Trumpet 32 Wines

Drinkable Wine

My main goal in winemaking was to make a drinkable wine. The first wine I made was from a Wine Expert Riesling kit. My son Timothy gave it to me for a birthday present. After the past bad experiences in winemaking with grapes, a kit wine seemed to be the perfect start to making a drinkable wine. The kit had specific instructions “CAREFULLY FOLLOW ALL INSTRUCTIONS TO THE LETTER TO GET A DRINKABLE WINE.” Now we’re talking. How cool is it that I could be drinking this Riesling in 6 weeks.

I was nervous starting that first wine. I HAD TO FOLLOW ALL THE DIRECTIONS EXACTLY! I am not a good direction follower but I knew that I had to follow these directions to the letter. In the instructions it stated “FOLLOW OUR DIRECTIONS EXACTLY. IF YOU DO NOT AND YOUR WINE FAILS, WE WILL NOT REFUND YOUR MONEY. “ Now I was really getting nervous.

ALL THE INGREDIENTS TO MAKE THIS DELICIOUS WINE ARE INCLUDED IN THIS KIT! IT IS HARD TO SCREW IT UP!

HERE ARE THE DIRECTIONS:

#1. Clean (wash thoroughly) and sanitize all equipment to be used.

I voraciously cleaned my bucket, lid, and large spoon. If you do not clean and sanitize your equipment and your wine is ruined because of unwanted bacteria, WE WILL NOT REFUND YOUR MONEY! Ok, got it. Cleaning and sanitizing are VERY IMPORTANT!

#2. Add bentonite (a wine clearer) in 1/2 gallon of water in a bucket and stir vigorously.

ACTUALLY stir like your life depends on it because if the bentonite clumps together – it will not work – AND YOU’VE RUINED YOUR WINE.

#3. Open the provided bag filled with pasteurized juice.

Be careful while opening up the bag because it can spill out all over your floor and it will take days to clean up the sticky mess.

#4. Pour the contents of the juice in your clean and sanitized bucket.

Remember to pour carefully because what may happen in #3.

#5. Add 5 1/2 gallons of water.

Stir, stir and stir some more. The water needs to integrate with the juice.

#6. Add Yeast

I am starting to like this. Easy peasy!

#7. Put the clean and sanitized lid on top of the bucket and go away for a day.

#8. The next day fermentation should have started. Small bubbles will be on the top of the juice surface. Secure the lid with and airlock and let the magic begin.

#9. Keep the bucket covered with a lid with an air lock. DO NOT OPEN THIS LID FOR 14 DAYS!

#10. After 14 days rack (a process of transferring the wine from one vessel to another with a hose and racking cane). Make sure your carboy, hose and racking cane are clean and sanitized. Do not transfer the gross lees (the sediment that forms in the wine after fermentation) in the bottom of the bucket.

#11. Add your preservatives in the packets provided.

#12. Degas your wine (stirring the wine to get rid of all the Carbon Dioxide).

This is a very important part in kit winemaking. You have to stir and stir and stir. Literally, you are stirring and foaming up the wine, releasing the C02 (carbon dioxide).

#13. Add the clearing packets provided to clear your wine.

MAKE SURE THE WINE IS DEGASSED BECAUSE THE CLEARING PACKETS WILL NOT WORK WITH CARBON DIOXIDE STILL IN YOUR WINE.

#14. Wait a several days for the wine to clear.

#15. Once the wine is clear, transfer your wine into a clean vessel leaving the fine lees (very small particles of dead yeast cells).

#16. It’s time to bottle.

YEAH!!!!! IT IS ABOUT TIME!

#17. Wash and sanitize your bottles.

If you are reusing wine bottles that had wine in, it is imperative that you scrub the inside clean to remove all the residue. Also, it is a bitch to remove wine labels. Soaking wine bottles for several days will usually release the wine labels. If they do not release, applying Goo Off will remove the sticky residue.

I bottled 30 bottles of the Wine Expert Riesling wine. The wine was very drinkable and actually pretty good. I was so proud myself. I did not screw anything up! I am so glad because I did not need to ask for a refund!

I was hooked!!!! Winemaking was actually fun! Making drinkable wine was going to be my new found hobby.

Cheers!

What Do I Name My Wine?

As an amateur winemaker, I will not be selling any of my bottles of wine. It is against the law and in my golden years, I do not want to be behind bars in a very confined space. The worst part, being confined in jail, I would not be able to have my daily glass (or two) of wine.

Even though I can not sell my wine, a wine label and name is important to the winemaking process. The wine name and label says “finis -I am now complete and ready to be drunk”. So the dilemma began. What do I name my wine?

