Super Sunshine Starter Strawberry Smoothie

Mornings typically end up being busy days for me. Cleaning up the kitchen, blog posting, making the coffee and possibly prepping for that evening’s dinner; sometimes I don’t end up with much time for breakfast.

Enter the smoothie. They are so easy to make. With the early morning spring sun showing its face, fruit smoothies taste even better.

They taste sort of like dessert, but generally don’t have excess sugar that is hard for the body to handle. My favorite combination is banana, strawberry, vanilla almond milk and orange juice. For this recipe I used strawberries I picked at Sunnycrest Farms in Londonderry, NH where I live. My wife and I picked them in June of 2010 and they are excess from what we picked to make our award winning strawberry wine. We froze them the day we picked them and take them out of the freezer in small amounts as we need them. Sunnycrest is only a few miles from my home. It is an understated farm with extraordinary produce. We buy a variety of fruits and vegetables in every season from them. We have used their berries and cherries in wine, cider, pies, desserts and of course, smoothies.

Super Sunshine Starter Strawberry Smoothie

1 frozen banana
1 cup frozen strawberries
6 oz vanilla almond milk
4 ounces orange juice

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Serve in a pint sized glass.

Cheers!

Jason

Ancient Fire Wine Tastings Are Back!

( Brian has a great eye for a shot. )

It’s been a while since we had wine tasting at our place. There weren’t any particular reasons for that, it just kind of happened. This past Saturday we gathered a crew of new and veteran Ancient Fire tasters together to enjoy some good food, good wine and great conversation.

( Smiles are always a good sign! )

There were two themes with this tasting, snacks with cheese in them and blind tasting. The blind tasting was based around a mix of commercial and homemade wines and would offer everyone the opportunity to see how many wines they could classify correctly. I was interested in how well I would recognize my own wines against similar styles from commercial producers.

( Just waiting for us to dig in! )

The wine lineup consisted of the following:

• Ancient Fire 2010 Strawberry
• Ancient Fire 2008 Riesling/Gewurztraminer Blend
• Ancient Fire 2009 Petit Verdot
• Ancient Fire 2009 Chateau du Roi (Southern Rhone style blend)
• Ancient Fire 2010 Oaked Chardonnay
• Ancient Fire 2010 South African Chenin Blanc
• Isaaks of Salem 2010 Popp Road Raspberry Mead
• Rodney Strong 2008 Chalk Hill Chardonnay
• Chateau Beauchene 2008 Cotes du Rhone
• Columbia Winery 2007 Cellmaster’s Riesling

I was excited to have Brian from A Thought For Food join us for the tasting. His interest in my Jalapeno Dessert and Chocolate Raspberry Port wines resulted in us meeting up for drinks a while back. We both enjoyed the social time and agreed it shouldn’t be the last time. Both he and Eric made the trip up from Southie to party with us, and I am pretty sure a positive impression was mutual! The rest of the tasting crew, Ed, Jim, Amy, Brian, Wayne, Meredith, Richard, Missy, Melanie and Margot have all enjoyed a number of our wines before and always approach our tastings with curiosity and excitement.

We had just enough food (it seems so often we have way too much) and an excellent diversity to enjoy with the wines.

Rosemary Cheddar Straws (I made these, and will share the recipe later in the week)

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Baked Camembert w/ Carmelized Onions & Sage

Mini Cheesecakes w/ Burgundy or Rum Orange glazes

Italian Skewers w/ 3 cheeses, tortellini, tomatoes and vinaigrette dressing

Make your own fruit skewers

The best pairing was the Chenin Blanc with the baked Camembert. That wine was a late addition after Wayne asked me about the Vouvray Margot reccomended he try. We had had it at Christmas and she loved it so much she was passing on a solid find. While not quite the same style, my South African Chenin is nice and soft with lemon flavors and just a hint of residual sugar. Up against the earthy cheese and sage affected onions, all were taken to a new level. The cheesecakes with the Strawberry wine were also a good match, but I felt the cheesecakes were too good on their own. The cheese straws were best for me with the reds, especially the Chateau du Roi. The rosemary and baked cheddar flavor weren't lost in the wine, which added a bit of spice to amp up the cheese flavor.

