| | My wine making
I started making wine in 2003. I was taught by my father who had been a wine maker for 17 years at that time.
As an ardent amateur, my wine making is different, because I don't have the constraints that commercial wineries live under. And I'm not talking about legal or health issues, I employ the same sound practice.
Commercial wineries give a lot of weight to "flavor consistency". They need to have wines of the same varietal and the same vineyard taste the same year after year.
They way they do this is the consistent rotation of new oak barrels (from the same maker... meaning the oak came from the same forest) into their wine production. In a typical commercial red wine, about 40% of the flavor is derived from the barrel oakiness. The next big flavor component is the choice of yeast used to ferment the grapes. That is, to my experience about 30% of the flavor so that leaves about 25% of flavor attributed to the grapes and about 5% to oddities like sulfites. So the takeaway is the barrel and the yeast are a huge flavor component.
In my wine making, I use older exhausted, non-oaky, "neutral" barrels. In this way the flavor of each years grapes becomes the primary flavor, with the yeast choice enhancing the varietal characteristics I enjoy.
I don't add sulfites when the grapes are crushed, which is standard practice to kill off the field yeast and allow the designated yeast to thrive. The yeast culture I use sets up and runs, quickly overwhelming the field yeast.
I don't add sulfites at bottling, which function as a preservative. The wines I make are pretty much expected to be consumed in 5 or 6 years so I don't need to think about preservation, or how the bottles lay down and age. We start drinking the wines 18 to 24 months after starting the process. Many get better with age.
Two years ago I won the highest honor awarded to an amateur red wine maker in the US. I was awarded the "Best of Show" for Reds at the Orange County Home Wine Competition. It was for my 2005 Dry Creek Syrah. This award is the rough equivalent of winning the Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director Oscars. I'm also grateful for these all blind tasting competitions. If they actually knew my process.... since these are the same judges that do the commercial competition... I may not have done near as well.
During grape harvest / wine season am I sometimes available to teach wine making. I also rent my wine making equipment out to people using Craigslist. It keeps me in touch with the amateur community, and let's me know where grapes around the county are getting to the right Brix number.
There is more on my wines and mine making here:
http://www.vipvr.com/frank_wines.shtml
I also have a vacation rental that is centered on this wine, wine making theme that is also here on the grounds. If you're visiting the area, and want to know about wine on a somewhat deeper than average level, this is the place.
More about that is here:
http://www.vipvr.com
~ frank
Call 707-544-4400
or
email me at repair0121@isickbay.com
with questions or to set up a repair.
HOURS:
Monday through Friday from 10am to 7pm, and Saturday & Sunday noon to 6pm.
I'm in Sonoma County... Northern California wine country,
Frank Walburg
Service Court
Santa Rosa, Ca 95403-3139
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