Of course, the varietal name would be very important and prominent on the label. Chardonel, Vignoles, Seyval Blanc, Chambourcin and Norton. These are the beloved Missouri grapes I make wine with. I have also called a wine Red Blend, (blending of several red varietals) and White Table Wine (blending of several different white varietals and I know, these names are not very imaginative or creative).

The most well known family named wine is Robert Mondavi Wines. E&J Gallo is another famous family name. Everyone recognizes Carlo Rossi, the maker of the famous jug wine. The name defines the winemaker and the brand. Even though I am not selling my wine, the name became very important to me in the winemaking process.

Do I choose a family name? Nordmann Wines? It worked great for my photography business, Nordmann Photography. But I had to keep in mind, I am not selling my wine. So this time around Nordmann was not going to work. I could go back to my Italian roots where I had my first wine tasting experience and name my wine after my maiden name, Camastro Wines. And how do you pronounce Camastro? Is that with a hard A or soft A? I could not go back to my first 21 years of life and correct people on how to pronounce my last name. I find it difficult enough telling people how to pronounce my first name Lisa. “Lissa?” “No, it is Lisa, like the leaning tower of Pisa. Lisa is an Italian pronunciation.” After trying to correct people for a lifetime, I don’t care anymore how you pronounce my name. Call me whatever.

The dilemma continued. After much thought, it dawned on me that my children were my greatest achievement in life. I have 4 amazing children who have been my harshest critics and lovers of my wine. They would tell me what they liked and what they didn’t like. In the beginning they mostly did not like any of my wines. They were so kind and tried hard not to hurt my feelings. I will admit, they were very undrinkable wines. But, along with their father, they always supported me in this adventure.

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What better way than to name my wine after my biggest supporters, my children. Do I use their initials? MPTK Wines? No, it did not have a good ring to it and was not descriptive enough. I then started thinking about their high school successes. I loved their high school years. I was very involved in their high school years. You could have described me as a helicopter parent. Two of my sons and my daughter played basketball and sported the number 32 on their jersey. My other son played the trumpet. So there you go – Trumpet 32. It is the perfect name to grace my wine bottles.

Our Daughter-in law, Becky engraved our logo and wine name on our wine glasses. This wine is a 2019 Chambourcin Rose’ vintage made from Chambourcin grapes purchased from Jacob Schneider, Cane Pole Vineyard in Hermann, Missouri.

The Mystery is Solved

John and I were anxious to get to the next Missouri Winemaking Society’s meeting which was going to be on Wine Faults. We would finally find out what went wrong with the Chardonel. It was really off tasting and I was beginning to think that it might not be bottle shock. However, if we blended the off tasting Chardonel with our beloved Woodbridge, Mondavi, Chardonnay, the off taste was fairly non-descript. You could taste that something was amiss, but we had too many bottles to throw away. So, we blended the two wines with a higher percentage of Chardonnay than Chardonel. We were able to drink it and after all, it definitely was alcohol.

We arrived at the meeting and again were greeted by the same friendly men. They saw that we had brought the Chardonel to determine the wine fault. They told me to put the wine on the Cellar Master table (a table with grapes, cheese, and crackers along with several bottles of wine to be tasted) with my name on the bottle and they would gladly taste it during the meeting.

We saw a lot of friendly faces and sat next to Steve and Maggi. Later on I would find out that Steve was by far the expert on making Chardonel wine and quickly became my mentor. John struck up a conversation with Steve, as I did with Maggi. I was so excited to talk with a women as there were very few women winemakers in the group. It was a great connection. She explained to me that she helped Steve with the tasting of wine, where Steve was actually the maker of the wine. They were both retired and helping out with grandchildren. Right away, I new we would become friends.

I proceeded to tell her that I really thought that we purchased bad Chardonel grapes. And 1,000 pounds of them. I saw her eyes widen which led me to believe that not too many wine members purchased that large amount of grapes at one time. I explained that our next purchase was going to be Vignoles grapes. Just not 1,000 pounds, maybe 300. Certainly, we could master that.

The well attended meeting commenced. The Cellar Master (an elected member in charge of passing out the wines) started to pass the wine bottles around for everyone to take a pour. I eyed everyone carefully as to how much wine they were pouring in their glass. I wanted to make sure I poured the right amount and not be too greedy. The next step was to view the wine for clarity, that I later found out could be a precursor to a wine fault. Next we smelled the wine, where a good sniff could again detect certain wine faults. Not knowing what I was trying to detect, I quickly went to the next step in tasting the wine. As I was tasting, I looked at the other members and noticed that several were tasting and promptly spitting out the wine into the white plastic tubs provided. Yuck! I never saw anyone do that before. Sip and spit? What was the point of that?