( Some bottles got hit harder than others. My reds poured well this time too. )

Margot bagged up the wines so that I wouldn’t know what was what. I did however know what was included so it wasn’t truly blind for me. I was able to guess 8 out of 10, with the two I swapped creating a good deal of curiosity as several others mixed up the same commercial and homemade selections. These two ended up being the Rhone blends. I thought for sure the drier, more acidic selection was my own, but it ended up being the Chateau Beauchene. Having spent the last week tasting Cotes du Rhone wines I was heartened to find that my own version was truer to those I had tasted from the source. I’d surely make that wine again because I definitely enjoy the style.

( One empty and one almost. Definitely a message! )

My strawberry wine is an easy giveaway, but my purpose for including it was to get feedback on the newest vintage which again underwent some recipe tweaking from the year before. The consensus is that I have truly nailed it and improved on it once again. Accomplishing this mission for my flagship wine is a very proud moment for me. Otherwise it was pretty much split as to how many folks could classify the wines as mine or from a commercial producer. My Riesling/Gewurztraminer Blend fooled several folks and based on the feedback should be on my “make” list for 2011.

My heavily oaked Chardonnay wasn’t a big hit, too smoky and too buttery, but when I asked how many people had drank that style in the 70’s and 80’s (we are all too young!) and explained that is was in vogue for a time, it helped with a little context. I also added that there will be some excellent summer BBQ parings, like turkey burgers and smoked turkey, most tasters agreed to revisit it and see how it goes. The Rodney Strong Chardonnay was also oaked, just not as much, and a few tasters compared it and felt that the difference was noticeable, but not extreme. I expect, and hope, my version will calm down a little bit in a few months.

( Richard was digging my Chateau du Roi and appears to be studying it. )

We had a second unfortunate experience with mead from Isaak’s of Salem. The bottle of Popp Road Raspberry poured like a champagne and after two hours of breathing it still poured the same way. There were no flavors in the mead, it was immensely dry and had some off aromas, something Margot likened to perfume or rubbing alcohol. Clearly something has gone wrong and the remedy offered in response to the first experience we had with the carbonation in the Sweet Tooth, let it decant for 30 minutes, was not successful here. I tasted this several months ago and was able to enjoy the raspberry flavor and subtle honeyed sweetness that was intended for this product. I was sad that I didn’t end up being able to share that with my friends.

As always the socialization and conversation was the most fun element to the tasting. Margot and I had the chance to share tales from France with the slideshow going on the computer. Being able to say you stood inside a building that is 1,000 years old, is pretty cool any day of the week!

Our next wine tasting on March 26th will be a fundraiser for our Relay For Life event. Margot and I will supply the food and wine as a thank you to our family and friends for supporting us. Guests are being asked to make a $20 donation, either by check or online, as admission to the tasting. I am also hoping to have folks join us on Twitter during the tasting, raising a glass in support of the fight against cancer.

I also have to thank Brian for taking several great photos (#'s 1,3,4 and 8 in this post) and applying a set of stunning effects to make the pictures look vintage. Be sure and check out his portfolio of photography at http://www.briansamuelsphotography.com/.

Cheers!

Jason

Home Winemaking (Kits, WinExpert & You!)

( a Cabernet, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc fermenting, May 2010 )

You don’t have to spend much time in the world of home and amateur winemaking to come upon a debate about kit versus grape winemaking. The conversation is often fierce and heated, and if you don’t have a thick skin you might get pissed off with some of the feedback freely offered.

Just a bit of quick background for those unfamiliar with making your own wine at home. Wine can be made from grapes and many other fruits (both fresh and from juice), usually with the mere addition of sugar, acid, water, and of course yeast. Traditional grape based winemaking involves the crushing and pressing of grapes before vinification. Along the way quite a few smart companies have gotten into the business of packaging pressed grape juice along with all the necessary adjuncts and instructions for folks who don’t want, or don’t have the means to process grapes. This product has made home winemaking accessible for a great many people.

