Truffle Pig Wine: Journal

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Le Clos Jordanne vertical and horizontal Pinot Noir tasting

November 20, 2008, by Nathan

Jeremy at Cafe Taste has been a big fan of Le Clos Jordanne ever since the first release of the 2004's a couple years back. We actually both stood in line at the Summerhill LCBO on their first release day...

Winners from the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair 2008 Wine Competition

November 20, 2008, by Nathan

I got the list of the winners from the 2008 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair Wine Competition. Here they are with some of my own personal notes (from what I can remember!). You can also read my notes from the event...

Judging at the Royal Winter Fair

November 10, 2008, by Nathan

For some reason (it's who you know, I guess) I was chosen to be a judge for the 2008 Royal Winter Fair's Wine Competition. It's their first year, and they wanted to go in a bit of a different direction then most wine competitions -- using industry "experts" like sommeliers, restaurant owners, agents and winemakers, instead of traditional wine judges.

Ontario Wine Fair on Saturday, July 24

July 24, 2008, by Nathan

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...

Picking up the 2007 Icewine juice from Watsons

February 11, 2008, by Nathan

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,...

ZAP 2008: Dialing in the Zin

February 11, 2008, by Nathan

A couple weekends ago I took in ZAP, the annual Zinfandel festival held at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Hundreds of Zinfandel producers are present, and both times I've gone I've been amazed at the differences I find in the wines I get through.

Top 5 of 2007

December 26, 2007, by Nathan

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.

2007 Icewine order with the Neufeld's

December 17, 2007, by Nathan

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...

White ferments are finished for 2007

December 3, 2007, by Nathan

I only did one white this year, a 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...

Unexpected Riesling for 2007

October 14, 2007, by Nathan

I wasn't going to do any red or white table wines this year, just help out with the Eno and Norman Hardie harvests and then concentrate on my own Icewines come winter. However, Norm was kind enough to spare a 23L carboy of Riesling juice, so it looks like I'll be making a little bit after all.

Filtering the Icewine

September 4, 2007, by Nathan

I didn't filter the Vidal Icewine I made last year and it turned out pretty well. But apparently I was also tempting fate — every single winemaker I've spoken with this year has recommend I pass each wine through all...

Buying bottles and tasting whites

August 25, 2007, by Nathan

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...

2006 Icewines now stabalized

July 15, 2007, by Nathan

It took a month or so of swapping carboys in and out of the fridge (only one will fit at a time), and hitting them with .15g/L of potassium sorbate -- but it's now done and all the icewines have...

Warm weather = Icewine re-fermentation

May 31, 2007, by Nathan

This warm weather we've been having has had an unfortunate side-effect on my Icewine -- they've all started fermenting again. I guess I really should have used Potassium Sorbate in order to prevent any remaining yeast from becoming active again...

Tasting: my 2006 Icewines

April 16, 2007, by Nathan

Now that all three 2006 Icewines are racked off the gross-lees and aging peacefully in glass, I've done a little taste-test to see how they're coming along. Here's what I found:

Picking up 2006 Icewine juice

February 20, 2007, by Nathan

I got up early today and drove down to Niagara-on-the-Lake to pick up my Icewine order from Watson's Barrels. The harvest was late this year, but the Vidal and Riesling-Traminer look and taste great. I didn't get my order of...

Watson's 2006 Icewine is ready

February 13, 2007, by Nathan

I got a call from Kevin Watson tonight, my Icewine order has been picked, pressed and settled and is now ready to be picked up. Since Kim and I are going to be in Ottawa this weekend, skating on the...

2006 Vidal Icewine (Neufeld): Getting numbers and a change in the gameplan

February 9, 2007, by Nathan

I just spoke with David at Palatine, and he's run the numbers on my 2006 Vidal Icewine juice, and they're a bit different than he anticipated. TA: 8.4 g/L °B: 37 pH: 3.63 The TA is a full 2 g/L...

The 2006 Vidal Icewine (Neufeld), is fermenting

February 7, 2007, by Nathan

Fermentation has begun, and you can track daily progress by viewing my Winemaking Notes on this wine.

Picked up 2006 Vidal Icewine juice from Neufeld Vineyard

February 3, 2007, by Nathan

Today Kim and I drove down to Niagara-on-the-Lake to pick up some Icewine Juice from the Palatine Hills. The grapes are from the Neufeld Vineyard.

The 2006 Niagara Icewine harvest to begin

January 19, 2007, by Nathan

I just spoke with John Neufeld, the grower for Palatine Hills and former chairman of the Grapegrowers of Ontario, and he predicts they'll be picking the first of their icewine fruit tomorrow night. Temperatures have been fairly cold for the last few days and the forcast says it'll drop down to the required -10°C on Saturday.

2006 Gewurztraminer, Filtering

December 19, 2006, by Nathan

I got another wine-related birthday gift this year, the Buon Vino SuperJet filtration system. This was something I've been eyeing for awhile, so it came at a handy time. I tried it out on the 2006 Gewurztraminer tonight, as this is the stinky one and could use filtration the most.

2006 Icewine orders

December 15, 2006, by Nathan

I just put in my order for 2006 Icewine this year with two local wineries in Niagara-on-the-Lake. I ordered 20L of Vidal and 20L of Gewurztraminer from the Neufeld Vineyard (Palatine Hills) and 20L of Vidal, 13L of Cab Franc and 13L of Riesling-Traminer from Watson's Farm.

Chambrer 7-bottle Wine Cellar

December 11, 2006, by Nathan

I've wanted a wine fridge for awhile now, but Kim and I have never had an apartment big enough to fit one. So for my birthday this year, the in-laws got me a 1-bottle-wide fridge perfect for our tiny Queen...