I was really starting to get into this tasting of wine faults. When one of the bottles came to me, I poured a healthy pour and took a sip. It didn’t taste great but it was definitely alcohol and I was not going to spit it out. Nor was I going to dump it. I really did not know what fault I was looking for. After a few pours, I was getting relaxed and getting the hang of this wine tasting. Actually all the wines started tasting pretty good.

And then my bottle was up next and being passed around. I felt like yelling out to everyone taking a pour, “Don’t pour too much!!! You definitely won’t like it.” When the bottle arrived, I took a small pour and knew that with this wine, I was going to smell, and promptly dump! I already knew what it tasted like and it definitely deserved the white dump bucket. I saw several members take a smell and quickly dump it. I didn’t blame them.

It was now my turn to speak about the wine. I was so nervous. One of the nice officers who was leading the meeting asked me to explain how we went about making the wine. I told them the whole saga of arriving on a hot summer day at the vineyard and the grapes were waiting for us baking in the 90 degree sun. We immediately crushed and destemmed the grapes at the vineyard, proceeded home and put the crushed grapes in our garage which was very hot on a 90 degree day. Early the next day we pressed. The nice man asked,

“What was the temperature of the must (crushed grapes and juice) when you started the press?”

“Well, if the garage was around 80-90 degrees, I am assuming the must, had to be in that range.”

“I know what is wrong with your wine!”, he exclaimed.

I was so excited that someone had actually discovered the Chardonel wine fault. The mystery might be over.

“1st of all, the grapes were warm when you crushed and destemmed them. And then you put them in a hot garage overnight. The must was around 85 degrees when you pressed, creating a cooked flavor. Hot grapes oxidize quickly and the juice spoiled.”

I proceeded to tell them the story of the bubbling cauldron and the fermenting wine overflowing all over my floor. I refrained from telling them about the broken hydrometer.

“You also fermented the wine too hot and quickly. White wines need a slow, cool fermentation.”

Well, there you go. Mystery solved! I finally found out what went wrong with my Chardonel.

The grapes were picked and set out in the hot sun.
The grapes were hot when we crushed and destemmed them.
The must was too hot at press.
The fermentation was way too hot, losing the fresh fruit character of the grape.

Thank all of you nice people at Missouri Winemaking Society. I finally got my answer. Cool grapes, cool must, cool press, cool, fermentation makes a very fruity, aromatic white wine.

Now the next dilemma is how do you achieve and maintain a cool temperature in winemaking?

Articles on making a fruity, aromatic, white wine.

https://morewinemaking.com/articles/Temperature_control_white_fermentation

https://www.winespectator.com/articles/temperature-impact-wine-fermentation-55597

How To Make an Aromatic White Wine

I could not figure out why my white wines were tasting flavorless. John and I became members of Missouri Winemaking Society in 2016 and never missed a meeting. I became a sponge open to any information and suggestions at the meeting. I asked a fellow member. “Why are my white wines flavorless? Is it the yeast I am using? Am I not adding enough nutrients? What am I doing wrong?” His response was, “Cool grapes, cool must, and a cool fermentation are necessary to make an aromatic white wine.”

Ding! Ding! Ding! How easy was that! Make everything cool!

So John and I, early one Saturday morning, headed out to St. Genevieve to pick up 125 pounds of Chardonel grapes from a local vineyard. We carefully loaded up the grapes in buckets and placed them in the car. We cranked up the air conditioner and headed home.

I was prepared this time. I had frozen water bottles waiting to be placed in the buckets after we crushed and destemmed the Chardonel grapes. The grapes were fairly cool from our air conditioned ride home. We promptly placed the grapes in the crusher and got to work. The crushed grapes went into a bucket with a few frozen water bottles. I was determined to get it right this time.

After we pressed the cool grapes, I put the buckets of Chardonel juice in a kiddie pool in our basement filled with ice and water. I was so excited that I was going to get a cool fermentation. We were going to have the best tasting Chardonel. We pitched our yeast, put a loose lid on the bucket, and sat back and enjoyed a glass of store bought Mondavi Woodbridge Chardonnay. This winemaking hobby was so much fun!

The next morning I went to check on my cool buckets of juice to see if fermentation had begun. Yes! I could see little bubbles on the surface of the juice. And then the hard work started. I had to keep going to the gas station to buy hundreds of pounds of ice. This lasted several days. I immediately realized this method maybe not the best.

