I had my second stent put in, returned home, and a few days later went back to the hospital with new chest pains. I had another cardio-angiogram done and discovered on of those quirks of medicine -- they cannot tell me what caused the pain and near-unconsciousness, but can tell me what didn't cause it. At the very least, they ruled out further blockages or migrating clots. They are leaning in the direction of episodic arrhythmia, but can't say that with certainty. It's kind of scary not knowing, but each event brings me greater understanding of something and that helps.

It doesn't look like I will be weaned off of Plavix for a year or more, so my wine drinking days are over for a while. However, I can still taste wine if I limit the actual amount swallowed to a sip (10-15 mL). So, I am still making wine for the future. I started two wines within the past two weeks.

Seven days ago we celebrated the 231st birthday of the United States - if you date its birth with the vote to declare independence from England rather than General Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown. My wife and I went to Poteet Country Winery in the afternoon as they always throw a good party on the 4th of July. The real pleasure was seeing old friends and meeting new ones, but the highlight of the afternoon was tasting a "forgotten" mustang wine that had just turned seven.

It turns out that Bob Denson, winemaker at Poteet, had for one reason or another drawn off a 5-gallon carboy of the 2000 vintage, set it aside, and forgotten about it. It was recently "discovered," tasted, and bottled - all two cases of it. Well folks, this was a fortuitous accident of forgetfulness. It is one of the best mustang grape wines I have ever tasted, and I have tasted a lot of mustang. You don't know how it hurt to take a sip and no more....

My wife and I recently drove up to Kerr County on a dual-purpose day trip. First and foremost, my wife was tired of being cooped up attending to me and needed to get out in the fresh air and eat up some scenery. There are lots of back roads in the Texas Hill Country, so I picked a couple we haven't traveled and set out. Secondly, I am working with Dr. Barry Comeaux on a project that maps the distribution of native grape species in Texas, and we had not yet collected a botanical specimen of Vitis mustangensis in Kerr County, where I was certain it resided. This looked like a good opportunity to take care of two needs at once, so we set off driving north.

We traveled northwest out of San Antonio on Interstate-10 until we came to Comfort, Texas, then took State Highway 27 west and crossed almost immediately from Kendall County into Kerr. Within a few hundred yards I spotted mustang grapes growing on a fence. I collected a few specimens of the vine, placed then in my plant press, and drove on. We quickly passed into Vitis monticola country. I collected a few specimens of that and possibly one of Vitis cinerea var. helleri (previously called Vitis berlandieri in error - I will confirm the identification later, when the specimens are removed from the press), than decided to head over to Real County and see what was there.

A poorly marked road out of Center Point took me in the wrong direction and we headed to Real through Bandera County, a decidedly circuitous route but one that took us through some beautiful country. However, out route ate up some serious time and we encountered severe rains shortly after entering Real County from Vanderpool. This was disappointing, as I wanted to collect in Real County real bad, but the rain was so strong I couldn't distinguish the various plants growing along the highway's edge. So, we headed home, stopping for dinner at a steakhouse and saloon in D'Hanis where live music capped the day. In all, the day was most enjoyable - our first day out in the countryside in weeks, and I proved the mustang grape in Kerr County. It will be a while before I take another such trip, as I now want to be much closer to a hospital than I was that day.

The day after our journey my wife and I picked seven gallons of mustang grapes. I destemmed and she crushed them, then I prepared the must and started some yeast. Primary fermentation was completed in eight days and the wine has already fallen clear in the secondary.

Yesterday my doctor lifted certain activity restrictions, so today I went back to work. I can't tell you how good it felt to slide back into the work station and start up the old computer. The downside was the 900+ emails that fell into my inbox. It may take me days to attend to the most obviously pressing ones and sort the remainder into priorities, but the winemaking queries necessarily take a back seat to work-related correspondence.

• Comfort! Star of the Hills, the little town has two wineries
• Vanderpool, Texas, one of several entries on the town
• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

I've now had three days to get back into the swing of things at work, but playing catch-up isn't my favorite game. My good intentions about staying an hour late each day to answer some of my email was a pipe dream. A lot has happened in five weeks and I have to get current. My apologies to all who are waiting answers from me, but I have to get caught up.

But a couple of emails did manage to catch my eye. One was an age-old plea for a walnut wine recipe. I get several of these a year. I always answer them the same: "I developed a walnut wine recipe many years ago, but misplaced it about five years ago and have never found another. Should I subsequently find one, I will post it on my site."

But this time, before I hit "Send," I decided to use a new search tool installed on my computer. I typed in one word - walnut - and hit "Search Entire System." This did not produce it, so I started searching old backup CDs from previous systems. A couple of minutes later I was looking at a document misfiled in a folder entitled "Receipts" - right next to the folder entitled "Recipes."

Pecans, hazelnuts, peanuts, brazil nuts, cashews, pistachio nuts, and most other nuts are inappropriate for making wine because their oils go rancid before the wine is finished, but almonds and walnuts can be used in making wine.

