Ramblings, Reflections, Verse & Genealogy: Wine: Old and New

Very Old Wine:

In June 1966, Humble Blogger attempted to make his first batch of Dandelion wine from the yellow petals scattered about the yard at our home in Arden Hills, MN. After the addition of sugar and wine yeast the mash fermented to produce about 12% alcohol but this is where my wine log book ends, so it must have never cleared or spoiled and was never bottled.

I had more luck making Rhubarb wine from stalks pulled from our garden and Concord grape wine from grapes on vines at Grandma W's home in Rochester, MN. The 5 bottles of wine shown below were all bottled on November 10, 1973. While filtering and bottling the wines, I listened to the Watergate Hearings on the radio. Nixon was president for his second term and he resigned Aug 8, 1974 because of the Watergate scandal, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew had already resigned!

The 3 bottles of Concord Grape wine on the left were "made" (i.e. "vintage") from harvest grapes in September 1971. The 2 bottles of Rhubarb wine on the right were "made" using the spring crop of Rhubarb in May 1971. Thus the vintage of these wines is 1971, or 40 years ago! The wine has been stored on its side all this time to keep the corks moist. There is heavy sediment in all the bottles. I bottled the wine using any bottle I happened to have in the house at the time, wrapped lead foil seals over the neck of the bottle to keep evaporation to a minimum and typed labels using my old portable Smith-Corona typewriter. I determined % alcohol (ethanol) content using a vinometer which is a simple capillary device calibrated for various alcohol percentages. For numerous reasons, I abandon wine making after fermenting one more batch of Rhubarb (which I ultimately discarded before bottling in the early 1980's). I would return to making wine after retirement in 2001.

3 Bottles of Concord Grape Wine on the left and 2 bottles of Rhubarb wine on the Right Vintage 1973

Concord Grape Wine Bottle Label Made 9/13/1971 and Bottled 11/10/1973

Rhubarb Wine Bottle Label Made 5/30/1971 and Bottled 11/10/1973

Taste Test of the Concord Grape Wine after 23 years ageing:

I planned to open the bottle when eldest son John made various milestones (graduated from High School, College etc.) but I never did on those occasions. I did decide to open a bottle of the Concord Grape wine in December 1996. The wine from vintage date of 1971 would be 25 years old. Below are some notes I wrote at the time:

1. I opened some "Grape Wine (dry ) 14.4% by volume alcohol" a week or so ago. This is wine I made 9/13/71 and bottled 11/10/73 (23 years since bottling!) I remember the reason for the long delay between making and bottling was that I was letting the wine clear in its gallon bottles after it was made. I remember that I needed to filter it before bottling at that.

2. The wine was full of dark brown precipitate and what was once a red wine was now amber yellow and the cork disintegrated when I opened it. The poured wine was free from precipitates after I poured it through a device which had a fine stainless steel mesh filter in it. It was very strong in terms of alcohol content but had not an unpleasant taste.

3. When I stored it in the refrigerator it developed a cloudiness-probably caused by insolubility of the sodium metabisulfite originally added as a preservative (Probably tartaric acid precipitate in afterthought).

4. Today I filtered the wine twice through a coffee filter, cleaned the inside of the bottle just with sodium bicarbonate (the precipitate on the side easily dissolved) , washed the bottle well and poured the filtered wine back in. As the wine warmed to room temperature, it cleared once again. I may have to treat the rest of the 10 bottles or so of wine to the same process.

5. The wine almost tastes like a dry sherry (which is fortified to have between 14% and 20% alcohol)

Son John did visit for Christmas and we celebrated with a toast of the 23 year-old wine.

Wine Ageing Limits:

Don't drink a wine before (or after) its time. French writer Theophile Malvezin is quoted as saying: “Wine is made to be drunk as women are made to be loved; profit by the freshness of youth or the splendour of maturity; do not await decrepitude”

A site in "Wikipedia" suggested wine ageing limits from Master of Wine Jancis Robinson. He teaches that when the limits are exceeded, the wine begins to degrade producing off-tastes. Some experts say that most wines are fine to drink during the vintage year. I was surprised at some of the short ageing windows for some common wines. According to the chart below, Chardonnay should be aged no longer than 6 years before it starts to deteriorate. I found this table only after I had purchased some California Chardonnay vintage 2003 (8 years old) for 50% off the retail price glad to be getting a good deal. After all, I thought in my naivety, shouldn't any wine be better the longer it is aged? Red wines can be aged longer than white wines, some special ones up to 25-30 years. Brandy and other distilled liquors are different. The longer they are aged under the right storage conditions, the better. No mention here of non-grape wines.

