A Peach Of A Wine

Last night Margot and I hosted Julie and John for another of our monthly dinner dates and I was particularly excited to plan a meal with a peach theme.

I specifically chose this theme because we had purchased a bottle of Hopkins Vineyards (CT) semi-sweet peach wine last August and had also made a similar wine of our own last summer. I was very interested in the side by side comparison.

The verdict on the side by side comparison is that Ancient Fire wins having the most peach expression and a longer and more pleasing finish. The Hopkins selection was less like a fruit wine than a heavily peach flavored white wine such as a Gewürztraminer or Vidal. While not a bad thing at all it the wine also went flat too soon and was not as reminiscent of eating a peach as our home version. The nose on the Hopkins selection was an initial give away that it might be very different, and before taking a sip I could think of several other wines that it reminded me of on aroma alone. The wine was very good and would be one I recommend, but when compared to our peach bomb it didn’t match up. The Ancient Fire selection was slightly sweeter and had peach aromas and flavors throughout. The finish was longer and actually felt a bit thicker as it coated the tongue. We will definitely make the full six gallon batch of this again come summer time. Last year we split the batch and blended some with Moscato which is quite good, but not good enough to repeat.

Both wines were paired with our meal which consisted of slow cooked Peach & Tarragon Chicken over Apricot Ginger Rice with Honey Soy Brussels Sprouts. Both of the wines fit well with the meal but the added peach flavor in the Ancient Fire selection created a more enjoyable pairing.

We have done side-by-side comparison of commercial wines with our own several times and it is clear this time we hands down favorite. Doing this has served several purposes for us including, helping us determine how close to varietal character we have come, using tasting notes of commercial wines to better understand similarities and differences we observe in our wines, and lastly because it is just so damn fun! Why open only one bottle of wine when you can open two or three or more and compare them?

Cheers!

--Jason

Cellar Update - Jan 23, 2010

The 2009 batches are slowly disappearing with some benefitting from cold stabilization and some just gently settling to maximum clearing. The following selections from 2009 have yet to make their way into the bottle:

Australian Riverland Reserve – this was Margot’s first and unfortunately we have experienced some protein haze which is being real fussy about clearing.

Elderberry Rose – this wine just needed some time to settle and clear. I allowed it to do that before I added a touch of sweetness to enhance the warm weather enjoyment. Summer here we come!

Moscato – this was one of two pails of fresh juice from the fall and since it came in late it has run longer than last year. It is ready to go, I just need to find some time.

Plum/Riesling – this was the other pail of fresh juice I split with Vincent and with the addition of the plums it required an extra long clearing time which from the looks of it has proved successful.

Peach (1/2 batch) – this was held over to blend 2 to 1 Peach/Moscato to make 3 gallons, with the last gallon of the Peach planned for a dessert wine. This plan will take shape in the coming weeks.

Hard Cider – I ended up with 7 barrels of cider and let them ferment dry and then completely clear before messing around with them. The time has arrived the first barrel has been racked, sweetened with strawberry syrup and is ready to bottle. The other six will get various treatments from slight sweetening to cherry and raspberry flavoring over the next month or so.

With that we can move on with the 2010 vintage which is expected to bring a bunch of new things!

Cheers!

--Jason

Local Fruit Wines

Strawberries, peaches, pears and plums.

We have made or are in the process of making wine from all of those fruits grown by farms in town. Much love and thanks go out to Sunncrest, Elwood and Macks for the wonderful products we have acquired so far this year. The wines are better than ever! If you haven't visit any of their farm stands or U-Pick locations you should and often.

I wrote an earlier blog on the strawberry wine and will only follow that up with feedback that it is the best in 4 tries.

The peach wine has a beautiful orange/gold color and a subtle nose of peaches. We have some blending plans for this wine which I will write more about in time.

The pear wine is still fermenting and so far is looking good, but more time and clearing is required before its future self starts to shine through.

The local plum crop this was beaten by weather and as such the quantity we got will be blended with Riesling juice to make a full batch. More on that one later as well.

We also have hard cider on deck, but have not yet decided on who to source it from.

Cheers!

--Jason