• 2 oz walnuts
• 12 oz raisins
• 1 lb 12 oz. granulated sugar
• Rind and juice of 1 lemon, 1 orange, 1 grapefruit
• 7 pts water
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1 sachet wine yeast

Chop the walnuts and raisins and add to 1 quart water with citrus rinds (no pith). Bring to simmer, cover and hold simmer for 30 minutes. Strain and discard solids and dissolve sugar in liquid. Allow to cool and pour into primary with remaining water. Add citrus juice, yeast nutrient and yeast as an activated starter. Cover with sanitized cloth or lid and set in warm place. Ferment to specific gravity of 1.020, transfer to secondary and fit airlock. Ferment to dryness, wait 2 weeks, rack and add one crushed and dissolved Campden tablet. Reattach airlock and refrigerate or place in bucket of crushed ice until white beads of solidified oil form on surface. Gently strain through fine muslin cloth back into secondary to remove beads. Reattach airlock and age 6 months, racking every two months and adding crushed Campden at 4-month racking. Stabilize, sweeten slightly if desired, wait 30 days, and bottle. Age 2-3 additional months before tasting. Improves to two years. [Author's own recipe]

An emailer explained that she started a must with 20 pounds of strawberries and it was a beautiful red color. The second she added Campden, the color leached out and it turned "...a pale, muddied, barely pink color."

I explained that this is normal. Her color should return after a few days to weeks. Two things are going on. First, metabisulfite (whether sodium or potassium) has a temporary bleaching effect. I have a detailed explanation of why, provided to me by a chemist, but the important thing is that it is both normal and temporary. Second, as yeast multiply they turn the must cloudy by their very numbers and by the microscopic bubbles of CO2 they expel regularly. After fermentation ceases, the yeast stop producing CO2 and also die out. The cloudiness falls away and the color returns. True, some color is lost because some of the pigments are solids and settle in the lees, but most remain in solution.

Another emailer explained she was making plum wine. Most of the recipes said to pour boiling water over the fruit and she wondered if the plastic primary would stand the heat or if she should use a metal pan for this step.

I assured her almost every high density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic would withstand the heat of boiling water, but if she ever needed to use a metal pan for the heating portion of a recipe to be sure to only use stainless steel. Aluminum, copper, iron, etc. can all taint the wine.

At least three people during the past year have reported they have added too much acid to a finished wine. I got to thinking about this and finally wrote to two people who have reported this within the past six months and asked them the circumstances that caused them to add acid. In both cases they measured acidity while the wine was still fermenting, waited until it stopped, and corrected the acidity without retesting the wine.

All measurements taken of a fermenting wine are subject to be off by a significant amount, whether they be for TA, pH, SO2, or SG. Of these, the only one you should even attempt to measure is the last one - specific gravity - and in doing so you should spin the hydrometer sharply in a clockwise direction and take the reading as soon as the rotation slows enough to read the numbers. Then wipe the hydrometer dry and measure it again. Trust the number only if it agrees with the first reading. If it doesn't, measure it a third time and trust any two readings that agree.

A newly finished wine can also give inaccurate TA readings, but usually on the high side. The temptation then is to reduce the acidity by chilling the wine to drop potassium bitartrate crystals or by using potassium bicarbonate, calcium carbonate, or acidex. Before you do any of these, degas the wine thoroughly and measure the TA again. Dissolved CO2 produced carbonic acid, which throws off the TA reading. Degassing the wine in stages over a period of an hour allows the carbonic acid to split and for CO2 to be liberated. Wait at least an hour after degassing is finished before measuring TA again - waiting another day is even better.

• Bottling the Wine, scroll down to the section on degassing
• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

My wife and I recently visited some wineries northwest of Houston. Texas is now the fifth largest wine producing state in the United States, a fact few of the wine snobs whose tongues are stuck on the syllables "Na-pa" realize. But their ignorance is their loss, for Texas wines are as diverse as the state's vast landscapes and every bit as pleasing.

Spanish missionaries brought the European grape, Vitis vinifera, to Mexico. There it was planted and grown in vineyards to make sacramental wine. But native grapes undoubtedly pollinated some of the vines, and over time a new grape - the "Mission Grape -- emerged from seed carried to outlying areas and new missions. One of those areas was Texas. The original grapes planted in the 1662 near El Paso and later in the coastal bend up to San Antonio are gone, although survivors exist to this day in California.

In 1883 Frank Qualia founded Val Verde Winery at Del Rio, Texas, which remains the oldest bonded winery still operating in the state. By 1900, there were 25 wineries operating in Texas. In 1919 Prohibition forced the closure of wineries throughout the United States, but few reopened in 1933 when Prohibition was repealed. The vast vineyards necessary to support the industry had been ripped out to plant crops that could actually be sold. Nonetheless, the wine industry began a slow rebirth. It was not until the 1970s and 1980s that vineyards began to be planted on a scale suggesting that the wine industry was really back in business in Texas. By 2005, 85 wineries were in operation in the state and 19 more were being built. Today, 138 wineries grace the Texas landscape.

One of them, Bernhardt Winery (located off State Highway 105 east of Plantersville, Texas), impressed me and my wife very much. The wines were good, the tastings well presented, and the winery itself was a thing of love. Winemaker Jerry Bernhardt, with wife, son and friends, built it by hand. Their production is still small, as one would expect from a start-up winery, and last Christmas they actually ran out of wines to sell - a nice thing for a winery if you have wines ready to bottle.

Running out of wine caused them to rush two or three wines into bottles. Those wines are sound, but should age a while longer under cork before being consumed. The rest of their fare is ready to drink and quite good. My wife's favorite was a blend called "Sarah," a meritage (Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blend). I just loved their "Aggie Blush," a delightfully fruity blend of Niagara and red muscadine.