The debate is whether using kits (and juice and fruit is often lumped in) is really winemaking. Of course it is in the strictest sense. My fresh strawberry wine is made using similar steps, and I pick and process the fruit myself. Kit winemakers generally don’t have to worry about testing and balancing for acid and sugar levels, and are able complete wines more quickly since the volume of solid matter (grape skins, etc) is much lower, thus requiring less clearing time. There are several things that you do learn whether you make wine from grapes or a kit that do qualify you as a winemaker. With time and experience this knowledge can even help you become a very good winemaker!

• Sanitation – keeping your equipment and work areas clean is key
• How fermentation is monitored and what the process looks like
• The development of your senses of sight, smell and taste that guide the progress of your wines
• Siphoning/racking of wine between containers
• The use of oak and how aging affects wines
• Bottling,corking and finishing

So for me the debate is bullshit. I’ll dump my competition medals (for wines, meads and ciders) on the table in front of fierce opposition and ask if the judges were wrong all 28 times! My recipe for award winning strawberry wine was posted last year and has been used by several of my winemaking friends since. Mine is still better!

I don’t exclusively make wines from kits, but the majority of them had been from kits, juice or fresh fruit up until 2010. My first batches of wine from Chilean grapes are still aging and I have high expectations for them. These wines took more effort, required me to purchase new equipment and will take much longer to be ready for enjoyment. Thankfully I am not averse to making wine from our sources and have many other wines available to drink while I wait!
 

( Chilean grapes forming a cap on the top of fermenting juice, May 2010 )

The process for making wine from a kit is pretty straightforward. There are lot of bullets below, but read on and you will see that is not a technical exercise; and much like cooking.

• Kits come with a bag of juice. The higher quality kits come with more juice which means less water will be used to create target 6 gallons you will start fermenting with.
• Generally you will mix warm water with an additive called bentonite (derived from clay) that will help your wine to clear later on. The juice is then added, and water is used to fill the bucket up to the 6 gallon mark. Home brewing buckets have a marked scale on them making this very easy to determine.
• Stirring to mix the juice and water is the big effort here, and you want to get that right. The fermentation will begin and proceed better with a well mixed base.
• At this point you need to add some science to the process and take a gravity reading. A simple device called a hydrometer is used to determine the amount of sugar in the solution. This measurement will be used several times to monitor the progress of the fermentation.
• Some red wines will come with packages of oak which are generally added now, before pitching the yeast. Mixing in fine powdered oak products is a cruel instruction as they don’t get water logged that easy!
• Yeast is provided as a dry packet much like you might buy at the store for bread making. Some kits recommend you rehydrate the yeast, others have you pitch it into the bucket dry. Following the instructions is important for beginners. (I wrote about some yeast re-hydration and nutrition techniques that I added to my process in 2010 when I started my Chilean wines.)
• You will wait 1-2 days for the fermentation to start. The tops of homebrew buckets are provided with gaskets to affix an airlock to. The outgassing of CO2 once fermentation begins will be obvious in the airlock.
• The hydrometer is used to measure the fermentation looking to get to a secondary stage where the fermenting must (that is the proper name) is transferred to a glass carboy to complete its fermentation. The instructions will give you the gravity target you are monitoring for. Some or all of the thick sediment at the bottom of the bucket is left behind during the siphoning process.
• Fermentation continues and once again the hydrometer is used to determine when it is finished.
• At this point additions of potassium meta-bisulphite, potassium sorbate and a clearing agent are made. The fermentation will cease and the wine will clear over several weeks.
• Once the wine is clear it can be siphoned into a bucket affixed with a spigot for bottling.
• Clear and stable wine is bottled and corked resulting in what you recognize from commercial bottles you buy. You can make or buy labels and foil tops to finish or dress your bottles of wine.
• The wine needs to be aged for a minimum of a month to allow the wine to adjust to the bottle.White wines generally are best left to aged for at least 3 months and red wines will require 6 months or more before they begin to drink well. Red wines will often benefit from additional age, but that depends on the variety and how well the wine was made.

