Hi everyone!
Well, after the whole filtering debacle from last time (with my Rosso Fortissimo), I am more than ready to move on. I’m sure it’s just something I did—I probably just pushed on the pump on the wine filter too hard or tried to send the wine through when it wasn’t clear enough, but I’ve made my peace with it. After reading the reviews of the wine filter system, it sounds like everyone else is happy with it and I’m the only one putting up a stink about it. I’ve decided to give it another try (when the time comes) and next time really put more of an effort into making sure the wine is clear enough to begin with to function properly.
Even with all that hullaballoo, the wine from this wine ingredient kit turned out great! It’s not filtered, but it still tastes pretty nice! I don’t think it’s winning any medals, but then again, I have extremely high standards and it’ll probably take me years before I can make a wine that is THAT good.
Now that I’ve bottled both my Gewurztraminer and my Rosso Fortissimo, it’s time to think about making another wine(s)! What to do…what to do…..
I do eventually want to try making wine from fruit; however, it’s not exactly the season right now to get a bunch of fresh fruit. I suppose I could go to the grocery store and clean them out, but I never feel as though the fruit there is really fresh. It’s the local suppliers who will have the fruit I want, and it’ll still be at least another month before the local farmers market even opens to the public.
I am also looking forward to seeing how many apples I’ll actually get from the small tree that’s in the backyard of our new house! I don’t think it’s a very old tree, so it might not produce enough to make an entire batch of wine, but we’ll see. I suppose I could always supplement what I don’t get from my own tree with other apples from the local farmers market.
In the meantime, I will have to stick with wine ingredient kits for now!
Like last time, I will choose both a red and a white. I’ve been making a lot of California Connoisseur wines, which have been fantastic, but I do want to try some of the other brands E C Kraus sells just to see what those are like.
This time, to mix things up, I think I’ll go with the Chardonnay Reserve from Cellar Craft Sterling Collection since it uses oak and I’ve yet to make a white with oak, and then for the red, I might go with the Nebbiolo (Barolo) from KenRidge Classic because why not!
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My name is Leigh Erwin, and I am a brand-spankin’ new home winemaker! E. C. Kraus has asked me to share with you my journey from a first-time dabbler to an accomplished home winemaker. From time to time I’ll be checking in with this blog and reporting my experience with you: the good, bad — and the ugly.
hi there leigh, the more wine you make the better you get, its always best to not be or get discouraged, I have thrown 10’s of gals away in the passed…..there one thing that I would like to add about clearing wine, I have found that just let it sit and forget about it, I’ve cleared more wine better this way then any other, I’ve seen it take 6 to 8 months and rarely had to thrown any away because of cloudiness. So I do hope you better experience’s in the future, and god bless, tony
Leigh,
Just for grins you might want to try making Concord Grape wine from Welch’s Grape Juice. EC Kraus has a recipe for this on the wine making blog. I make one gallon batches and back sweeten with a little sugar and some more grape juice to bring up the grape flavor.
Leigh
Make a chardonnay with French oak and a lite buttery tast