Growing grapes and making wine in Bellevue
Posted in Recipes, cherry wine on Jun 30th, 2007
I made the case for white wine from cherries a while back, but when I made cherry wine yesterday it was a red. I bought 43 or so pounds of Bing Cherries, and after setting aside 4.5 lb for cherry liqueur, I had about 38 lb left for wine. They’re dark skinned cherries with red […]
Posted in cherry wine, mead on Jun 28th, 2007
An opportunity needs to be siezed
Safeway is having a sale, cherries for $1.49/lb, and that got me thinking about honey varietals. Let me back up a little. About this time last year, I bought 40 lb of cherries, some from Safeway, and made cherry wine. After I pressed the wine, I made cherry mead in […]
Posted in viticulture on Jun 27th, 2007
The flowers have given way to immature fruit.
I took this photo on 6/21/07 and you can (only just) see that the flowers have faded leaving the beginnings of grapes behind. What you can’t see are the hoplia beetles, they left with the flowers and have moved on to the Pinot Noir.
Posted in gardening, tomato wine on Jun 25th, 2007
I noticed the first flower among my gold nugget tomatoes a few days ago, and that marks another milestone on the path toward tomato wine.
I took this photo on 6/21/07, and since then one or two other flowers have bloomed. These tomatoes are a lot more patient than I am. I’ve done my part. I […]
Posted in bonsai vineyard, viticulture on Jun 23rd, 2007
Oz Clarke describes Riesling, in his Grapes and Wines, as the “teacher’s pet” of grapes. “I wonder what it feels like,” he asks, “being the wine experts’ favorite grape, yet failing to excite the palates of the vast majority of wine drinkers across the world?” Well, Siegerrebe doesn’t have that problem; it is most definitely […]
Posted in apple wine, mead, tasting on Jun 21st, 2007
I bottled four 1-gallon batches, three meads and an apple wine, yesterday.
2005 Apple Wine
I harvested 13 lb of Liberty apples from my backyard, in 2005, and turned them, along with a gallon of Trader Joe’s Gravestein apple juice, into a batch of apple wine. It’s got a rich golden color, a wonderful aroma, and it’s […]
Posted in enology, tomato wine, winemaking on Jun 20th, 2007
Different for a reason: Why I’ll make it white
When most people think about tomato wine, they - ok, most people don’t think about tomato wine, but if they did they would - think about red wine. It’s the same way with cherry wine, and just as I wrote about white cherry wine a few days […]
Posted in bonsai orchard, cherry wine on Jun 19th, 2007
When selecting my cherry trees, I was thinking in terms of making red and white wine from sweet and tart cherries. I need clear juice to make white cherry wine and red/black skins to make red cherry wine. That means at least four different cherry trees: two tart and two sweet, and at least one […]
Posted in gardening, rhubarb wine on Jun 18th, 2007
A Small Harvest
I pulled in just under 9 oz (250 g) of rhubarb today, which is about the same as this time last year (9 oz on 6/2206). My running total of just under 19 oz (525 g) is significantly behind last year’s 30 oz (850 g). Since I was hoping/expecting a bigger harvest this […]
Posted in bonsai orchard, cherry wine, enology on Jun 17th, 2007
Isn’t cherry wine is supposed to be red?
I mentioned white cherry wine in passing here, but most people think of cherry wine as a red. The only commercial cherry wine I’ve tried is a red - crushed, fermented on the skins, then pressed. Every recipe I’ve seen involves either fermenting on the skins or fermenting […]