And now you have made 30 bottles of wine. I have shared this process with several friends who now enjoy doing this at home for themselves. Having a “house wine” is pretty cool!

( strawberry wine, secondary fermenation - July 2009 )

WinExpert is my favorite manufacturer of wine kits for home winemakers. The selection offered is quite varied in both types and quality. I have never been disappointed with a wine I have made from a WinExpert kit. It is fair to say however that some have been better than others. They are constantly coming out with new styles and travelling the world to source the best possible juices to put in their products.

Their kits come complete with everything you need, including instructions to get even the most novice winemaker going. An added bonus is that their Technical Manager, Tim Vandergrift, is very active in online forums for winemakers. His knowledge of winemaking and the WinExpert product line is an asset for anyone who dips into this hobby. I met Tim at the WineMaker Magazine Conference in May of 2010 and his energy and passion for winemaking was obvious. Ask a question and you’ll get a solid answer you can run with. Offer him a glass of wine and you’ll get a chance to spend time with a great guy.

Check out my recap of the conference from last year. We have already signed up to go to the 2011 conference in Santa Barbara, CA.

By now you might think I am shilling for WinExpert, but alas no, I am saying these things because my experience has been that good. The company has a program that rewards competition entrants for their wins using WinExpert products. In each of the last three years I have won two free kits each year. This has been a wonderful add-on to the competition wins and has helped me add new types of wine to my homemade lineup. They get the advertising bump and I get free wine. Works for me!

Last week I happened upon the website for The Unreserved, a new online community for winemakers and wine & food lovers. And guess what? WinExpert is behind the site. Clearly they are trying to bring together members of their customer base, and wine lovers at large, to connect and share their passions. Jackpot! I signed up right away and posted a few of my recent blog entries for folks to check out. I also sent messages to several of the community management staff about the site and how I could help it grow. The feedback has been extremely positive and clearly my experience with my blog over the last year is going to payoff big here. And much to my surprise, I didn’t read the whole page on the community benefits before signing up, I was notified that a reward for the most popular post each month in the form of a free wine kit had my name on it. I signed up and posted 3 days before the end of the year and I had the two most popular posts for December. Thank you WinExpert!

Making wine at home isn’t for everyone. Hopefully I have shared some insight on the process that at least makes it less mysterious and potentially approachable. There are several home brewing stores in New England who have all the equipment and ingredients, including kits from WinExpert, that you will need to try this at home. And don’t forget, I’m here to ask questions of. Believe me when I say that I still have a lot to learn, and that helping others to make their own wine is one of the best ways to ferment (awesome play on words) my skills!

Cheers!

Jason

Award Winning Strawberry Wine

After this year's WineMaker Magazine Competition I will have won medals of all types (gold, silver, bronze) for my Viognier, Amarone and Strawberry wines since 2008. My Strawberry wine has been a special project based on a local product I knew I could source.

We talked a lot about Strawberry wine while I was on the conference trip and luckily we brought some to share. I introduced the topic when answering a question about how I processed fruit a whole bunch of times. I said I froze it and then let it defrost so I could crumble it into straining bags, easily extracting pits if needed. Excitement was shared many times at how useful this practical trick is.

The response to the wine was amazing and we thank all of your for it. I never expected this fun hobby would net me such awesome feedback. I wanted to share my recipe for this wine and my thoughts on what this year will hold.

This year will be year four for us making Strawberry wine, and the recipe has never been the same from one year to the next. Here is the list of ingredients for the first batch in 2009 from frozen fruit.

