Category: Matt’s Wine

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First Impressions of Matt’s Strawberry Melomel

It’s been six months now since I bottled my strawberry melomel (here’s the recipe if you like: Matt’s Strawberry Melomel). My wife and I had some friends over for dinner and I decided to offer them some to see what they thought of my creation (these were the same friends I put through the Riesling Yeast Experiment tasting).

Strawberries
Strawberries just asking to be fermented.

Unlike the previous tasting this was not a formal event. I merely asked our friends if they cared to try another one of my wines before dinner. They agreed so I put one of the 375 ml bottles in the freezer for fifteen minutes or so to chill it down.

Continue reading “First Impressions of Matt’s Strawberry Melomel”

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First Impressions of My Shiraz and the Mistakes I Made

You’re really supposed to wait six months after bottling a red wine before you taste it…but I couldn’t resist!

When I bottled my Shiraz I wound up with 29 full bottles and about a half bottle left over. Needless to say I couldn’t store the half bottle for any length of time without oxidizing it. So, the only thing left to do was drink it!

I wanted to taste the wine as bottled for two reasons. First, I wanted to know what it tastes like in the beginning so that I have something to compare it to as it ages. Second, I wanted to see if I made any mistakes that I could learn from. Here’s what I found when I tasted my wine. Continue reading “First Impressions of My Shiraz and the Mistakes I Made”

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Fermentation Has Begun

Five days ago I began making a six gallon Shiraz wine kit. As I go I’m recording videos on how it’s done, here’s the first video on what comes in a winemaking kit.

Today I wanted to share my first update on my wine. I’m four days into the wine making process. After the first day the airlock started bubbling away signifying that the primary fermentation had begun.

My airlock venting carbon dioxide.

When fermentation first began the airlock was bubbling quite rapidly. The lid to the fermenter was pushed up in the middle from all the pressure, so much so that I was wondering if that little airlock was going to shoot out like a rocket. Continue reading “Fermentation Has Begun”