They also have a Port - one of the wines rushed into bottles - that shows distinct promise. It displays what I call a "dark nose" -- ripe plum, blackberry, black raspberry, and black cherry. It has a deep indigo color, full body, a satisfying acidity, and a long, gentle finish. I know they would have liked to bulk age it a couple more years - at two it is simply too young to deliver what a port should - but when you run out of marketable product you make the best of what you have. But even as a youngster it is a nice "sitting wine."

When someone asks me how to taste a wine to fully appreciate its potential, I say it's a three step process. Jerry Bernhardt makes it a more involved process with additional steps.

The first step in tasting a wine is to look at it in a proper wine glass. When we look at a wine, we should be noting its color and clarity. While "brilliant clarity" is the American standard, it really isn't the world's standard. Younger wines are naturally more opaque than older wines - because they contain more tannins and anthrocyanins than older wines - but we tend to fine and filter our wines so as to make them unnaturally clear. A cloudy or hazy wine is quite undesirable, but a density in color simply indicates youthfulness and should not be faulted.

The wine should be swirled gently in the glass to release the bouquet, and this should be inhaled slowly and deeply to capture the nuances therein. A wine's bouquet may be simple or complex, and in either case should not be confused with the wine's aroma. The aroma is the natural smell of the base ingredient(s) the wine was made from, while it's bouquet is a combination of the volatile acids and esters developed as the wine matures and released as the wine breathes. The bouquet might be floral or fruity or earthy or spicy, or a really complex bouquet might possess all of these smells. After inhaling the bouquet, a subsequent sniff should reveal the wine's actual aroma.

The third step is the actual tasting of the wine. A small sip should be rolled around on the tongue, then aerated with a small, quick breath that mixes the wine with air. This allows the flavors to open up and allows you to both taste and smell the wine at the same time. Not all wines open up when thus aerated, but the more one does the more enjoyable it is to most people - assuming it opens up in an enjoyable way. The wine is then swallowed and the finish evaluated - the flavor lingers or passes quickly.

This is where my normal tasting routine ends. Not so for Jerry Bernhardt if the wine is chilled.

People say that white and blush wines should be served at 55 degrees F. and reds at 65. I don't know who these people are, but I have heard this most of my adult life. On the other hand, I have also heard that reds should be served at "room temperature." I don't think I know anyone who keeps their home at 65 degrees, and, well, this is Texas - it gets hot in the summer and room temperature could be warmer than you really want your wine. But with air conditioning, most homes are kept between 74 and 78 degrees F. I think Jerry keeps his tasting room at around 75-76.

After tasting a chilled wine, such as his Chardonnay, Jerry then warms the wine in the open palms of his hands for a minute or two and repeats the inhaling and tasting steps. This allows him to appreciate the effect temperature plays in the wine's presentation. He will then warm it again, bringing it as close to room temperature as he can, and repeat the inhaling and tasting steps once again. Not all wines improve with the successive warmings, but his 2005 Chardonnay certainly does.

• Texas Wineries, listed alphabetically
• Bernhardt Winery, worth the drive if the distance isn't too great
• Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association, a promotional site
• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

I've had a little time this past week to answer a few emails. It is difficult to explain to folks who don't read the WineBlog or the notices on the Home page why I am answering them late. Just saying, "I had a heart attack and answering email was low on my priority list" seems a bit impolite, so I've said "I was hospitalized" instead.

Some of my replies are arriving way too late to be of any use this year, but hopefully will have value in the future. Some of the questions, however, are timeless and worth visiting.

I actually get asked this a lot -- only the ingredient changes. I was recently asked whether one can freeze rose petals until one has enough for a batch of wine. I was also asked by different requestors if they could freeze figs, muscadine grapes, quinces, and rose hips. The answer to all is yes, but rose petals should not be frozen more than 6-8 weeks because once they develop freezer burn they seem to deteriorate as winemaking ingredients.

If you have time to extract the juice of a suitable prospective base, it is a more economical use of space to freeze the juice instead of the fruits. Just remember that liquids expand when they freeze, so avoid freezing in glass jars or bottles. Use plastic containers or ice cube trays. I've also frozen juices in quart-sized ZipLoc freezer bags without incident.

One writer had commenced making his very first wine using canned blueberries intended for winemaking. His method seemed appropriate and he made a yeast starter solution, but after adding it to his must his fermentation never attained vigor and stopped at a high specific gravity. He made another yeast starter and had a similar experience, with the fermentation stopping at an s.g. around 1.045. He naturally wanted to know many things, but his most immediate question was should he try again or toss the blueberry must out?

Blueberries canned for pie filling or uses other than winemaking might be expected to contain a preservative, but those intended for fermentation shouldn't contain anything that would inhibit healthy yeast activity. That reminded me of two things. The first is that blueberries are legendary for being difficult to ferment; the second is that bilberries, cranberries, gooseberries, lingonberries, crowberries, currants, and a few other berries contain benzoic acid in varying amounts and benzoic acid, like sorbic acid, renders yeast incapable of budding (reproducing). Similarly, unripe blueberries can also contain benzoic acid -- the farther north the range, the greater the amount that might be found.

