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1st Annual Apple Smash yields 47 gallons of cider

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The word for this weekend is most certainly “extraction” – that is, getting the juice from what mother nature has given us. Gently pressing, or violently smashing, it’s all good. On Saturday, I helped the Specters press their grapes in Dave’s refurbished grape press. On Sunday, we did our “1st Annual Apple Smash” using the cider press my dad refurbished but never got to use. Many years later, it finally did it’s maiden smash. Two truckloads of green, red and yellow apples, a dedicated cart, wash, cut and smash crew, and we have 47 gallons of liquid gold. Everyone took home more then enough, and I have enough left to make 20 gallons of apple wine… and 5 gallons of Apple Jack.

Thanks to Dave and Sara Specter, Mark and Tracy Webster, Libby, the kids and my wonderful wife Susan. Special thanks to the Kinkers for providing the beautiful venue, the means, and some mysteriously good coconut curry soup.

With a week of gloomy, dank, cold rainy weather a week before, and a frost the night before, it turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL day and a perfect end to a summer with a very strange crop cycle. I look forward to doing it again next year!

Jim and Jay’s 2009 Elderberry Wine

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This year, I was able to get not one, but two batch’s of Elderberry wine going. There’s a 3-gallon batch and a 5-gallon batch both made in dramatically different styles. I’ve always wanted to make Elderberry wine, mainly because my dad always told me that it was one of his favorite wines. As a typical apprentice might do, I wanted to “copy the master,” so Elderberry was on my list. But, where to get them?

My good friend Jimmy told me about his moms berry bush and how it was always busting with produce, so naturally, I urged him to allow me to help harvest them. Busting with produce is an understatement… After the de-stemming and washing, we had a cool 10 pounds of elderberries around 1am. We got that 3-gallon batch going that night.

Only days later, Jimmy called and said the bush was ready again. He brought over enough this time to make a total 18.5 pounds, so there was the start of the next 5-gallon batch.

Elderberries are small, about the size of a BB, these were a little larger. It’s a job to get 18 pounds! So, thanks a bunch to Jim for making it all possible this year and the reward will be sweet.

The second batch was really something special. The 18 pounds of berries were macerated by boiling sugar-water and allowed to steep overnight. The next day, I hand-strained through straining bags to get a dark, inky elderberry juice. The is the first batch of wine that I didn’t allow the berry pulp to ferment in the primary with the must. The result has been a vigorous fermentation and it worked over the course of 7 days. I’m  preparing to put this in the secondary already.

This is a real treat to have two  good-sized batches going both processed in their own style. Of course, the logs have been maintained so I know what process is better. We’ll just have to let next years cellar event do the talking.

10 Bottles Of Wine You Can’t Afford To Uncork

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Bottled in the Crimea and prized by Russian Czars, the oldest Western European sherry was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in 2001. The most rare bottles of the sherry bear an imperial seal.
Bottled in the Crimea and prized by Russian Czars, the oldest Western European sherry was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in 2001. The most rare bottles of the sherry bear an imperial seal.

No liquid beyond water is more storied than wine. It’s the subject of literature and art, legend and myth. 

Good batches are part science: climate, grape genetics, yeast growth, water impurities and otherwise. The best wines are an almost indefinable art, an essence, feeling or quality that many try to bottle, but few ever uncork. 

To celebrate those wines that have become legendary to collectors around the world, here are the 10 most expensive bottles of wine in the world.

Read this story on StyleCrave

My names not Cooper, but check me out!

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I have a good friend named Jay Cooper… whose mother was my 2nd grade teacher in elementary school. And yes, they had coopers in their history. With a name like that, you’d better.

But I’m not sure I had any coopers in my family. To the best of my knowledge, my father would be the one most likely connected to some coopers. I inherited all his winemaking equipment back in 2001 and in it was several tools used by the Cooper, one who makes and refurbished barrels. Look at that band-banger next to the bucket of beeswax. I promptly put it all to work. I’ve been making wine since 2000, and this cool little 5-gallon barrel that he had needed a refurbish. It was taken care of and it has become a sentimental thing to me now. These pics just show the process.

Wine Cellar Event Sat. Feb. 21

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On Saturday, we ate, drink and were merry with good friends. Over the last 2 years, I have really been digging the red wines. To me, reds *are* more complex animals and hard to figure out both in the tasting and making. But I drink what I like and it spans from sweet to dry. I look at the craft in the style of wine in reds more so than whites. It seems there’s more tinkering done in the cellar with red wines… and rightly so.

These are NOT all the wines that were available. They were this years, “featured selections.” My idea is to feature a diverse group of wines from sweet to dry and cheap to expensive, both red and white. People liked some, but not all. Seems my homemade peach wasn’t so hot. In fact, it tasted soapy 🙁 – But, I plan to play with it some more. You watch, I may just bring it around. My Plum wine however, was something to get jiggy to.

Here was the official line up, but it didn’t include many wines that were brought… and additional wines that were pulled from the cellar.

Reds

2007 Menage A Trios (a blend) – Folie A Deux
2007 Chianti – Ruffino
2005 Syrah Petite – Stags Leap
2005 Syrah – Columbia Winery
2004 Syrah – Red Bicyclette

Whites

2007 Voignier – Stags Leap
2007 Moscato – Sutter Home
2007 Gewurtztraminer – Chateau St. Michelle
2006 Savignon Blanc – Bogle
2007 Chardonnay – Bogle

Sparking

2005 Champagne – Valley Vineyards

My Homemade

2007 – Concord
2008 – Peach
2008 – Plum
2008 – Strawberry
2007 – Niagra Ice Wine (juice from a kit… real deal stuff)

Thankfully, my wife shares the passion enough to where we’ve sinfully set up a budget for wine-buying. The goal was to put some good stuff in the cellar, but it’s so hard to keep our hands off it! So the cycle repeats. We find ourselves being wine junkies to the extent of grabbing a quick bottle of the shelf to try something new. It’s cool when you find a good $5-10 bottle that you really like. The point of my featured selections is not to wow or woo. It’s to expose everyone to a variety of wines… and particularly, ones I’ve been drinking lately. Around here, we “drink what we like.” If you like it, and it happens to be priced right, remember who introduced you to it 🙂

Wine is fun and finding people who appreciate it the same is a blast. Thanks to all those who contributed something to the wine and food. What a great experience. See you at the next taste.

 

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