http://www.trufflepigwine.com/ Winemaking in Ontario & California en Copyright 2008 Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:29:46 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss On Saturday, July 26, Cafe Taste on Queen St. W in Toronto will be hosting the Ontario Wine Fair -- a public tasting featuring 17 Ontario Wineries. I'll be there all day, pouring with Norm Hardie, who makes some fantastic Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling. Come by if you can. $40 gets you in the door and I think all wineries will be offering a 2 or 3 samples each, so it's well worth the price of admission. Cafe Taste is at 1330 Queen St West (@ Brock St.) Wineries coming include: Norm Hardie, Malivoire, Calumus, Coyote's Run, Henry of Pelham, Huff Estates, Inniskillin, Jackson Triggs, Kacaba, Lailey, Southbrook and many many more... http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2008/07/ontario_wine_fair_on_saturday.php http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2008/07/ontario_wine_fair_on_saturday.php Latest News Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:29:46 -0500 I drove down to Niagara-on-the-Lake to pick up my Icewine juice order from Watsons yesterday. I had ordered 15L of whatever variatals he produced and was happy to see that he had three different varietals to offer this year: Vidal, Riesling-Traminer and Cab Franc. This is the first time I've been able to get ahold of red Icewine juice and I'm excited to try my hand at it. Last year his Cab Franc came out murky and he sold the entire batch to a professional winery that owned the centrifuge required to clarify it properly. But this year it fell clear naturally and he was selling it to amateurs like myself. http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2008/02/picking_up_2007_icewine_juice.php http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2008/02/picking_up_2007_icewine_juice.php Latest News icewine 2008 Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:55:34 -0500 first time I went I focused on tasting as many wines as I could, from the most renowned producers -- labels like Turley, Scott Harvey and Woodenhead. I aimed for higher-end, more expensive zins that I didn't have access too at my local supermarket (which had a pretty good wine selection, to be fair). This time around I tasted roughly the same number of wines, somewhere above fifty but less than seventy-five, but focused instead on the different regional characteristics of Zin across California. I looked at five different regions: Mendocino in the North, Russian River Valley, Napa, the Sierra Foothills and Paso Robles. I used Dry Creek Valley as my baseline, given my familiarity with the Zin Sasha makes from Ray Teldeschi. Here's what I found: Mendocino's Zin was stylistically all over the map, and I didn't find much commonality between producers. Russian River Valley definitely had the 'spiciest' wines of the bunch and showed much less fruit than other regions. This was by and large quite pleasant, and is often exactly what I look for from Zinfandel in general. The Sierra Foothills and Paso Robles had the fruitiest zins -- gobs and gobs of jammy fruit. Not for the faint of palatte (like mine perhaps). That said, I loved the Scott Harvey 1869 and both wines from Cedarville. Napa Valley consistently showed the most restraint. I might go so far as saying some were even elegant -- a term not normally associated with Zin. I found they had some of the spice of RRV and some of the fruit of the Sierra's, but in a more balanced, harmonious package. I especially enjoyed the Truchard and Hendry in the South (almost Carneros); Tofanelli in Calistoga and the wines various producers made from Howell Mountain fruit. Napa was clearly my favourite, though there were RRV wines I really enjoyed as well. Sasha's getting some more RRV fruit from the Buckhorn vineyard and has graciously offered to let me piggyback 1/2 a ton off his order, enough to do my own barrel as a custom crush client. I'm looking forward to trying my own hand at this grape. ]]> http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2008/02/zap_2008_dialing_in_the_zin.php http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2008/02/zap_2008_dialing_in_the_zin.php Latest News zin event california 2008 Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:46:13 -0500 In 2006 I simply tried to taste as much different Ontario wine that could -- if someone made it, I wanted to taste it. This year, I've tried to focus a little more on the regions, varietals and wineries I like the best -- I tried to dial-in what I like specifically about this region and it's grapes and it's people. I've come up with my favourite five Ontario varietals, in order: - Pinot Noir - Riesling - Chardonnay - Cabernet Franc - Sauvignon Blanc My top five favourite wineries (Unfortunately, I've yet to try Hidden