I have no way of knowing if the producers of the canned blueberries included under-ripe berries in their product, but I can imagine all kinds of scenarios where that might occur. So, for the sake of argument, let's assume this is the problem. What do we know that might aid us? If you read my WineBlog entry of April 24th, 2007, you already know there is a way to overcome naturally occurring amounts of benzoic acid.

• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

Many of you have written to inform me that part of the last WineBlog entry was "missing." One reader feared I had been hacked into and another feared my site had a virus. To each I had to explain that while writing my last WineBlog entry I was interrupted and had to post the entry without actually finishing it. I had typed in a sub-heading which declared I intended to revisit the making of wine from Welch's frozen red grape concentrate. At that point the doorbell rang and events transpired that precluded returning to the WineBlog, so I hastily posted the unfinished entry and life went on. That was 11 days ago. I have removed the unused sub-heading from the August 11th entry and appended it below to be dealt with now.

A reader named Chuck wrote to thank me for posting the Welch's recipe and to inform me that he"...bought a can of the concord grape concentrate and messed around with the water mix and found that 1 part (by volume) concentrate to 2 parts water yields a S.G. of 1.090." He then asked, "If fermented this way, rather than diluting it more with water and then adding sugar as in the recipe, would it make a more full bodied red wine?"

The answer, of course, is most definitely. I wrote Chuck and said so, but added that I wish I had thought of this myself. But I didn't, and that means I haven't made this wine this way -- yet. It will be many months before I do, so if any of you wish to try this, please let me know how it turns out. I'd really like to know.

Glenn in Cleveland, Ohio asked, "What is the best product to use to reduce my 2005 Cab Sauv’s high tartaric acid? I put too much tartaric acid in at fermentation. Potassium Bicarbonate? Calcium Carbonate? Acidex Super K" Under other circumstances I would have answered differently, but this one was easy.

For tartaric acid, I just chill the wine to near freezing and the tartaric acid precipitates out as potassium tartrate crystals. I have a spare refrigerator to use just for this. Otherwise, I'd use Acidex or potassium bicarbonate, in that order.

Matt, in Tacoma, Washington pushed a bung too far in a carboy and it fell into his wine. He wanted to know if this would ruin his wine and how he could get the bung out.

First of all, I've done that! The bung itself probably won't affect the wine, but it could transport airborne contaminates that settled on it's outer surface unless it was very recently sanitized. In any event, the wine needs to be transferred to another carboy so the bung can be extracted. When I did it, here's how I got the bung out. First, I used a straightened coat hanger to push a piece of monofilament fishing line through the hole in the bung as it lay on the bottom of the carboy. I then put a piece of chewing gum on the end of the coat hanger and used it to snag the end of the line, which I carefully pulled up and out (after about 20 tries). I then pulled the bung up and worked it until it was upside down against the neck of the carboy. I coated the inside of the carboy mouth with glycerin, for lubricity, and pulled the bung out. It took a half hour to do all this.

I often am asked how to sweeten wines without getting further fermentation. I usually point the writer to the fifth of my five basic steps in winemaking, but then explain that there are actually four basic ways to do this.

• Start with a high specific gravity (say with a potential alcohol (PA) yield of 16%) and use a yeast that will finish at a low alcohol (say 13%), leaving the excess s.g. to sweeten the wine.
• Start with a PA you want to finish with (say 12%), ferment to dryness or near dryness, stabilize, and sweeten with sugar or honey to suit your taste or to a target s.g. (say 1.015).
• Start with a PA you want to finish with, ferment to dryness or near dryness and use a non-fermentable sugar to sweeten the wine to taste or target.
• Ferment to dryness or near dryness and sweeten with stevia or another natural non-fermentable sweetener.

For the record, I find it much safer to do the second....

• Welch's Frozen Grape Juice Wine, on my site
• The Basic Steps, on my site
• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

I have only started nine gallons of new wine since my June heart attack. This is the lowest number of gallons started during a three-month period since my first heart attack and bypass surgery ten tears ago, when I only started four gallons of new wine during a comparable period. It is obvious to me that recovery from stent emplacement is much quicker than recovery from from having your chest opened up.

My post four days ago on recovering a bung from inside a carboy generated several emails pointing to a method of extracting a cork from within a wine bottle. The method was not new to me, but I have never felt I could describe it well verbally, but a video clip showing how it is done is worth several thousand words, so I have linked to it at the end of this entry. My thanks to Dan Shields for quickly sending me the URL.

Here are a couple of pointers I discovered when I first tried this method, which was shown to me some time back by an acquaintance. As in the video clip, the acquaintance used a plastic bag from a grocery. The strength and size of the bag are not inconsequential. I have tried this method using a small trash bag that was extremely thin and lightweight and it tore apart when pulled. I have also tried this using a plastic grocery bay that was strong but not deep enough and it failed on three attempts to grab the cork sufficiently to permit extraction. Also, when I demonstrated this method to my wife I used a bag with a small tear in the bottom, which was only noted when I inflated the bag. This made no difference and the cork was extracted anyway. As long as the bag will inflate, it will suffice. It does not need to be air-tight to work.

I'll admit I have not tried this method to extract a bung from a carboy, but see no reason it would not work as long as the bag is large enough and strong enough. A medium-sized, heavy-duty trash bag should be sufficient.