2009 Strawberry Wine

(6 gallons)

1 tbsp Bentonite prepared in hot water

20 lbs sliced strawberries (in straining bags)

1.5 lbs golden raisins (in straining bags)

12 lbs sugar

1/4 tsp KMeta

1.5 tsp Pectic Enzyme

5 tsp Yeast Nutrient

1 tsp wine tannin

10 tsp Acid Blend

1 pkg Lalvin D-47 Yeast

This was the wine I brought to the competition and that won the gold medal. I sulfite the fruit after it defrosts and pitch the yeast 24 hours later. The fermentation process is really like any other, you need to macerate the berry bags twice a day and then when you are done there won't be anything left. It fermented nearly dry and halted easily. I did back-sweeten it with some white grape concentrate but only a few percent total volume. But here is my problem. This was frozen fruit and it didn't look as nice. Here is the second recipe we made from fresh fruit. We know the color and flavor is better here but we over-sweetened it and it lacked balance. Bronze medal though!

2009 Strawberry Wine #2
(6 gallons)

25 lbs sliced strawberries (in straining bags)

12 lbs sugar

1/4 tsp KMeta

1.5 tsp Pectic Enzyme

5 tsp Yeast Nutrient

1 tsp wine tannin

10 tsp Acid Blend

1 pkg Lalvin EC-1118 Yeast

Over two weekend days in June 2009 we picked 38 pounds of berries at Sunnycrest Farms in Londonderry, NH. It was fun and Margot picked on me for making her work. All in good fun!

You will notice a couple of changes right away. No bentonite up front, no golden raisins, more fruit and a different yeast. The fruit broke down to about 31 pounds and 6 was reserved frozen until the wine was complete to be used in a strawberry sugar syrup to flavor the wine. Otherwise I added the routine of adding yeast nutrient 1/3 of the way through. This wine fermented similarly to the past years.

We drank almost all of it, excluding a sweetened version made as a dessert wine that needs some age. Nothing lost in all of it for sure.

For this year I think I will use some amount of white grape juice where I had previously used golden raisins, and leave the fruit quantity the same as the second recipe. I am not sure if I will switch the yeast again, but what I can tell you is that I will use Go-Ferm to rehydrate the yeast and a good nutrient at 1/3 and 2/3 of the way through the ferment.

The sweetening syrup should have one cup of sugar to every 3 cups of fruit or less to start. Some water or white grape juice can be used to liquefy the reserve berries. If you need more sweet then add more plain sugar syrup or white grape juice in a second round. In the end I would expect you might end up adding 5-8 % of the original volume back up to 6 gallons in flavoring, it really depends on how dry the berries ferment. My second batch needed less than 5% fruit and sugar. Without the sweetener the wine is like a very light rose with clear fruit but quite dry.

I hope I can produce another good drinker because we are so low on it we are worried there might be panic! I hope anyone who tries it the best of luck. This can be the best wine with a blue cheese topped salad on a hot day.

If you have questions about this recipe or other wine and food topics just drop me a line at jasonphelps@yahoo.com or leave a comment on this post. I look forward to meeting many of you again and happy winemaking!

--Jason

Pairing with Brie & Strawberry Salad

I saw a recipe in the Foodbuzz Top 9 today for Eggs Muerette published in the From Argentina to Paris blog. Not being fan of poached eggs I decided not to attempt a pairing. I would need to eat this dish to do it justice. I did take the opportunity to take a look at recent postings by Cristina in her blog, and found a recipe for a Brie Cheese & Strawberry Salad. That sounds delightful!

Check it out at http://frombatoparis.blogspot.com/2010/04/king-of-cheeses-brie-cheese-and.html

We have paired Brie with our homemade Strawberry wine several times and found the creamy cheese and the sweet and fruity wine just melted together in your mouth. I can see this salad with ripe berries and a zesty dressing could do the same. If you can't find Strawberry wine, and I can't sell you the homebrew, you could also try a couple of other things for a range of effects.