Bench or Daniel Lenko, two highly regarded producers. I look forward to trying them in ‘08), in order: - Le Clos Jordanne - Norman Hardie Wines - Peninsula Ridge - Fielding - Malivoire And the five Ontario wines I enjoyed most: - 2004 Le Clos Jordanne Claystone Terrace Pinot Noir - 2005 Norman Hardie "County" Chardonnay - 2005 Closson Chase Chardonnay - 2006 13th Street, Funk Vineyard Riesling - 2005 Peninsula Ridge, Fumé Blanc http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/12/top_5_of_2007.php http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/12/top_5_of_2007.php Latest News Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:00:47 -0500 I wasn't planning on making another order for Icewine juice from the Neufeld's this year, their juice is about twice as expensive as Watsons, but the quality of my '06 Icewine from their vineyard was just so good I couldn't help myself. And really, it's not *that* bad when you think it works out to about ~$10/bottle. So I just called John and ordered another 20L of juice, which will run about $600. Still, ouch. http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/12/2007_icewine_order_with_the_ne.php http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/12/2007_icewine_order_with_the_ne.php Latest News Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:29:11 -0500 Riesling from Wismer Vineyards in Niagara (up on the Bench), and it's now finished fermentation. I racked it off it's fermentation lees this evening and it'll now spend the next six months aging and clarifying. I'm most surprised by the clarity of the wine -- it's super clear. I guess fining it with Argilact before I started fermentation helps clear up the wine significantly. I also fermented it for the last couple weeks in one spot, up high, to prevent having to move or jostle it. This seems to have helped. As for first impressions: not nearly as sharp and acidic as last years Riesling (a 6.5 TA vs. 9.5), and a significant amount of citrus on both the nose and the palate. There's a little residual sulfur smell on the lees, but this not much transfered in the racking and I'm sure I can get ride of it before bottling with a little copper. I'm happy with how it's turning out. . ]]> http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/12/white_ferments_are_finished_fo.php http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/12/white_ferments_are_finished_fo.php 2007 Riesling 2007 Riesling: Fermentation Notes Latest News Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:05:12 -0500 http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/11/fermentation_day_18_still_3_to.php http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/11/fermentation_day_18_still_3_to.php 2007 Riesling: Fermentation Notes Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:00:00 -0500 http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/10/fermentation_day_8_2.php http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/10/fermentation_day_8_2.php 2007 Riesling: Fermentation Notes Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:30:09 -0500 I just talked with Norm and the acid numbers are all crazy-weird: A TA of 5.1g/L and pH of 3.05. This presents a bit of a problem -- ideally I'd want to add Tartaric Acid to bring that TA up a couple g/L, but I don't really want to take the corresponding hit of lowering the pH so much (what's a Riesling like with a pH in the 2.8 - 2.9 range?) Anyway, I added .5g/l of tartaric acid before fermentation started, so I just added another 1g/L now to raise it to a total of 6.6g/L -- still low for Riesling, but as high as I dare push it. Ideally this would be up near 7.5 or even 8, but there's nothing we can do about that. Also, there's still a bit of H2S smell on the juice, so I racked once to add oxygen, and later tonight I'll add another .2g/l of Fermaid K to raise nutrients a bit more. As for fermentation progress, here are today's numbers: Brix: 17°B @ 60°F http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/10/fermentation_day_4_confirmed_n.php http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/10/fermentation_day_4_confirmed_n.php 2007 Riesling: Fermentation Notes Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:32:50 -0500 I've tackled the H2S problem by adding both nutrients and some oxygen to help the yeast ferment properly. I typically don't like to add yeast nutrients to any ferment until the fermentation is completely underway, so I waited until today (2 days in). I added .2g/l of Fermaid K to the bottom of another carboy, and then splash racked the fermenting juice into the new carboy -- thus adding both nutrients and oxygen. Update: a few hours after the racking and there's been a significant reduction of the H2S smell. It's not completely gone, but it's better. I'll confer with Norm and see if there's anything else I can do that will