A reader recently wrote, "I have always gone a more traditional route and brewed my wines without the addition of yeast nutrient and yeast energizer. Under my traditional approach, the wine takes approximately 9-12 weeks to finish brewing then several more to settle. When I made my latest batch (plum) I decided to try out the yeast nutrient and energizer. Under this method, the brewing finished in a matter of only about 3.5 days." He worried that this was too fast.

First, terminology is important. Beer, ale and mead are "brewed." Traditionally, wine is "made." It can be "brewed," but usually is not. Brewing means the ingredients are brought to a boil before being fermented. When someone says they "brewed" a wine, I assume they cooked it. If they didn't, I will point out that they simply "made" their wine.

Secondly, I only use yeast energizer for certain recipes where it is needed or in certain situations where a fermentation gets sluggish. I do, however, consider yeast nutrient essential for the following reasons:

• Yeast make the wine, so I want them to be as healthy as possible until fermentation is complete.
• Only grapes possess all the nutrients yeast need for maximum health (especially for reproduction), so all other winemaking bases benefit from the addition of yeast nutrient.
• Yeast nutrient is inexpensive and only adds about three cents per bottle to the cost of the wine.
• Yeast nutrient won't do any harm to the wine or leave an off-taste if not actually consumed by the yeast (however, yeast energizer can leave an off taste if too much is used).

I think 3.5 days is pretty quick for a fermentation, although I've had many similar experiences. I prefer a slightly slower fermentation -- about 7-14 days. However, if a fermentation drags out for several weeks, it doesn't alarm me as long as the specific gravity is where I want it to be when the bubbles stop being pushed through the airlock.

The other night a neighbor dropped by to use our phone. She had locked herself out of her house needed to call her daughter, who had a spare. While waiting for the daughter to arrive, I opened a bottle of 2005 Clementine- French Vanilla Mocha Wine. My wife twice remarked how good a wine this was. It surprised me she hadn't tasted it before, but we finally established she was off visiting the sons and friends in California when I made it. Her visits typically last two months, so this is possible.

Usually sold in small cases or boxes, Clementines are a variety of medium-sized, sweet, Algerian tangerines with few seeds that make a really good wine all by themselves. They are usually available in the U.S. from October to December, but imported produce is sometimes available "off-season." While their varietal wine is excellent, they also combine well with certain other ingredients -- most notably chocolate. I invite you to work back through the earlier WineBlog entries for my discussion on making wines with powdered cocoa and adopt the technique to a clementine base.

Another good tangerine you might want to ferment alone or with powdered cocoa is the Satsuma Orange -- not to be confused with Dobashi-Beni, Kimbro, Neopolitana, Okitsu-Wase, or Owari Satsumas. The Satsuma Orange has tender, melting flesh and very rich flavor. A well-known, flavorful Mandarin, often grown in patio containers, is the Dancy; there is a seedless Dancy as well, but it lacks the intense flavor of the seeded parent.

The Honey Tangerine is one of several hybrids of King x Willowleaf -- the latter a Mandarin. Another seedling of this cross is Kinnow. The Honey has small fruit, very sweet, while Kinnow has medium-sized fruit with a rich, aromatic flavor. Both hybrids are better tasting than their parents.

When making wine with tangerines, peel the fruit first and then crush. Drain off enough juice to test (sugar, TA and pH), adjust as required, and ferment on the pulp for 3-5 days. Press and return the juice to primary if specific gravity is still above 1.020. Pay particular attention to acidity and add citric acid if needed.

The name is misleading and has resulted in more than one email. When I typed the label, I decided on brevity and shortened Clementine-French Vanilla Cafe-Suisse Mocha Coffee Wine, but it is what it is. The recipe is simple and makes 3 gallons.

• 15 lbs peeled Clementines
• 5 Tblsp General Foods International French Vanilla Cafe
• 3 Tblsp General Foods International Suisse Mocha
• 3 11-oz cans frozen orange concentrate
• Water to 3 gallons
• Sugar to 1.088
• Citric acid to at least 5.5 g/L TA, 3.5 pH (or lower)
• 1-1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
• 3 tsp yeast nutrient
• Champagne wine yeast strain

Peel the Clementines, place in nylon straining bag, tie closed, and set in primary. Crush Clementines by hand or with a wine bottle, piece of hardwood, or other sanitized and suitable object. Add all ingredients except yeast, stir well, and cover primary with cloth. Make a yeast starter and feed for 12 hours while pectic enzyme works. Add activated yeast starter, recover, and punch down straining bag twice daily. Ferment on pulp 3-5 days, removing bag when pulp completely breaks down; drain without squeezing and discard pulp. Check specific gravity. If higher than 1.020, continue fermentation in primary. If 1.020 or lower, transfer to secondary and affix airlock. Rack every 30 days until clear, then bulk age 6 months and rack into bottles. This should be a dry wine, but if one prefers to sweeten slightly, stabilize first and sweeten going into bulk aging period. [Author's own recipe]

• Removing a Cork from Inside a Wine Bottle, from another site
• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

The WineBlog is not a political piece of web real estate, and I have no desire to turn it into one. But I do want to say something here that some might interpret as political. I consider it philosophical, but understand that many philosophical issues border on or overlap into the political.

In late July I received an email by a woman with an Italian surname who insisted I immediately remove a wine recipe from my website because its name "offended" her. I have since received an email from the National Italian American Foundation echoing her sentiments. Subsequently, the woman repeated her sentiments in my Guestbook on July 23rd and again on July 25th, 2007. Others have chimed in with Guestbook entries and now names are being called. This has to stop, as name-calling is quite juvenile and winemaking websites are for adults.