Rose Regale, a sweet proseco from Italy, will invoke some of the same aromas and flavors as the Strawberry wine, and the bubbles will add some zip as well. A dry white wine that came to mind was Gruner Veltliner from Austria. A a great match with the flavors in herbs, greens, and stinky cheese this wine will meld well with the flavors in this recipe for a more subtle pairing (on the wine side) than the other two. The Weingut Hirsch Veltliner #1 would be a good and reasonably priced selection to try.

Cheers!

Jason

Blog Housecleaning

I have been making some changes to the blog as I make it a key part of my sommelier education and training program. Hopefully I will be able to increase readers and get feeds of my blog hosted elsewhere so like minded folks might read even one article. The focus has never been just wine and the tag cloud to the right will show you how I am tagging my posts for easier indexing by topic. You will continue to see posts on food, pairing, beverages of all kinds, destinations and of course my home winemaking.

If you have suggestions for things you would be interested for me to research and post here please shoot me an e-mail (jasonphelps@yahoo.com) or post a comment. I am eager to learn about many things food and drink and helping to bring that information to others, like a teacher maybe?, is a wonderful way to sharpen my skills.

I added the Foodbuzz Today's Top 9 widget to the right as well. Foodbuzz is a social networking site for foodies, and they are kind enough to offer free widgets that link back to their user published recipes and blogs. Very cool indeed. I am always looking for new tastes and textures and I expect I will find inspiration there. One plan I have is to offer pairing suggestions for recipes/dishes that show up in the list. The recipe authors are responsible for the recipe and preparation information and I hope to be able to offer up serving and pairing suggestions to make a complete experience. I'll start this off with a selection from the date of this post (4/27). You can use the link below to find the recipe after that date, but the widget lets you scroll through all of the items being featured on a specific day.

Strawberry, Caramelized Pear & Blue Cheese Salad
http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/yu/yugoslavia/2189410-strawberry-caramelized-pear-blue-cheese-salad

Salads with sweet ingredients can be a wonderful meal or meal starter, especially with the tart flavors in the blue cheese to counterbalance the sweet. We often use this mechanism with the Strawberry wine at wine tastings. My recomended pairing for this salad would be a medium dry Riesling. The wine should not be too sweet as I would expect it will overpower the delicate sweetness in the salad; a little bit will join up with the salad quite well. A drier Riesling will work, but it might oppose the salad too much so I would be careful to select from a region that is known for a bit of residual sweetness, like the Columbia Valley in WA. For this reason I would not recomend Sauvignon Blanc which is typically dry, but I would for a salad with more vegetables and some herbs in the dressing. If you try it let me know what you think.

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

Strawberry Wine

I have become known for my Strawberry wine, one could be known for worse things I imagine, which has become a driver for me to improve future batches.

Early this year we made a batch from frozen berries as we have in past years. The color was similar, although a bit more red, still a light shade and very transparent. The aroma and flavor were also similar, howevera slight bitter aftertaste has been noticed in this batch. While not much of an improvement, no loss either.

During strawberry season here in Southern NH we picked 38 lbs of berries and used about 34 for a batch of wine. About 4 lbs were used in a syrup for flavoring after the wine was stabilized. For this batch the color is much deeper, darker and reminds you of what you see when you look at a ripe berry. The aroma and flavor are much enhanced and the bitterness is not present as far as I can tell. The wine is smooth and medium-dry so it should appeal to a broad audience, unlike our past berry batches that tended to be on the sweet side.

I'll be popping bottles of this at upcoming parties so nobody should be fearful they will lose out. I also added some sulphite at bottling to help with preservation and longevity so if you don't see us soon you also should have no fear.

Having been docked in competition for aroma and color with my strawberry wines, I expect this batch will fair much better.

Cheers!

--Jason

Weekend Update

Wine stories from the weekend.

The 2008 Strawberry, 2008 Amarone #2 and the 2009 Pinot Grigio paired well with the pig roast crowd. The Strawberry lasted longer than 3 minutes, but not by much. The rich Amarone was excellent with BBQ food.

