What's in your glass tonight?

[Rich]

Just finished a day in the winery and racked 67 gallons of wine....there was a gallon of 2008 Ciliegiolo left over so brought it up to the house for bottling, just poured myself a glass...........WOW


this stuff is goooooooooood

What colour did it end up Bob? my 2008 was more of a darker Rosé than a red. Tastes ok though.

[lockwood1956]

its quite dark, would do ok in a table red class...

but then it had a cold soak for about 4 days before ferment kicked in if i remember rightly, so that accounts for the extra colour.

[Darren]

Tonight a very nice yellow label wolf blass chardonnay very nice at 4.99 a bottle

[lockwood1956]

Tonight......another bottle of the 2008 ciliegiolo....great stuff

[goldseal]

A celebratory cup or two of tea

[kampervan]

elderberry rosehip grape and merlot skins, very nice

[papasplow]

beer from the red lion

[lockwood1956]

A celebratory cup or two of tea

I take it the server is back on stream 100% then?

[lockwood1956]

Tonight is a glass of medium dry citrus aperitif (left over from bottling Doncaster show entries)

very nice it is too (cracking recipe Karl)

does exactly what it is designed to do and gets the palate salivating, before food.

recipe here

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=4212&highlight=citrus+aperitif

wonderful stuff

[NorthernWiner]

Ah... this leads me to a question, Bob.

From the perspective of competitions, what is the definition of an aperitif? I'm looking at entering in the "Three Wines For a Dinner" class in the Pontefract show. I have both dry red table wine and after dinner sweet wines covered, but am at somewhat of a loss on what constitutes an aperitif.

Would a liqueur or infusion such as limoncello qualify, or does it have to be a fermented beverage?

[lockwood1956]

basically.....a wine to make you salivate

APERITIF

This is a wine drunk before a meal and intended to stimulate the appetite. These wines usually range from dry to medium, but there are some commercial sweet examples.
Aperitifs should have sufficient acid to taste fresh and leave the palate clean. They are often high in alcohol, but this is not essential. Flavour requirements are varied, and are very much to the individual taste.
The alcohol content should be between 14% and 17%; commercial sherries have some added alcohol, giving up to 21% alcohol. If no colour is specified in the schedule, then all colours should be accepted.
Although some white table wines and sparkling wines are often drunk as aperitifs, these are normally covered in separate classes.
The most common wines used for this purpose in shows can be divided into four main groups, all of which can be made by normal fermentation although some shows allow fortification.

1. Oxidised. The most familiar wine represented here is sherry, dry and medium (of the olorosos, the sweet types are best used as dessert or after-dinner wines).
2. Herbal or Spiced. Vermouth represents the most common wine found here, although various herbs and spices can be, and are, used.
3. Quinine or Bittered. This type often overlaps with the herbal or spiced group, but the main factor is the bitter characteristic which remains in the mouth after tasting. A commercial example is Punt e Mes.
4. Citrus. Amateurs can produce excellent aperitifs from this base which have no real equivalent in the commercial field.

hope this helps

regards
Bob

[NorthernWiner]

Excellent. Cheers, Bob.

I'm thinking along the lines of a vermouth, since the requirement is that it be dry.

[koomber]

I'm currently supping an apple wine that I started before I knew better. Dry as a nun.... dry as a very very dry thing.

Still on glass number 2 and it tastes gooooood.

[lockwood1956]

#Nuns aren't dry surely?



they look like Penguins, and surely penguins are the wettest things ever

(can you think of anything wetter than a penguin?.....except maybe TWO penguins)

[koomber]

#Nuns aren't dry surely?



they look like Penguins, and surely penguins are the wettest things ever

(can you think of anything wetter than a penguin?.....except maybe TWO penguins)

I'll admit that penguins are fairly damp. Perhaps nuns were a bad comparison. Perhaps if they were nuns working in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Even penguins up there would be dry.