On August 4th I added an opening paragraph to the "offending" recipe in which I apologized in advance to anyone who is offended by the name of the wine, but that I have no intention of changing the name because someone is sensitive to one word. I do not intend the word as an ethnic slur and have nothing but the highest regards for most people with Italian heritage. I went on to say that if I posted a recipe for sauerkraut, I would not expect anyone to conclude I intended an ethnic slur against Germans -- it is just the name of the dish, and the particular word the woman takes exception to is just the name of a wine. If she cannot accept that in the spirit it was offered, then she has a problem and ought to stay away from my website.

I don't know about other countries, but in America you do not have the right to never be offended even though certain parties wish otherwise. This country's foundation is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you or me! If someone is doing or saying something they have a right to do or say and it offends you, you may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, or - in this case - go to another website and get over it.

My sincerest wish is that this issue is in the past. I intend no offense to anyone but I did not invent the word in the name of the wine and use it with no disrespect intended. Since the name is widely used by Italian- Americans to describe their own homemade wines, I will not censor it. Having served 28 years in the United States Army, I think I have earned the right to exercise my first amendment constitutional rights in the country to which they apply. If your sensitivities conflict with words printed on my site, then please exercise your right to surf some other part of the web. Meanwhile, here we will move on to other subjects.

Reader Avrom Kohn wrote, "Throughout your site, you mention the necessity of CO2 and how it could be obtained with CO2 cartridges. Well, those who do not have access to CO2 cartridges can merely visit their local grocery or ice cream store and buy food grade dry ice. Just put a cup of hot water and the dry ice into the vessel that needs the CO2, literally watch it fill, and take it out."

Avrom's suggestion is surely welcome. While I have often thought of it myself, the truth is I have only mentioned it as an option once or twice.

But this brings up a discussion aired over a forum recently. A writer argued that trying to rid a primary, carboy or bottle of O2 by filling it with CO2 was an exercise in futility, as the law of diffusion would ensure that whatever oxygen remained in the volume would mix with the incoming CO2 homogeneously and, while the percentage of O2 would be reduced, it would always be there in some amount, or something like that. If you started out with atmospheric air, it would be approximately 21% O2. Adding an equal volume of CO2 to the container would not displace the atmospheric air, but rather would mix with it according to Graham's law of diffusion. You could keep adding more CO2, but this would simply dilute the amount of remaining O2 ad infinitum. The actual rate at which gases diffuse (Graham's Law of Diffusion) is inversely proportional to the square root of their densities

Atmospheric air has a density of 0.00128 g/mL and contains both O2 and CO2. O2 has a density of 0.001308 g/mL and CO2 is heavier at a density of 0.001977 g/mL, so both are actually heavier than air. I could get very mathematical at this point and lose many of you, so I won't. Let's just say that the goal is not the total elimination of O2, but rather a significant reduction. Would placing the dry ice in the hot water do the trick? Conduct the following experiment and see. Place a candle in a holder in a primary container and light the candle. Place the cup of hot water in the primary and place the dry ice in the water. As the primary fills with CO2, the candle will go out due to a significant reduction in the amount of O2 in the primary. Whatever O2 remains is negligible. Case closed.

Dan, a frequent writer and site supporter, asked my opinion on certain issues pertaining to bottles and corks. I thought my reply might serve a wider audience than just he, so will share it here.

I sort my reused bottles by color, type, style, etc. before storing them, but it usually makes no difference to me if the bottles accept corks or screw-caps so long as the latter come with their own caps. After washing them and allowing them to drain a few minutes, I used to insert them upside down in wine cartons and store them in the garage. However, I now wish to know if the bottle has a screw-cap, so I insert it upright and plug those without a cap with a plug made of a piece of paper toweling. I give away a good deal of wine and don't usually get the bottles back, so occasionally I run out of a certain color and style of bottle and have to use what is available rather than what I really want to use. Something within me is irritated when I have to do this, but sometimes one must do what one can, not what one wants.

Not all dark wines degrade under light, but many do. If I have to bottle part of such a batch of red wine in clear bottles, I store them in cardboard wine cartons and that solves the light problem. And, I have found it is much easier to age a wine that is out of sight, as there is little to no temptation to drink what you don't see.

I have found that 99% of all wine bottles in America accept a #9 cork. Rare is the bottle that will not accept a #9 and requires a #8, but there are a few out there. I know that quite a few winemakers still use hand-corkers and it is much easier to insert a #8 cork in the average bottle than a #9. I have two things to say about this. First, it is exactly the tightness of the fit that protects the wine, so use the correct cork. Secondly, do yourself a huge favor and get a floor corker -- make it a birthday, Christmas, anniversary, or simply a payday gift to yourself. You will forever be grateful and will have no problem using the correctly sized cork.

