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Showing posts from April, 2010

Class of 2009

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I bottled the first 25 bottles of the 2009 Riesling over the weekend.  This is my first attempt to make the wine as the German winemakers described it to me at the Riesling & Co. Wine Tasting at the Tribeca Rooftop.  I limited my fermentation and post fermentation adjustments to sulphites and chilling.  No fining, no filtering, and no preservatives.  The wine exhibits a more complex, flowery flavor.  It is a tiny bit sweeter than last year, but I would still classify it as semi-dry or dry.  The new bottle color combination is amber and gold.      

Vineyard Planning

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The vines are set to arrive on May 5. They must be soaked in water for 24 hours and immediately thereafter planted in one foot of loose soil.  Bob McCrindle has been hard at work clearing the yard.  We will plant by digging a 1 foot deep trench for each row using the tractor.  I've put together a rough layout of how the vines will be arranged on the hillside.  The 100 Riesling grape vines will be composed of 4 clones.    The bottles arrived for the 2009 Riesling. I decided not to risk the whole lot on my "making it the German way" experiment. I added KC Super Kleer to two of the three carboys (one oaked and one unoaked). I will filter these carboys down to 6 microns. The third carboy (also oaked), I placed in the refrigerator. I'm planning to bottle the third carboy German-style, sans fining, filtering, and preservatives.  I put together a cherrywood wine rack.  Each of these racks will hold 126 bottles.