Friday, January 13, 2012

Is this a Pink Zeppelin? Sort of.



Ladies, gentlemen and fruit flies; friends, family, fans and stalkers, this is quite possibly the best pink wine I've made since the last one. How's that for hype?


One pallet of wine (56 cases) of Grenache, with minor amounts of Syrah, Mourvedre and Cinsault; most of the Grenache is from the Colossus of Rhones vineyard, which yielded less than one ton per acre. Fresh strawberries and cherries, bone dry, crisp acidity, lively palate that almost fizzes. I'd call this the perfect summer wine, but of course I'll be out of it - the wine, that is - long before it gets hot. So you should probably order it now, before it's bottled.


Oh wait, I haven't priced it yet!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Wine preservation systems.

What do I think of wine dispensing equipment that claims to preserve a partial bottle of wine for weeks? Slightly better than the risible pump vacuum stopper system, which removes one or two psi of pressure, leaving the other 85%+ of air inside the bottle. Pouring half a bottle of wine into a 375ml bottle immediately is plausible (though the bottle should be sparged with N2 first or better yet done inside a flushed cabinet) but this isn't what happens in the machines I see employed at wine bars.
One might as well open a bottle, pour it into ice cube trays, freeze the cubes, then microwave them individually when ordered. I'm sure some ass could invent the machine, and sell it to the credulous - of course, the biodynamic microwave costs extra.

Band practice

Band practice