A woman once called me and asked if I needed any Riesling bottles, as her husband had saved them for several years. He had recently passed away and she needed to get rid of them as she was selling the house. I went by to get them and discovered she had over 40 cases of identical bottles in her garage. Even with my pickup, I had to make two trips. It took me several weeks to get the labels off and clean out the bottles (he had not rinsed them before storing them, so most had residue from an ancient growth of mold on the bottom that proved time-consuming but not really difficult to clean). When I used them, I noticed that they were difficult to cork -- even with a floor corker -- and so I compared them with another bottle and judged they would accept a #8 cork, which I had none of in stock. So, I ordered some by phone from a shop in Akron, Ohio I favored for its reasonable prices, but even then I needed almost 500 corks. Of the several bottles already sealed with #9 corks, they proved terrifically difficult to open. One bottle's neck broke apart while trying to extract the cork. Another was shipped off to a distant competition; I received a letter in the mail informing me that no one could extract the cork and the wine was discarded without being judged. About a year later I discovered that these bottles actually used a #7 cork, but....

T-corks are meant to seal a bottle temporarily (for example, a bottle that is only partially consumed), not to be used as permanent closures.

Like Dan, I do not trust the tapered (wedge shaped) corks. They offer little side contact with the neck of the bottle and thus wine/air only has a narrow band of resistance to bypass it. Further, unless it is tapped all the way into the bottle's neck, it can be jarred loose easily by careless handling.

• Dago Red Wine, the "offending" recipe
• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

A reader asked for a recipe for honey apple wine, which is actually apple mead -- apple wine fermented with honey instead of sugar. It is also called cyser. Since I used to buy lots of apple cider to get the 1-gallon glass jugs, I know a little about making cyser.

There are two approaches to making cyser -- use crushed apples or use cider. Unless you have apple trees or access to free apples, it is far more economical and less labor intensive to use cider. With rare exception, cider also has the advantage of being a blend of several apple varieties and brings together the merits of sweetness, tartness, aroma, flavor, acid, and tannin. No single variety possesses a fine balance of all of these qualities. I will assume you are using cider and will make a 5-gallon batch.

Even at the supermarkets in south Texas, we usually have several ciders to choose from. If you live in apple country where numerous cider mills exist, your choices are much greater. Choose a cider that offers strong aroma and flavor, for these must compete with and survive the influences of both the honey and alcohol. If you cannot find such a cider, obtain the best you can, but be absolutely certain the commercial cider you use does not contain sorbic or benzoic acid. If you have both an apple press and access to the correct apples, you can dress up an ordinary table cider for meadmaking purposes by adding to it the juice or crushed apples from two pounds each of Winesap or any of the Russett varieties for aroma and Northern Spy, Pitmason, Pineapple, or Russett for flavor. If available, toss in a pound of crabapples for acidity and tannin. If you can press these to juice you can add that to the table cider. Alternatively, you can crush them and add the fruit to your mead when it has finished its vigorous fermentation. Put the crushed fruit in a nylon straining bag set in a sanitized primary and transfer the mead to the fruit. Allow the yeast to work on the fruit for at least five days before pressing, but two weeks would be better.

To make cyser (5 gallons), 12-15 pounds of honey is required -- that's 4 to 5 quarts. Apple blossom honey would be the perfect choice but I have never actually seen it, so any good honey will do. By "good honey," I mean Grade A (Fancy) or Grade B (Choice). The complete list of starting ingredients you'll need are:

• 12-15 lbs honey
• 3-1/2 gallons cider + 1/2 gallon
• 1/2 gallon water
• 2-1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1 tsp yeast energizer
• 1 sachet Lalvin 71B-1122 wine yeast

Later you will need potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate to stabilize the mead, and perhaps a little malic acid and grape tannin, but the latter must be determined by need.

Place the cider in your refrigerator at least 6 hours before you begin. Start by bringing the water to boil in a large stock pot. When at a rolling boil, remove from the heat and carefully add the honey to the water. Do not stir yet, but, while wearing insulated kitchen mitts, carefully ladle some of the water into the honey jars. Cap them and shake to dissolve the residual honey, then add the liquid to the stock pot. Add the yeast nutrient and energizer to the stock pot and stir until the honey and water are completely integrated. Transfer this to your primary and add 3-1/2 gallons of the refrigerated cider. Use a thermometer to derive the temperature of the must; if not 100 degrees F. or lower, cover and set aside until it drops to this level. Remove 2 cups of the must to a sanitized jar, cover, and place in the refrigerator, then add the activated yeast to the primary and cover it. When the must in the refrigerator cools to 60 degrees F., pour some in a hydrometer test jar and measure the specific gravity. Return this must to the primary to ferment.

Proceed as in making wine. If you add crushed apples as mentioned earlier, do so only when the vigorous fermentation subsides to prevent the aromas you want to capture from blowing off. Also, it is best to do this using a primary with a tight-fitting lid drilled for an airlock; if one is not available, stir 1/4 teaspoon of potassium metabisulfite into the must before adding the apples.

Use the extra 1/2 gallon of cider to top off with. When you do, fermentation will reactivate, but the long fermentation captures the essence of the apples. When the mead is finished and clear (usually after three rackings a month or two apart), it should be stabilized with 2-1/2 tsp potassium sorbate and 1/4 tsp potassium metabisulfite. Depending on the taste of the finished mead, you may want to add malic acid and/or grape tannin. Also, be advised that mead, like wine, mellows, improves and tastes sweeter as it ages, but if it is just too dry, you can add one or more 16-oz cans of frozen apple concentrate to sweeten it. This will affect the clarity and will delay bottling, but often the improvement is well worth the wait. I have added as many as three cans, which reached the limits of my sweetness tolerance. After adding this, you must wait an additional 30 days to see if any surviving yeast reinitiates fermentation. If they do, wait another 90 days before carefully racking into bottles.[Author's own recipe]

Peaches are ripe and several people have written recently asking about peach wine recipes. The questions vary, but I will try to combine all my answers into this entry. It isn't all that long, but...well, just read on.

