Wine swap 2009/2010

[lockwood1956]

hmmmmm you are right

i was thinking of pairing up bottles, but that increases postage considerably, so i will just draw names, and leave the peeps to sort the numbers out, i think the standard 2 bottles reduces postage

that sound about right?

[lockwood1956]

ey up Karl

we have 17 names, we need another, you want to do joint one (1 bottle each) and swap with someone?

[Duffbeer]

Can do old bean

[lockwood1956]

OK boys and girls...

here it is


Darren - Omniata
Hedgerow - Mamgiowl
Karl/bob - Cariad66
Medpretzel - NorthernWiner
ukric - Kampervan
Crusher - Missus
Benarnold - Goldseal
sisandrine - Duffbeer
Hong - Lockwood1956

PM each other for addresses etc, the deal is to send each other two X 250 ml pet bottles of your wine (you may swap more if you both desire! )

have fun, and be sure to post feedback to each other, and on the forum if the winemaker is ok with it....(please ask them)

if possible please use the VWC scoring sheet.

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1989&d=1248168230

if you need any help/guidance, or have any questions, please just ask, or PM me

regards
bob

[NorthernWiner]

Yay!

[lockwood1956]

Just spoke to her at work...and she was happy too (but then so am i for i will make her share )

we are due back at my place on 2nd Jan, not sure if she has pet bottles here, if not I will try to get some, failing that I will take her wines back with us and post from Knottingley

[kampervan]

ok just tried Ukerics wines, a wine no1 ( medium) and a wild plum. have done this with wife and as far as we are concerned both get honerable mention as plum = 11.5 and wine no1 = 12. both wines are young, would like to taste plum in 6 months. i have to say i prefered plum and wife no1, and wine no1 was better than mine ( but too sweet for me). both were clear and typical for age (very young) plum had better aroma, wine no1 nearly none. plum was a bit acidic.plum was a bit green, think this would improve with time. We felt both were appropriate for age, well made but not exceptional. wife would happily quaff wine no1 ( bit too sweet for me but was label as medium, I would never choose medium white wine. nothing wrong with it just not my taste). plum was ok but tasted very green ( really think it will be a nice wine in 6 months. Just hope you enjoy tasting ours as we have yours. wife will finish the wine no1 now.


ian

[ukric]

Excellent, thanks for the feedback, I do have high hopes for the plum in 6-12 months.

I have another gallon of the plum to bottle, I intend to sweeten the 2nd gallon a bit more to take the acid down just a touch more.

When I had two separate gallons one was vastly more acidic than the other so they were blended together, I was unsure quite how far to sweeten it and still keep a bit of an acidic taste.

I shall definitely be making this again next year and refining it.

[kampervan]

if it was me i would not sweeten just yet give it time.

[ukric]

kampervan's Elderberry wine

First off, thank you for sending me your wines and thank you for allowing me to pass comment on them. This would be my first time passing proper comment on someone's wine so if I get it completely wrong go easy on me

The elderberry has a deep rich colour, good clarity against the light.
It did require further de-gassing.
I haven't tasted elderberry wine before so wasn't sure what to expect. The tannins were mellow and it had good flavour.
The aroma smelled earthy to me, I liked this.
The dryness was spot on, off dry?
There was a pleasant warming aftertaste, if I were to guess I'd go for 13 - 14%?
I did find it benefited from a small amount of tartaric acid in the glass, I tasted without, with and without and found that with was more agreeable.
I liked this wine, I drank it all and it left me with an excellently purple tongue.

I'd like to know how old the wine is?

[kampervan]

30 months. One of the first i made. tried at 6 months yuk and at 9 months yuk, so put in back of shed and left. opened one a few weeks ago and was lovely. some do seem to need a bit degassing, prob as was bottled without stabalising and not fully dry. will try adding some acid to one this eve.

and thanks ian

[kampervan]

by the way blending your plum and no1 makes a lovely wine.

[benarnold]

Goldseal sent me a Trebbiano he made at Grapefest in 2008 and a Christmas Pudding made in the same year. My wife and I sampled the wines at the weekend, so here are our thoughts...


Trebbiano

Good strong aroma, especially the first sniff. It was quite complex, smelling of vanilla and pear drops. There was a subtle apple note in there somewhere as well. It was very inviting to smell, and had a gorgeous almost caramel colour. I thought I got the odd whiff of SO2 but I'm not sure, I tried hard to detect it but only found it a couple of times. Not sure if it was really there or just me.

I think there was an ever so slight carbonation when I opened the bottle, the first couple of mouthfuls had a small tingle to them. It dissipated very quickly though.

I could taste apple and pear drops again, also a bit of lime. My wife thought it was a touch sharp, but then she prefers sweeter wines - I actually thought it was quite smooth. I liked the finish, it stayed on the back of my tongue for a while, very moreish. Am I right in thinking it was quite high in alcohol content?

I used the tasting sheet and ended up with 17.5 for the trebbiano.


Wine No 4

I didn't tell my wife what this was, and the first thing she said was that it smelt and tasted of Christmas. It was actually quite uncanny, it was just like Christmas in a glass, all the warmth and spiciness. I've always been quite wary of the Wine#4 recipe, wondering how on earth it was possible to make a tasty wine out of a Christmas pudding (talk of skimming the fat off was especially disconcerting) but after tasting this one I no longer doubt it. It was a touch on the sweet side for my taste, but it hadn't been chilled (my mistake) and I'm not a big drinker of dessert wines. It was just right up my wife's alley though as these are her favourites - and she loved it. How old is the wine, has it had to mature much?

I had the remaining glass tonight from the fridge and it is very tasty indeed. It had a lovely dark colour to it, and an aroma of brandy. The sweetness seems to have receded a bit when chilled.

With the tasting sheet I gave this wine 18. I think I actually preferred the trebbiano though as it kept enticing me back for more with that lingering aftertaste. I also don't think I could drink a lot of the #4 in one go.

Thank you so much for sending me those wines, they were both delicious and I very much enjoyed drinking them.

[Duffbeer]

Sisandrine sent me two bottles last week, sorry for being slack Simon, just got around to posting.

Both wines were excellent on both colour & clarity.
The first one I tried was an elder flower dated summer 09, this was a well balanced wine & quite pleasant, the only thing I found was the elderflower was a tad overpowering in both bouquet & flavour, possibly a little too much was used. Although it may well become a little more subtle with time.

The other was strawberry & blueberry, again another well balanced wine, the bouquet was fresh & fruity with easily detectable strawberry, It certainly had a lot too regarding flavour, the only tip for this was to sweeten to a med dry to bring out the fruit flavours a little more.

All in all both wines were pleasant & well made.

Cheers Simon, will be sending mine soon.

[Cariad66]

Bob has not mentioned the wine i sent..lol
He's either being polite or I've killed him

I did send an apology with the wine but it was the only thing i had with any age to it!

Geeze..lovely day innit