Our son, Timothy came over that day and looked at our cool Chardonel in the ice filled kiddie pool. “Mom, what you need is a temperature cooled wine room.” “Timothy, now how am I suppose to do that?” “Mom, Dad and I can build one for you. And Dad will never say no to you. So let’s get this project started.” I hugged Timothy for his amazing idea and we both went to John to see if he would be okay with this new adventure.

John and Timothy found the perfect spot in our basement to build the wine room. They promptly went to Lowes to buy all the materials. I was so excited. With the building of this new room, I was envisioning my wines being awarded with many medals. They completed the temperature controlled wine room within a few weeks. I was delighted.

Pics 1,2 and 3 are of Timothy and John starting the build of the room. Pic 4 & 5. I needed to chill my juice prior to fermentation lower than the temp of the wine room so I put the juice in the Speidel fermenter which was already in the Brut 30 gallon bucket. We then wheeled it into the wine room, filled the Brut bucket with frozen water bottles and water. This kept the juice at a low temp of around 40 degrees. If you do not have the room for a temperature controlled wine room, this is a great way to create a cool fermentation. Pic 6 is my wine fermenting in the temperature controlled wine room. I like to ferment my whites around 55-58 degrees. Pic 7 & 8 shows the electric outlet and overhead lights. Pic 9 shows the air conditioner that cools the room. Pic 10 is my flooring which is very important when using glass carboys. These are rubberized mats that are well cushioned. And the last pic is of my Inkbird control that I can set the temperature through the app on my phone.

Directions can be found on the internet on how to build a temperature controlled room. I would be happy to help anyone out with your build. I just can not rent out Timothy and John.

Missouri Winemaking Society to the Rescue

I had caught the Winemaking bug. I started to read everything I could get my hands on including the book Home Winemaking for Dummies, (which actually was a very good book and perfect for me), joined an online winemaking forum, and subscribed to Winemaker Magazine. The more I read, the more confused I became. And did you know that if you ask 10 winemakers how to complete a task, you will get 10 different answers?

I went to St. Louis Wine and Beermaking to buy a few supplies and asked the owner what he might think was wrong with my wine.

“Hey Dave. I am really confused about why my Chardonel wine tastes so bad. We did everything according to the winemaking info I looked up. It just tastes off.”

“Without tasting it, I can’t be sure. But it could be bottle shock. Give it a few months and then open up a bottle. In the mean time go to a meeting at Missouri Winemaking Society. It’s a great group and they certainly can help you out.”

Dave handed me a MWS pamphlet and I had a glimmer of hope for my future winemaking.

When I got home, I googled Missouri Winemaking Society. I liked what I saw. There was hope on the horizon. I called Timothy to see if he wanted to go to a meeting.

“Timothy, I just found a Missouri winemaking group. They hold their meetings on every third Thursday evening. Would you go with me?”

“Mom, remember when I told you I was done with winemaking? I meant it. Sorry, see if dad will go with you. He never says no to you. “

“Oh Timothy, I thought you would always be my forever winemaking buddy. “

“Mom, if you ever need help with your winemaking, crushing or pressing grapes, I’m there for you. But, I personally am done with that adventure“.

That was an imperative no. Timothy was definitely done with winemaking and was well into his breadmaking career. I begged John to go with me, and thank God, he rarely says no to me. So the third Thursday in March, 2014, we hopped into our car and went to our first meeting.

I was really nervous walking into the meeting. I looked around the room and saw mostly men. Most were our age, very few were younger, some were older. I thought to myself, what’s the deal with winemaking? Do you have to be retired? I found out later that most of the members were indeed retired and most had chemical engineering backgrounds. They all looked really smart. I knew I was in trouble. Would I ever understand the chemistry of winemaking? Damn, I knew I should have paid more attention in my math classes. And unfortunately, I was never smart enough to take a chemistry class.

We walked up to a check in table and announced that we were new and would like to join. The nicest man cordially greeted and welcomed us. He introduced us to a few members. Everyone was very welcoming. We took a seat at one of the long tables and the meeting commenced. The president who led the meeting, introduced John and I to the group and asked us to tell a bit about ourselves and our winemaking. Nervously, I stood up.

“John and I are here to learn. We have made a wine but it doesn’t taste very good. I was hoping that someone in this group can help us with our undrinkable wine and tell us where we went wrong.”

We were welcomed by all and assured that they would be able to share information and help us out. At that moment, I knew I was in the right place.