Botrytized wines (5–25 yrs)

Chardonnay (2–6 yrs)

Riesling (2–30 yrs)

Hungarian Furmint (3–25 yrs)

Loire Valley Chenin blanc (4–30 yrs)

Hunter Valley Semillon (6–15 yrs)

Cabernet Sauvignon (4–20 yrs)

Merlot (2–10 yrs)

Nebbiolo (4–20 yrs)

Pinot noir (2–8 yrs)

Sangiovese (2–8 yrs)

Syrah (4–16 yrs)

Zinfandel (2–6 yrs)

Classified Bordeaux (8–25 yrs)

Grand Cru Burgundy (8–25 yrs)

Aglianico from Taurasi (4–15 yrs)

Baga from Bairrada (4–8 yrs)

Hungarian Kadarka (3–7 yrs)

Bulgarian Melnik (3–7 yrs)

Croatian Plavac Mali (4–8 yrs)

Georgian Saperavi (3–10 yrs)

Madiran Tannat (4–12 yrs)

Spanish Tempranillo (2–8 yrs)

Greek Xynomavro (4–10 yrs)

Vintage Ports (20–50yrs)

New Wine:

Since Retirement in 2001, Humble Blogger has taken up wine making again, but in a very scientific manner including filtering the wine just before bottling and purging the bottles before filling with inert Argon gas to minimize oxidation of the newly bottled wine. Except for the Rhubarb wine, the other fruit juices were from cans or poly bags purchased from a local or on-line wine-making store and intended for making wine. My latest Batch 001 of Organic Raspberry wine (12.2018) used frozen organic raspberries from COSTCO and yielded a very tasty wine.

Below are thirteen (13) wines Humble Blogger has produced since 2001. Each Batch of wine resulted in 20 to 27 bottles (750 ml each) but the most recent addition Raspberry wine, (12-2018) yielded 19 bottles (350 ml each) as I begin making smaller Batches in 3 gallon plastic carboys with a spigot near the bottom to facilitate racking of the wine and filling the bottles. I have one bottle of each wine designated as a "History" sample" so that I can follow its ageing progress visually. Clicking on the photo will enlarge it to show label details. The wines were bottled about 6 to 18 months after primary fermentation.

Instead of natural corks, much research led me to use an "Altec" composition cork (renamed to "Diam 2" or "Diam II" in recent years). These corks are very consistent in diameter and density. They are advertised as having the following qualities:

"A new material developed by fusing the purest part of cork (suberin) and synthetic cells, then tested for over 10 years. Altec corks are absolutely symmetrical, perfectly consistent yet totally natural in appearance. Retains optimal gaseous interchange, known to be key to the wine aging process. Altec cork's dust content is 10 times less than that of conventional corks reducing bottling line maintenance. Superior sealing performance allowing bottles to be stored horizontally immediately after corking. Proven in tests to be 100% leak-proof, without wine travel, at a pressure of 2 bars. Easy to extract with any cork remover. Proven in 10 years of testing to leave no off-taste or off-odors. Resolutely homogeneous surface, with neither holes nor defects on any portion of the cork's sides and ends."

I easily insert the corks using an Italian made, floor model, hand corking device.

The bottle necks (with inserted corks) are covered with shrink-wrap PVC plastic sleeves, which are available in a variety of colors and designs. These are easy to apply by slipping the capsule over the neck of the bottle and inverting the bottle for 10 seconds or so in boiling water until the sleeve conforms to the neck. Heat guns are also available to simplify the process.

The Canadian label stock is from www.4th-vine.com but available at many wine maker supply houses. The labels can be printed with laser or inkjet printers and have an adhesive which removes cleanly with the label to reuse bottles if desired. (I always use new bottles). Using MS Word on a label template, I design my own graphics when using a blank label or add information to a label already having graphics . Before applying the labels, I spray the label sheet with two light coats of "CD/DVD Guard" to protect the printing from moisture. [I tried many over-sprays from shellac to acrylic but the CD/DVD Guard worked best with minimal odor and is fast drying. Unfortunately as of 11/2013 this spray is in dwindling supply]. The date shown on the label is the month of 1st racking of the wine just after primary fermentation. An exception is the first listed wine, Zinfandel, Batch 001 which shows the bottling date.

Some family members and friends receive a bottle of wine as a Christmas gift and are appreciative.