weekend the wife and I, along with two old friends from high school, attended a five course fixed menu Italian dinner at a local Italian import store. They put these dinners on twice a month, and we had heard alot of good things about them. The meal was a BYO, and since I have very little of my own wine left, I decided to throw caution to the wind and bring along a wine I had never tasted before. I chose an Orvieto Classico from Ruffino Vineyards. The grape for this wine is grown in the Chianti region of Italy, and is apparently a popular white wine in Italy. I found it to be a good wine, with a refreshing and not too complex taste. It paired well with our first two courses: pureed scallop and shrimp cake served with a lobster and fregola grain butter sauce (so good!), and the creamy cabbage and sweet Italian sausage risotto (even better!). My high school friend, who really knows his wine, brought a Freeman pinot noir. I didn't catch the variety, as their are three different pinots from Freeman, but it was an excellent choice. The wine had a very fruity flavor that hit you first, followed by smoky, woody flavors; the two were balanced perfectly. This wine went well with the meat course; a choice of parmesan-encrusted rack of lamb, or peppercorn-encrusted beef tenderloin. It was a wonderful night of food and wine, and we plan to do it again real soon.

Drinking to Extremes

No, I did not get blind drunk. You don't recover from that like you did when you were 25. This has to do with drinking beer at the extremes of taste. For the first time I tasted the 90 minute Indian Pale Ale from Dogfish Head, a regional brewery in Delaware with a very progressive philosophy. The "90 minute" in the name refers to the fact that the beer is continuously hopped during brewing (I believe) for 90 minutes. This makes for an unbelievably strong hop aroma and taste in the beer. This strong hop bitterness is balanced by a sweet and heavy malt flavor. This is no doubt a high gravity beer, and as such is probably a meal in a bottle, calorwise. The large amount of hops and grains used makes this an expensive beer as well; about $14 for four-pack in our area. The 90 minute IPA is a very complex beer with many aromas and flavors to take in, and overall I liked it very much (sorry Ken). It's one of those beers though that I can only drink one at a time, so it is more of a sipping beer than a drinking one.

Here comes the extreme part. The next day I attended a bonfire at a friend's home. Don't get me wrong, I like these people very much, but they don't really care what they are drinking. All that was available was Coors Light. The only thing I can say is that it tasted like slightly sweetened water in comparison to the 90 minute IPA. My tastebuds almost jumped off my tongue and left. Sorry if I sound like a snob...

Update on my wines: I am racking both the merlot and the sauvignon blanc this weekend. A couple more months left until bottling. I will be receiving some cabernet sauvignon juice from Chile at the end of April. My plan is to reserve some of this wine and the merlot and do some blending.

An Unexpected Tasting.

The other day my wife and I were both off from work, and after a nice lunch we stopped at a local orchard (Frecon Orchard) for some fresh fruit and vegetables. Upon entering I was suprised to see that they had a tasting room in which they feature wine and mead from two local vineyards. We first tasted a mead named "Blueberry Melomel" from Stonekeep Meadery. (FYI, mead is an alcoholic beverage using honey as the sugar source for fermentation.) Mead, especially the homeade type, has a bad reputation with regard to taste. This blueberry-favored mead was unexpectedly good, tasting much like a port or sherry. We next tasted two wines from Blair Vineyards. The first was a Pinot Gris, a semi-dry white, which was forgettable for the most part. The other was a dry red named "Wedding Cuvee", a blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot. As before, I had nothing with which to take notes, but I recall blackberry flavors with moderate tannins. Overall quite good; good enough in fact that I bought a bottle. I also intend to visit the winery some time soon.

If you're ever in Durham, North Carolina,...

...check out the restaurant "Revolution." I was in Durham on business this past week, and a group of us ate there to celebrate the completion of a project we had been working on for the past two years. The food was excellent, but more importantly, they had a lengthy wine list. One of our team members considers himself to be a wine expert, so he immediately grabbed the list and started ordering. First up was a 2007 Fillaboa Rias Baixas. This is a white wine made from albarino grapes, which are grown in Spain. It was a good wine; a fruity aroma with a crisp taste. The wine paired well with my seared scallops and white beans appetizer.