The 2009 Strawberry and 2008 Viognier well very well received at Phil and Meredith's Pampered Chef party. The dessert synched up well with the Strawberry wine, which didn't last two hours. The 2008 Viognier has matured so well from an underwhelming wine early on. Good thing I haven't been swilling it.

The 2009 Pinot Noir went into the bottle today. It is a bit hot, but will mellow with some age. It is rich and not overly assertive and should age well.

A new batch of Bordeaux blend was started today. Anurag and I talked winemaking as we bottled one and kicked off another. If these are as good as the 2007's are now in 2011, we will all be very happy!

Triple Threat

Yesterday we ended up opening 3 bottles from the Ancient Fire line, a 2009 Strawberry, 2009 White Blend RG and a 2007 Columbia Valley Riesling. What an amazing flight they ended up making!

The Strawberry was gone in under 3 minutes! This wine is a our flagship wine. This wine is our fan favorite. The smell of the Strawberry wine permeated an area around the folks with cups full. The flavor is subtle, but you sure know what you are drinking.

The White Blend RG, Riseling/Gewurztraminer, was a huge hit as well. We contrasted it with the 2007 CV Riesling which was much drier in its older age. All three went very well with backyard BBQ food on a hot day.

Thank you to Missy and Steve for the great time.

Cheers!

--Jason

Strawberry Wine

At three years hence the Strawberry wine started this week is the longest running style I have made. The recipes from 2007 to 2009 have changed slightly, but the same basic ingredients and proportions are used.

What starts out sweet is often only off-dry when it is drinkable and with a year of age can actually be dry, but not tart ,while retaining the fruit flavor.

The comparison of the 2007 with the 2008 at several points has indicated the wines are different than each other at the same ages, but a similar drying trend out at 6-9 months appears likely to continue. The 2008 had more sugar to start and when finished, so the drying may extend longer. Only time will tell.

Margot made this batch with me after I enticed her with the "secret" recipe. We both had fun and are looking forward to tastings as it develops.

Cheers!

--Jason

The 2009 Wines are Underway

It has been over a month since I last posted.

Fear not, I have been busy getting supplies together, degassing and fining the 2008's that are still in progress and to lead out the CDP style blend went down last week. For the CDP blend I also used some currants to add grape mass for added tannins, esters, ethers, and solids to dissolve and unlock tastes, aromas and textures. The wine is full and thick and pretty spicy due to its Syrah base. Some oak aging and 9 months in the bottle is the expected target, which ends up being June 2010 or later!!!

The Strawberry and Black Currant Dessert wines got started this week. Both are very sweet with high starting gravities and good balance so we should all feel lucky as these two head on their way to summer parties!

The 2008’s are doing very well, the reds are expected to be going into the bottle in the next few months and the whites even sooner. Most of the reds will need another 6-9 months before they are really drinkable, the whites may 1-2 months at a minimum.

Cheers!

--Jason

Wine Dinner Success!

Margot and I hosted the first of the wine dinners we hope to have this year. The response was amazing and truly an honor as the chef and wine maker as well.

You can check out the menu with this link http://www.ancientfirewines.com/ancientfire/WineDinner12009.pdf

The Elderberry Piesporter was a hit and the pairing with the spicy garlic hummus was spot on.

The main course provided 3 distinct pairings and all of them were unique and very well matched. My favorite was the quiche with the 2007 Bordeaux. The smoky cheese and bacon paired with the earthy flavors in the wine was uncommon.

The cheese course was an opportunity to try the 2008 Plum Dessert wine in a new way. The intense flavor of the cheddar helped to magnify the wine's flavors and the brie provided a smooth and soft base for this intense wine.

We finished up the evening with a light chocolate cake and the 2008 Strawberry wine. We have used this pairing before and continue to use it because it works so well!

We also included a barrel extracted sample of the forthcoming Amarone. There was no pairing involved and at this point the wine clearly stands on its own and is easily recognizable. Patience will surely be rewarded.

Cheers!

--Jason