The meeting was led by one of the senior members on “Sulphur Dioxide and Wine Additives“. Holy Moly. I had no frigging clue what the heck he was talking about. I saw John taking notes on the handouts provided. Thank God for John. He took Chemistry in high school and college. He was a math major. But for me, as the presentation went on, the more I got confused. Then one slide came up in the presentation:

FUNCTIONS OF ADDING SULFUR DIOXIDE • Antioxidant absorbs O2 in wine s03+H20 and blah blah blah!!! …..There is very little sulphite (s03) present… and blah blah blah. I think I heard the word PH and somehow that was related to how much s02 needs to be in a wine. The presentation went on and on and I did not understand one word of it. Oh my gosh!!! I decided I was not smart enough to become a member of Missouri Winemaking Society.

At the end of the meeting, my mind was swirling with all this information that I did not understand. One of the officers thanked us for coming and asked us to please come back to another meeting. I was being nice as I nodded my head yes, but definitely knew I would never be coming back. I was not smart enough to be a winemaker. There was too much chemistry and math. And then he handed us a calendar of upcoming topics. The next meeting was on wine faults. The nice gentleman said “I know you mentioned about your Chardonel wine not tasting right. Bring a bottle to our next meeting and we will try and determine what might be wrong with it.”

I was elated. I knew I was not as smart as these winemakers but how could I say no to a group of people that were so willing to help me out. I finally had hope that someone would be able to tell me why my Chardonel wine tasted so bad. It definitely had a “wine fault”. Now “wine fault” was a winemaking term I could understand.

(Find out more about Missouri Winemaking Society) www.mowinemakers.org

A good article on wine faults https://www.winemag.com/2018/01/24/wine-faults/

What is bottle shock? https://www.winespectator.com/articles/what-is-bottle-shock-44883

The End of Winemaking

I finally calmed down after that fiasco of fermenting the Chardonel wine. I have never seen a bigger, sloppier mess than that overflowing fermenting wine pail. And I still was not too sure about this winemaking thing.

“Mom, I’m sorry. I think I may have filled the pails too high. Sorry, you had to clean up that mess.”

“Timothy, I was really mad at you that night, but I’m better now. But if there is more of cleaning up messes that takes me hours, I don’t want to help out in your winemaking.”

“Mom, it is all easy from here on out. I will come over and rack the wine into carboys. I assure you, no more mess and very little labor. I promise!”

The following day, Timothy came over, racked the wine out of the pails into carboys (racking is the transfer of wine from one vessel to another) and it was now time to age the wine. We kept the carboys, all 4 of them in our laundry room. It was actually fun to watch the wine clear and the lees (dead yeast cells) fall to the bottom of the carboy.

When the wine finally cleared, it was time for cold stabilization (cold stabilization of wine is a method used to keep tartaric acid crystals, or wine diamonds, from forming after the wine has been bottled). John and Timothy carried these very heavy 5 and 6 gallon glass carboys from the laundry room closet to the garage. We set them in a cozy corner, protected them from sunlight and left them there for a long winter’s nap.

Several times during the aging in carboy process, Timothy and his wife Becky, would come over and we all would taste the wine. These tastings were my favorite days. I loved seeing how the wine was progressing. Our first tastes were unimpressive. It tasted like wine, but there was something not right. Everyone agreed that something was off but could not put our finger on it. Maybe it just needed to age a bit.

When spring arrived it was time to rack the wine off the wine crystals and get the wine ready for bottling. We tasted the wine again and all agreed something was not right. Maybe the wine just needed to be backsweetened (the process of adding sugar or juice to a fermented wine). So we siphoned some wine out of the carboys into several glasses. We added sugar in increments to each glass. The sweetness was definitely helping the wine but something was still not right. This was a dilemma none of us could figure out.

I decided that if I was going to get into this winemaking hobby, it was now time to start doing some research. I found several online sites that were helpful. But I could not determine why this wine tasted – actually – bad! I did read somewhere that the wine needed to age. That must be the problem. I figured once we bottled the wine and let it age a few months, it would be a delicious drinkable wine.

Bottling day finally arrived. It was a beautiful, cool, springtime day. Prior to the family arriving, we filtered the wine. Remember the broken hydrometer that Timothy assured me would be fine once we filtered the wine? Knowing we had to filter out glass chards and a final clearing of the wine, we rented the Buon Vino wine filter which squirted our precious wine all over and onto us. What was going wrong? There were no directions with the rental but after doing some research, we realized that we put the filters in wrong. After cleaning up the mess, put the filters in correctly, losing several ounces of wine, the Buon Vino did a fine job and eased my mind that no one was going to die from swallowing glass shards.

