Dear group,
Bottling my 2013 reds. They have now done 2 winters in DJs in a cold room (gets down to about 6° C), racked last March off a very heavy crystalline deposit, this month - still a good crystalline deposit as they come out of the 5L DJs and into bottle. Tasting notes have rocked the very foundation of home winemaking:
Montepulciano - bought AB fruits Bedford - OK, true to type, much softer than previous notes, maybe a harsh critic would call it thin. Happy but couldn't really say better than Tescbury's £5-6 class.
Merlot - bought AB fruits Bedford - flabby but smooth as the proverbial and rounded - needs attention, which it finds by blending with
Garnacha - bought frozen from some guy out in Lincs - rough, acid, harsh verging on the malicious. Blends with flabby merlot extraordinarily well, leaves you with a peppery, black curranty Rhone type.
Merlot - bought frozen from some guy out in Lincs. Totally, sock-blowing awesome! A huge wine, full of flavour and depth, best red I have ever made and leaving others miles behind. Worth the drive out to Lincs all by itself.
Just for precision, the Garnacha and Merlot from Lincs would have been 2012 harvest (as I bought them Jan/Feb I think) the others were Oct 2013.
Well done Cellar-Rat, great result. I know it's 2 years late in the telling, but that is the nature of it, isn't it?
Bottling my 2013 reds. They have now done 2 winters in DJs in a cold room (gets down to about 6° C), racked last March off a very heavy crystalline deposit, this month - still a good crystalline deposit as they come out of the 5L DJs and into bottle. Tasting notes have rocked the very foundation of home winemaking:
Montepulciano - bought AB fruits Bedford - OK, true to type, much softer than previous notes, maybe a harsh critic would call it thin. Happy but couldn't really say better than Tescbury's £5-6 class.
Merlot - bought AB fruits Bedford - flabby but smooth as the proverbial and rounded - needs attention, which it finds by blending with
Garnacha - bought frozen from some guy out in Lincs - rough, acid, harsh verging on the malicious. Blends with flabby merlot extraordinarily well, leaves you with a peppery, black curranty Rhone type.
Merlot - bought frozen from some guy out in Lincs. Totally, sock-blowing awesome! A huge wine, full of flavour and depth, best red I have ever made and leaving others miles behind. Worth the drive out to Lincs all by itself.
Just for precision, the Garnacha and Merlot from Lincs would have been 2012 harvest (as I bought them Jan/Feb I think) the others were Oct 2013.
Well done Cellar-Rat, great result. I know it's 2 years late in the telling, but that is the nature of it, isn't it?