In the future I must remember to bring something along with which to take notes, because two more wines were served, and I don't have the information I should have to pass on (I also can't find them on the restaurant's website). One was a white Alsatian-style wine, which I did not care for very much. I know it was barrel-fermented and I didn't like some of the flavors I was getting. The final wine was a Nebbiolo, an Italian wine from the Piedmont region. This red was the best wine of the night. Smoky, complex, with berry flavors; despite being a red, it went well with my entree of grilled swordfish and fava bean risotto. I definitely suggest picking up a Nebbiolo some time. In the future, I promise to be better about taking notes.

Today was truly the last day of winter...

for me, anyway. I know the calendar says it is March 20th, but for me it was today because I drank my last bottle of Scotch Ale. Since I have been brewing with Ken, the Scotch Ale has been our winter staple. It has a malty, slightly sweet flavor, with a note of burnt chocolate, that is perfect for holiday and winter drinking. I must say though that I've had more than enough winter this year, so I am looking forward to spring and summer, and some crisp, hopped-up lagers.

Update on beer and wine goings on.

My friend Ken and I finished an English bitters, which I have never drank before, home brewed or otherwise. The beer is light-brown in color, with an off-white head. The aroma is fruity, kind of banana-like. When the beer first hits the palate, it is slightly sweet with licorice notes, which then ends with a bitter bite on the back of the tongue (thus the name). I don't think I will have any trouble finishing the case. We just started a Czech pilsner; I'll let you know how that goes.

As for wine, I currently have two going; a sauvignon blanc and a merlot, both from fresh California juice. Both have gone through primary fermentation, with the merlot also undergoing malolactic fermentation. I am now in the process of finishing the wines. The sauv has been stopped, and is undergoing cold stabilization (the wife hates that because it takes up most of the space in our basement fridge). The merlot is currently going through a series of rackings; this one won't be ready to drink until next Xmas! Wine definitely takes patience...

What wine pairs well with sauerkraut?

I meant to write this some time ago; something that will be obvious momentarily. On New Year's Day, it is considered good luck in the part of Pennsylvania that I live to have pork and sauerkraut for dinner (I believe it comes from an Amish tradition). My wife, who is by the way a wonderful cook, makes a lowfat version of the traditional dish. She pan sears pork tenderloin, finishing it off in the oven, and serves it with horseradish and roasted garlic-flavored mashed potatoes; and of course, the sauerkraut. It's really very good. For this meal, I was all prepared to serve a scotch ale I helped make with my friend Brewmaster Ken. We have been making beer together for a few years now and this is one of our favorite winter beers. My father joined us for dinner, and he wanted wine instead of beer, thus prompting the title for this entry. I ventured down to my extensive wine cellar (I wish), which contains mostly my own wines, including chianti, chardonnay and riesling. I do have a few bottles of commercial wine, and decided to try a french wine I had never drank before:

Beaujolais-Villages 2006
Louis Jadot Vineyards

It is a dry red burgundy, low in tannins (the stuff that gives wine a smoky, earthy flavor) and mildly fruity. Overall, it was a good wine that went very well with the peppery pork tenderloin and tart sauerkraut. Give it a try next New Year's Day.

Vintner John

My first blog ever!

Let me start by saying that I do not consider my self any kind of expert on wine, be it making or drinking. My only real wine tasting experiences have been at wineries along the Finger Lakes in Central New York. Don't get me wrong; it was alot of fun and I did learn some basics about wine, but I'm sure it doesn't compare with wine tasting in California or Europe (places I hope to taste wine some day). For now let's just say I know what I like.

As far as winemaking goes, I have been working on this hobby for about 3 years. I started with wine kits, which produced okay wine, but even I could tell they lacked flavor and depth. I have since made wine from grapes and fresh juice, and I will talk about these in future posts. I am currently working on a merlot and a sauvignon blanc, which you will hear more about as well.

My hope with this blog is that we can learn from each other, and all get better at making wine. Talk soon...