help. http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/10/fermentation_day_3_adding_nutr.php http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/10/fermentation_day_3_adding_nutr.php 2007 Riesling: Fermentation Notes Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:25:44 -0500 Fermentation is roaring along. I've chilled the juice down to about 12 - 14 degrees Celsius in order to slow fermentation and preserve as much of the fruitiness as possible. To chill the juice, I've placed the 23L carboy in a beer-keg bucket, and filled the bucket with cold water. I keep the water cold by rotating frozen cooler-packs in the water a few times a day. PM update: I've noticed a significant H2S smell coming from the airlock, this will need to be dealt with tomorrow. http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/10/fermentation_day_2.php http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/10/fermentation_day_2.php 2007 Riesling: Fermentation Notes Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:00:00 -0500 I inoculated the 2007 Riesling today. Before inoculation, I racked the juice off the lees formed by the Argilact I used to settle the juice a couple days ago. I lost about 1/2 a litre -- not much, and the juice was very clear. And Before dumping any yeast or acid in, I racked off and put 1L of reserve juice into the freezer, in order to add back a touch of sweetness (if desired) before bottling. Norm wasn't sure of the TA yet, as he hadn't run numbers, but anticipated it was going to be a little low, and would need 1/2 to 1 g/l of Tartaric Acid to bump it up a little. So, since I don't know the TA, I added 0.5g/l of Tartaric. I then inoculated (according to Scott Labs yeast-rehydration recommendations) with 5g of VL3 yeast and 5g of Go-Ferm. The fermentation took a few hours to get going in a 1L bottle of juice, and once that was roaring, I dumped it into the larger carboy, with the rest of the juice. http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/10/fermentation_day_1_inoculation_3.php http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/10/fermentation_day_1_inoculation_3.php 2007 Riesling: Fermentation Notes Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:00:00 -0500 winemaking notes.]]> http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/10/unexpected_riesling_for_2007.php http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/10/unexpected_riesling_for_2007.php 2007 Riesling Latest News 2007 ontario riesling Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:22:37 -0500 http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/09/filtering_the_icewine.php http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/09/filtering_the_icewine.php 2006 Riesling Icewine 2006 Vidal Icewine 2006 Vidal Icewine, Neufeld Latest News Tue, 04 Sep 2007 23:25:33 -0500 Kim and I drove down to Niagara-on-the-Lake today to buy bottles for all my icewine and whites. We decided on 12 cases of the dark brown tall-shouldered (Bordeaux-style) Icewine bottles, and five cases of green hock bottles for the Riesling and Gewurztraminer. While we were down there, we hit a few wineries to try and find a nice white to go with the lobster we were going to have with dinner: Lailey: I really like their Pinot, so I was looking forward to going there for the first time. Unfortunately, none of their whites really worked for either Kim or I -- they're all quite dry (which was nice) but too acidic for our tastes. I know Riesling is supposed to be acidic, but these were a bit much. 13th Street: Hmmmm, the 2006 Funk Vineyard Riesling was our pick of the day -- perfectly balanced, not too acidic, and delightfully fresh with great citrus fruit and minerality. Malivoire: Unfortunately, they were out of the wine we were specifically looking for -- a delightful spritzy Chardonnay Musque, that's only 8%, $18 and is one of our favourite summer wines. We tasted through a few other whites, but nothing really grabbed us beneath our $25 ceiling (the Moira Chardonnay is great, it's also pricey at $36). Fielding: Damn their Viognier turned out great. New for 2006, this was much anticipated and did not disappoint -- full mouthfeel, but not as thick as Viognier found in California; and great Viognier fruit: lemon, pear & apricot. At $30 it's a bit pricey, but it sure is tasty. We also walked away with one of their last 18 bottles of the 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, another of our favourites -- a perfectly balanced, crisp Sauv Blanc with a touch of residual sugar, a grassy nose and a mouth full of peach flavour. http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/08/buying_bottles_and_tasting_whi.php http://www.trufflepigwine.com/2007/08/buying_bottles_and_tasting_whi.php 2006 Gewurztraminer 2006 Riesling 2006 Riesling Icewine 2006 Vidal Icewine 2006 Vidal Icewine, Neufeld Latest News Sat, 25 Aug 2007 22:00:00 -0500