2006 Riesling, started cold stabalization

December 8, 2006, by Nathan

Over the next week or so, the outside temperature forecast is to remain within a 4 degree range from -2 to 2°C, so it seems like a good time to cold stabilize my Riesling. The three carboys went outside today,...

Lining up 2006 Icewine sources

December 5, 2006, by Nathan

Today I lined up two vineyard sources for 2006 Icewine. Since last year's Vidal was so successful, I've decided to try my hand at another vineyard and a few more varietals. Here's the plan:

Riedel Vinum Extreme Icewine glasses

December 2, 2006, by Nathan

For my birthday, I got a pair of Riedel Vinum Extreme Icewine glasses from my parents. I had just bottled my 2005 Vidal Icewine, so we wanted to give it a taste in some proper stemware.

2005 Vidal Icewine: Bottling

November 18, 2006, by Nathan

Kim and I bottled our first vintage of icewine today. It took about an hour in total, and I'm pleased with the amount (or lack) of effort.

2006 Riesling & Gewurzt, Fermentation complete and wine racked

November 17, 2006, by Nathan

The second batch of Riesling was racked today, so the fermentation process is now officially over. All we can do now is wait and rack every six weeks or so for the next 6 to 8 months.

Fermentation, Off odours and bitter taste

October 23, 2006, by Nathan

One or two days after fermentation began in earnest, off odours started occuring in both batches of the Gewurztraminer....

2005 Vidal Icewine: Fining with Sparkaloid

October 15, 2006, by Nathan

I've decided to do two rounds of fining on the Viday Icewine—the first with Sparkaloid (a positively charged ion) and the second with Bentonite (a negatively charged ion). Hopefully this will clarify the wine greatly, as it's fairly cloudy right now.

Niagara narrowly misses the snow & an update on my Riesling

October 13, 2006, by Nathan

I spoke with David, the winemaker at Palatine Hills Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake this afternoon, to see if they were hit by the storm that blasted Buffalo with 2 feet of snow. Apparently they were spared and didn't see any of the white stuff. My Riesling was picked and set aside 3 days ago though, so I'll go down tomorrow morning and pick it up.

Harvest 2006 begins - Picked up Gewurztraminer

October 10, 2006, by Nathan

Today I picked up 60 litres of Gewurtztraminer juice from Palatine Hills Estate Winery in Niagara-on-the-lake. The grapes were picked Sept. 27, and allowed to rest 6 hours on skins with some enzymes before being pressed.

2004 Fairview Syrah vs. 2004 Fairview Syrah

July 24, 2006, by Nathan

In the first head-to-head of one my wines against it's commercial counterpart, apparently mine stands up nicely.

Barrels or staves?

March 30, 2006, by Nathan

Alder's got a good debate going on, over at Vinography, on the use of staves and chips in winemaking instead of aging in oak barrels. This debate is one I've been thinking a lot about lately as we approach summer and another harvest.

2006 Vidal Icewine: first tasting

February 13, 2006, by Nathan

I tasted the icewine today for the first time since fermentation completed. My first impression is underwhelming: boozy and fairly dumb.

2005 Vidal Icewine: Sleeping peacefully

February 8, 2006, by Nathan

I forgot to post this earlier, but just before leaving for California last week I racked off my icewine into a snug 3 gallon carboy (with a few bottles left over for topping).

Sixty-five Zins: my notes from ZAP

January 30, 2006, by Nathan

Wow, it's hard to taste 65 wines in a row. Even more so when you're drinking Zinfandel. At least with Pinot Noir, you'll get some variation in style, terroir and extraction; but California Zin is all so big and bold, it gets hard to differentiate between them.

Topping and testing in Berkeley

January 30, 2006, by Nathan

Yesterday was a big day at Truffle Pig. Sasha and I headed over to Berkeley winery around 11:00 and spent the whole day topping up various bottles, testing for MaloLactic fermentation, tasting through various 2003, 2004 and 2005 wines, and gathering samples to send to Vinquiry for analysis.

ZAP is this Saturday

January 23, 2006, by Nathan

ZAP, the Zinfandel Advocates and Producers, is throwing their annual Zinfandel Festival this week in San Francisco CA. I haven't been to one yet, but Sasha and Alder enthusiastically recommend it, so I'll be flying down to California and going to the general tasting on Saturday.

Harvest 2005 begins - Vidal icewine pickup

January 14, 2006, by Nathan

Kim and I drove down to picturesque Niagara-on-the-Lake today to pick up our order of Vidal Icewine. The Watson's farm is situated right next to the Niagara River and about 10k East of Lake Ontario — the weather moderated by both bodies of water.

Icewine Festival tasting

January 14, 2006, by Nathan

Saturday Jan. 14, 2006 marked the start of the Niagara Icewine Festival. Since Kim and I had to be down in Niagara-on-the-Lake that Saturday anyway—to pick up some Vidal Icewine juice so we could make our own—we thought we'd check out a few wineries while we were down there to compare icewines and ask about technique.

Watsons Vidal Icewine juice

January 10, 2006, by Nathan

I have found an Icewine source for the year. While researching Ontario vineyards today, I ran across Watsons down in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

2004 Wines

January 2, 2006, by Nathan

Last year, while living in San Francisco, I made three California wines. Unfortunately, I lost most of my notes in my move to Toronto (another reason to keep this journal), so these abbreviated descriptions will have to do.

Welcome to Truffle Pig Wine

January 1, 2006, by Nathan

Welcome to Truffle Pig Wines, an amateur wine label run out of Berkeley CA and Toronto ON. The purpose of this journal is twofold: to detail my own winemaking processes as I evolve as a winemaker; as well as to...