Everyone arrived on time and the family adventure of bottling commenced. Each took turns washing and sanitizing bottles, filling the bottles with wine and corking the bottles. Then came the time to put the coveted labels on the bottles. Timothy named his wine Wompelia Chardonel. Wompelia was a name that Timothy used for his mushroom farming and decided to keep the name for his wines.

He asked my artist sister, Rose, if he could use one of her paintings as the main design for his label. It was a beautiful watercolor of a mountainside in Cypress. The painting was a wedding gift from Rose to Timothy and Becky which they loved. The best thing about the Wompelia, Chardonel was the label.

The Wompelia wine was not very good. Actually, it was really bad. It was a lot of work without the fruition of a drinkable wine. Aging did not help. Most of us disposed of the wine.

Timothy called after dumping his wine.

“Mom, I am calling it a day. I give up. My enthusiasm has outweighed my knowledge. If you continue in the winemaking, I will be your right hand man and loudest cheerleader. I am giving up winemaking!”

And the story continues as I became the winemaker.

(If you want to follow Timothy’s current adventure, go to www.mrmeoski.com and on Facebook Mr. Meowski’s bakery page https://www.facebook.com/MrMeowskis. He has one of the best bakeries in the St. Louis area (his bakery is in St. Charles) specializing in sourdough bread and croissants.)

A Big Sloppy Mess

We followed Timothy’s instructions to the letter. Daily, we stirred the juice, measured the specific gravity (The specific gravity refers to the amounts of fermentable sugar or possible alcohol percentage in the must or wine.) and kept the lid on the pail, loosely. The glass hydrometer slightly bobbed up and down in the fermenting must. The yeast was gobbling up the sugar. Alcohol was being created and I was starting to get into this winemaking.

I remember thinking that keeping a glass hydrometer in the fermenting juice while stirring with a wooden paddle might not be the smartest thing to do. But Timothy assured me that he had done his research and this was how it should be done. After all, Timothy was the winemaker. I was just following instructions.

On the second day of stirring with the wooden paddle, my fears came to fruition. I heard a crack. The hydrometer was no longer in one piece. It was in several pieces. I freaked out. Now we had broken glass in our fermenting wine.

I frantically called Timothy.

“Timothy, I have some bad news. The paddle broke the hydrometer.”

“Mom, did you not stir the juice like I told you? “

“Yes, but obviously I stirred it wrong. The paddle was too close to the hydrometer. Now what? “

“Well, lets not worry about it. If you can find the broken pieces of glass, just fish them out. We will filter the wine next spring, so all should be good .”

So, I fished out the broken pieces.

On the third day of fermentation, I stirred the bubbling juice before leaving for work. It looked like a witches cauldron. It didn’t bubble like this on day one and day two. What was going on? The smell was overwhelming. I could not even describe it. It wasn’t a bad smell. But it permeated throughout our house.

It didn’t seem right to me that it was bubbling so fast and big.

I called Timothy.

“Timothy, the juice is bubbling crazily. Is that normal?”

“Mom, did you stir it yet today?”

“Yes, I’ve done everything you told me to do.”

“Mom, you worry too much. Just set the top on the pail and go to work. The juice is just fermenting. Trust me.”

So, I trusted Timothy, set the lid on loosely and went about my day.

(I think, I forgot to mention that Timothy lived over an hour away. That is why John and I became the parents of this fermenting wine.)

John and I had a very busy day at work photographing high school seniors and did not get home until 6:30. We were very tired and looked forward to sitting down and drinking a couple of glasses of out favorite (cheap) wine. Woodbridge Mondavi, Chardonnay.

But the bubbling cauldron had other ideas for us.

I walked out of the garage and into the laundry room where the magic of making wine was happening. John followed me into the room. I knew something was wrong immediately. I stepped onto a sticky foam. I turned the lights on and saw that there was oozing stuff coming out over the top and down the sides of the Brut pails. Oh My Gosh! It was everywhere. I thought immediately to the movie from my childhood – The Blob – and thought this stuff was going to take over our house. It was unrelenting. There was gunk all over the floor. It smelled horrible.

John and I spent the evening mopping and cleaning up this horrible mess. We would mop, rinse, mop, and rinse. The sticky mess had seeped into the closet, and under the shelving. It seemed like we were cleaning forever. Once we no longer stuck to the floor, cleaned everything up, stirred the fermenting juice, took a shower, it was finally time to take out the chilled bottle of Chardonnay and have a glass of wine.

