Wine competition and………….corn dogs!

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I, as well as my family and in-laws, made a trip to the McHenry county Fair last Friday. They had and amateur wine competition and I entered 5 wines. I heard about this from Donna with the McHenry County Corkers Club from which I purchased some Chilean juice this past spring. Thanks to her!! The cost was great, only $2 a bottle. I entered the following: Skeeter Sweat (lemon), Key West Blush (lime-strawberry), Peachy Keen (lemon-peach), Spring Breeze (lemon-strawberry), and Caramel Apple Pie. I made it just in time to enter, no thanks to the wonderful Chicago area traffic!! 2 hours from Oak Brook!! Really!!! Only 1/2 hour more in a plane and one could be in Florida. But I digress. It was a long night. They had 2 knowledgeable evaluators who scrutinized each of the 30 plus wines. Only suggestion, have 4 evaluators so each team of 2 can tackle 2 separate wines to make the process go quicker. Make no mistake, they did a great job. Along the way they offered what they were doing and why. They also gave pointers along they way as far as blending and what each varietal should carry through on the palate.

Yeah yeah get to the point!!!!

All 5 took silver medals and my label for Caramel Apple Wine took gold/best in show. I was surprised because mine did not take best in the classes, and I thought that’s all they were doing. I had to leave right after that and if it had not been for Donna letting me know, I would not have known I won. Thanks again!

Up next, the 39th Annual US Amateur Winemaking Competition sponsored by Cellarmaster in Ca and the 2012 Midland Wine & Grape Amateur Winemaking Competition in Elgin Il early next year.

And oh yeah, the Pinot Noir that I am doing. I racked it again. Patience young padewan!

Winner winner, we did have have Chicken dinner!!

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The results are in. I entered 2 wines into the 2012 Illinois State Fair Wine Competition this time around. Last year I only entered one, my very first wine- Skeeter Sweat. It won a double gold medal, just shy of best in show for amateur. This year I entered my Peachy Keen and Apple Pie Wine. The Peachy Keen is based of the Skeeter Sweat recipe with peaches added. The Apple Pie is real apples with cinnamon to finish off. They both won SILVER medals!!!!!! The results can be found here . I am pleased and extend a big congratulations to all the winners. I can’t wait to see the comments on how to improve the wines. Ill post pictures of the medal when I get them.

The Pinot Noir is coming along well. Just collecting dust, not really, in the basement bulk aging. Might rack in a month.

Stay tuned…………………

Racking Day #1

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Today I racked the Pinot Noir into a 6 gallon Better Bottle carboy. It only took about 15 minutes to do. I fit the airlock on and moved it to the basement. I will re-rack in about 3 months and stabilize then too.

The pictures are the carboy being filled, the bucket draining, the filled carboy and finally the slurry. I think I will use the slurry to make a Pinot Pee (Skeeter Pee w/the slurry). A lot of people who make Skeeter Pee claim its good. skeeterpee.com

I also racked my Spring Breeze 2.0, and am working on my Pineapple wine. I have pineapple juice and mango juice simmering down to add to secondaries.

Stay tuned!!

Gravity check and Pineapple Wine and some Pee.

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Today I checked the specific gravity of the Noir and it’s chugging away at 1.022 . It tastes great. Still sweet, but it will finish dry this coming Monday I think. We will then rack it to a carboy to bulk age at least until Thanksgiving before we bottle it. We are letting this go straight instead of oaking it or anything else like that. No picture since it looks the same. Bubbles on top and purple.

I started on Weds a pineapple wine. Tim was talking to someone at the pick up about something he tried in Hawaii, Maui Blanc by Tedeschi (sp?). I used pineapple juice and sugar and added golden raisins for body. That SG was at 1.092 which will get about 10% ABV. I might try to split the batch into secondary’s and back-sweeten one with passion fruit.

And some Pee? I currently have 2 batches of Skeeter Pee going. Google it. I won a gold medal  in the 2011 Illinois State Fair Wine Competition with my batch. I called it Skeeter Sweat. One batch is going to be Peachy Keen (same recipe with peaches) and a batch of Spring Breeze (same recipe but with Strawberry conc.). The peach Is done and I will splash rack tomorrow or Sun, and the Spring Breeze needs until Weds I think before I rack.

 

Stayed tuned for more………………………

And were off! Day 1

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Project: 2012 Chilean Pinot Nior

Winemakers: Mark, Tim and Mike

Tim and I picked up the juice on Sat the 14th from McHenry County Corkers wine club. It was real nice. They had a nice spread of food and many samples of homemade wines. All were very tasty. I sampled 2 Niors, one 2010 and one 2011 I believe. Tasty and not as dry as I thought. I brought up a Apple Pie Wine and Key West Blush. The KWB is just a Skeeter Pee with lime juice and strawberry. The Apple Pie was a hit. I WILL be submitting it to the Illinois State Fair wine competition. There were still a lot of buckets to be picked up by people. Someone came from St. Louis too! Tim and I stayed awhile and then got our Nior and had to leave.

Once we got home we checked the levels as we could. OG of 1.095 and  pH of 3.6. Seems balanced to us. Oh, its a Bella Lova juice bucket from fresh pressed Chilean 2012 grapes. It was still very cold, 59 deg, so I sulfated and put it in closet. That’s the warmest spot for fermentation.

Well it’s now Sun eve and I just checked it and the fermentation has commenced. Aggghhhh! I have Lalvin Bourgovin yeast I am using and I didn’t want to inoculated yeast to start. The yeast is proofing as I type, so I will add that soon.

Check back for more posts!!