Everything was set. The yeast were happy, I had the airlocks on so that any spare CO2 would bubble out, and so that nothing would explode. When I woke up the next morning, though, I discovered that my explosion-prevention strategy had a slight flaw. I woke up to this: Turns out some strawberry pulp...
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So once I had the must chaptalized, it was (finally) time for some fermentation. Before starting fermentation, I wanted to make sure that my fermentation was clean, and that means sterilizing. Most wineries would sterilize using steam or detergents and sanitizing agents. While these are available for homebrewers (B-Brite and C-Brite are common sanitizers),...
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Sarah and I are members of the Sweet Land Farm CSA (community-supported agrictulture) in Trumansburg. For those unfamiliar with the CSA concept, you basically invest in a share of the farm and your dividends are vegetables and fruits. Anyway, one of the benefits of membership is unlimited U-Pick strawberries. Naturally, I picked about 5...
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Twitter is awesome. If you’re not on it, you’re missing out. Join the conversation with me and these Finger Lakes Winery personnel. This will become a permanent page on the site, so check back for new additions as word spreads to winemakers and owners that allowing people to get to know the people behind...
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Note: this is somewhat of a rant, and not really science-based, just an observation. We will return to our regularly scheduled peer-reviewed science soon enough. I had an awesome time at TasteCamp East a few weekends ago, for which, I point out, I missed a Pussycat Dolls concert at Cornell. The things I do...
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Even though the semester is technically over, I’ve had a very busy week workwise. Unfortuntately, I don’t get paid to blog about wine (one can dream, though…). HOWEVER I do have lots of tasting notes in the hopper, including notes from a tasting of 12 or so rieslings (!). So I expect to make...
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This weekend I attended an unforgettable wine event in Long Island. Hosted by wine blogger role model Lenn Thompson of LENNDEVOURS.com, the goal of TasteCamp East was to get wine bloggers together to taste as many Long Island wines as possible and meet with winemakers to get an overall sense of New York’s third-best...
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For this entry, I figured it would be easier to just make a video. .appendChild(lyte)}})(); Some notes: Cork taint is caused by accumulation of a molecule called 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA) in wines. It makes the wine smell like an old basement. Musty, cardboard, soil, moldy. It’s generally believed that chlorine used in...
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