After downing my third glass of wine, I was cursing my son, and decided that I hated winemaking!

More is More

The Chardonel wine definitely did not turn out as good as what we had hoped. But, it was drinkable. It may have had a wine fault, but we knew nothing of wine faults at this time. (A wine fault or defect is an unpleasant characteristic of a wine often resulting from poor winemaking practices or storage conditions, and leading to wine spoilage.). Timothy, tried to figure out what went wrong. He assured John and I that he followed all the steps of white winemaking. We were thinking maybe he just didn’t follow the instructions close enough. But then we thought that maybe processing everything at his house was part of the problem. His kitchen was too small and not practical to use in winemaking. It was a unanimous decision. Our house would be the designated area to press and ferment the grapes. We could press the grapes outside with a water supply nearby to hose down the sticky mess. I still was not sure about winemaking. It was a lot of work and I did not like to be hot and sticky. But, I had faith in Timothy and his enthusiasm was contagious.

Timothy, determined not to be defeated, decided to do some research, and became confident that he knew what he was doing. So what could go wrong? 1,000 pounds of grapes would be a perfect amount to purchase. We never believed in the adage Less is More. In our book More is More. Timothy came up with a grand idea. He asked if the whole family pitched in $100 per couple, he could afford the 1,000 pounds of grapes he was about to purchase. Everyone was guaranteed four cases of wine. That comes out to be around 2 bucks a bottle of wine. What could possibly go wrong at that price? We were all so excited to have a spring time, delicious wine to bottle and drink. This was going to be a family affair.

Our 40th Anniversary was coming up on Saturday, September 8th. We had planned a small dinner party with our children and spouses. I wanted it to be the perfect evening. We would start with drinks and appetizers at 5 and have dinner at 6. But Timothy had other ideas. He informed us on Friday that Shady Grove Vineyards called and the grapes would be ready for pick up on Saturday at 1:00. If we wanted the grapes, we had to pick them up at the designated hour. There was no wiggle room on time. Timothy assured us that the picking up of grapes would not interfere with our anniversary dinner.

We arrived at the vineyard in St. Genevieve at 1:00. Timothy had made arrangements with the owner to use his crusher/destemmer. It was a 90 plus degree day. The crusher/destemmer was out in the sunny field where 1,000 pounds of Chardonel grapes were waiting for us. And then the bees came. They swarmed around us as we took turns cranking the destemmer. They chased us away a few times but we prevailed. No one got stung.

We ended up with three, 30 gallon Brut pails filled with must (crushed grapes and its juice). We loaded the pails onto a trailer, covered with a tarp with a bungee cord strapped down to the trailer. We headed home. Hot, sweaty and sticky.

We arrived home around 4:00. The next step into winemaking should have been to press the grapes. But we had no time for that. We had to get ready for our dinner party. We left the 90 gallons of must in the hot garage. The pressing would have to wait until Sunday morning.

Our dinner party was wonderful. We started out with sparkling wine while a few toasts were made. I professed my love to John as he did to me. The kids said some wonderful things about us that made me cry. Our wine of choice that night was Mondavi Woodbridge. We had 2 varietals. Chardonnay and Merlot. At $9.59 for a Magnum we could provide a lot of wine.

Sunday morning we awoke early to start the press. The juice was very warm. Certainly a warm must would not be a problem. We cranked and cranked the ratchet press. We got almost 50 gallons of juice, placed in two 30 gallon Brut pails. Timothy tested the PH level, Tartaric Acid and Sugar level. Yeast was pitched and he left our house. The instructions were – Stir the juice daily. Leave the lids loosely on the pails. Check the sugar level with the glass hydrometer. Keep the hydrometer in the must. That is it. This winemaking seemed pretty easy. Actually, I was starting to like winemaking.

The First 200 Pounds of Grapes

Timothy, our son, had asked for our help in making his first batch of wine made from grapes. We very rarely say no to our children and also thought it would be a fun adventure. I was looking for a hobby to occupy some free time. Winemaking looked like it would be so much fun.

So yes Timothy, we will gladly help.

The day was an extremely hot and humid September day. We were dressed in clothes that could be ruined via Timothy’s instructions. Soon, Timothy arrived in his small hatchback Suburu filled with hot, sticky, yellowish green, very ripe Chardonel grapes. The grapes were purchased from Clarence, the owner and grower at Shady Grove Vineyards in St. Genevieve, Missouri. The grapes were dumped into the back of Timothy’s car. Timothy did not have buckets to store the grapes for the car ride home. But at least he did think to put a tarp down to protect his car.

We were very anxious to start this new found hobby. We had tasted Chardonel wine from the Missouri wineries and knew we could certainly duplicate this delicious fruity wine. How hard could it really be? Timothy rented a crusher/destemmer which is a machine that breaks open the grapes and takes the stems off of the grape cluster. We decided since it was so hot outside that we would crush, destem and press the grapes in his kitchen. We transferred the grapes bucket by bucket from the back of his car to his kitchen and directly into the crusher/destemmer. We took turns cranking the machine until all the grapes were gone. The grapes were hot and sticky. Oh My Gosh! A total sticky mess was an understatement.

The next step was to press the grapes. Timothy had purchased a ratchet press which did a fine job. We cranked and cranked until we got every last drop of juice out of those grapes. We secured 20 gallons of this fine nectar. All the juice was dumped into a 30 gallon, food grade Brut container. John and my job was done. We helped all we could. We left after scrubbing his kitchen floor, until our feet no longer stuck to it. Why oh why did we do this adventuresome project in his kitchen?

Throughout the year, Timothy worked his magic on the fermentation and aging of the wine. The following spring of 2013 he asked us back to bottle his wine. We did have fun bottling. I was in charge of scrubbing and sanitizing the bottles. Timothy was in charge of bottling the wine, John was in charge of corking the wine, and Becky, Timothy’s wife was in charge of labeling the bottles. The wine was definitely sub par. It was not even close to the wine profile we read about. It was not like any Chardonel wine we tasted. But, somehow we managed to drink it. After all, It was an alcoholic beverage.

That was my 1st winemaking experience. I really did not get into it. This was Timothy’s adventure and we decided just to go along with it. At the time, I knew nothing. But I did learn one thing. Crushing, destemming and pressing grapes is definitely an outdoor activity. And winemaking was definitely not going to be my new found hobby.

For all of you wondering what a Chardonel grape is and what the wine tastes like, check out this link. https://missouriwine.org/news/chardonel-missouri%E2%80%99s-classic-white-wine

Winemaking?

My first memory of wine was when I was 8 or 9. There sat a gallon jug of Chianti on our Sunday dinner table. I came from a robust Italian extended family, living in a 3 story flat with my parents, 2 brothers, a sister, a great aunt and an elderly cousin. My dad was the main cook in our house and he started the meal off with Rigatoni (a rectangular noodle) with the most delicious meat sauce. The second course was cooked to perfection. Rare roast beef, broccoli, sautéed in olive oil and garlic, and a salad with fresh greens, dressed with olive oil and vinegar. French Bread and butter for sopping up the meat sauce and meat juices completed the meal Our Sunday dinners were always delicious and super filling.

The huge gallon jug of Chianti was always placed in the middle of the table. The color was deep burgandy. My dad, mom, great aunt and elderly cousin would pour themselves a glass of the nectar and sip it gingerly throughout the meal. That jug seemed to last forever. When I was in my late teens, I had my first taste. It was disgusting! My memory was that it was bitter and very dry. Wine was not going to be my drink of choice.

I never drank wine again until my late 30’s. The wine was usually on the sweeter side. I could not tell you the maker or varietal I drank. As long as it was an affordable (meaning cheap) it was my drink. Into my 40’s and 50’s, I started to enjoy Chardonnay. I enjoyed the light body, slightly acidic wine. I drank a glass or two most evenings. Chardonnay was my go to drink into my late 50’s and early 60’s. My Chardonnay of choice was Mondavi Woodbridge. It was very affordable and went down easy.

I’m not sure why I thought winemaking would be a good idea. Certainly, my wines that I would make would not be any better than any wines I picked up at the grocery store. Maybe, I could save money by making my own wines. But $9.79 for a Magnum of Woodbridge was very affordable, so why make my own wine? Maybe it was for a challenge, or a new hobby. I was getting towards the end of a 25 year career as a photographer and looking for something new to challenge me.

And then our son called me. “Hey mom! I just purchased 200 pounds of Chardonel grapes and wanted to know if you and dad could help me”. Timothy had made a couple of kit wines that were quite tasty. He decided to up his game and purchase Chardonel grapes from a local vineyard in St. Genevieve, MO. We very rarely say no to our children. “Sure Timothy. Dad and I would love to help. What do you want us to do?” “Just be at my house at 1:00 and wear something that can be ruined.” That should have been my first clue. I will say, I was not impressed with this winemaking. It turned out it was messy, sticky and exhausting and did you know that white grapes stain clothes?

I definitely wanted a new hobby. The jury was still out on becoming a winemaker.