The first recipe tends to generate the same question every year - how can you make a gallon of wine with just three pounds of peaches and a quart of boiling water. These, in addition to the single large lemon, contain the only liquid in the list of ingredients. But in the method portion, it says, "Pour in the boiling water and stir to dissolve sugar. Cover primary with sterile cloth and set aside until reaching room temperature, then add cool water to equal one gallon." The devil is in the details, so please read the entire recipe before writing me with a question.

As to which recipe makes the best wine, I have to say it is neither. However, if we must be restricted to the three recipes on my peach wines page, then I would recommend combining the last two. Make the wine according to the third recipe, but incorporate two bananas sliced thin and boiled according to the second recipe.

You can add additional "peachy" flavor if you are freezing peach wedges to be used later in cobbler. Either peel the peaches fresh or hold each one in boiling water with tongs for about 10 seconds and then peel. Section the peaches into wedges and freeze, but save the peach peelings and add to your peach must. Ferment them at least three days but not longer than five, then discard. I have added as much as two pounds of peelings per gallon and can only say that the wine improves unbelievably.

• The Cider Press, Marc Shapiro's page on cider references
• Mead with Apples, from The Bee's Lees
• Peach Wines, on my site
• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

I am afraid I need to apologize. I have been having such a good time doing other things that I have not attended to the WineBlog. This has led three of you to write to me over the past two days and inquire about my health, figuring I had not written here because of continued health problems. Rest assured I am fine, and please accept my apologies for not writing here sooner.

Last Sunday I served as head judge at the Medina County Fair in Hondo, Texas. If you don’t know a thing about Hondo, please take a look at the first link below, as indicated, to learn all you need to know. It’s a terrific little town to visit, even if only to judge wines at the county fair.

I tasted some very good wines Sunday and a few that were not quite ready for prime time. I was talking to one of the winemakers after the competition about his beverage and he said, "I brewed this to use up the fruit." Gosh, I hope not.

One "brews" beer and mead. One "makes" wine and cider. If you say you "brewed" your wine, I can only assume one of two things -- (1) you don’t know the meaning of the word "brew," or (2) you do and you cooked your fruit to make your wine. Please use the correct term if you want to communicate accurately. If you’re not sure which term to use or what a term means, please visit my "Glossary of Winemaking Terms." This was actually the first page I ever posted on the internet and was the starting point of "The Winemaking Home Page." Please refer to it as often as you need to, and if there is a term you don’t find there, let me know.

Yes, I’m playing with words. Ever since the book and movie "The Perfect Storm," we have become conditioned to expect a monster when something is described as "the perfect [whatever]."

A reader wrote to me saying, "I followed your recipe of strawberry/rhubarb right to the tee and in the sequence you recommended. It is now in the primary and WOW, I've never had such a great/violent yeast action in my young wine making career." He then inquires how this happened.

I replied, "Every now and then the right conditions converge to form the perfect must -- the chemistry (most important), the nutrients, the sugar, the temperature, the yeast, the barometric pressure, the phase of the moon, etc. -- and the fermentation explodes. I've had fermentations complete in two days -- I'd prefer they take longer, so the flavors and aromas get incorporated fully, but.... Just accept it. It happens. You can't predict it and can seldom repeat it, but it's fun when it happens."

I wrote that just three days ago. The night before, I started a batch of cranberry-raspberry wine at 1.092 s.g. It quickly developed a heavy foam. Last night I noticed the foam had diminished, so took a hydrometer reading. It was at 0.998 and still in the primary, so I transferred it to secondary and attached an airlock. Because I made slightly more must than a gallon, I had several ounces left in the secondary. I used it to start a mead.

I mixed 2 ¼ pounds of honey in a quart of water in a 3-quart pan and brought it to a low boil. Over a 20-25- minute period I skimmed off the surface scum that formed from the impurities in the honey and removed it from the heat when the scum ceased forming. I set this pan in an ice water bath to cool it down. Later, I measured the volume, added 32 ounces of white grape juice, the juice of 4 pomegranates, some additives, and transferred it to the secondary with the leftover cranberry-raspberry wine must. I brought the volume to a gallon and a cup with water, measured the s.g., and covered the primary. This morning the must was covered with a thick layer of foam.

I don’t expect this batch to ferment as quickly as its predecessor, but when it is time to transfer to secondary I have another mead I want to start with the little that will be left over. Heck, as long as this yeast is so darned happy with the musts I prepare for it, I’ll keep the fermentations going. I have lots of frozen fruit in our chest freezer.

Another reader began a batch of watermelon wine and saved some of the juice to sweeten the finished wine with, then decided to check to see if this was a good idea. I answered him as follows.

You can indeed sweeten with juice. Wait until the whole fermentation is finished, the wine has cleared, you've racked it a couple of times, and it is stabilized. Since that shouldn't be until day 70-80, the original watermelon juice will not last -- it will spoil long before then. When the time comes, buy and press another watermelon. If you fear there won’t be any melons around in two months, prepare the juice and freeze it.

When sweetening with a juice, you should sweeten the juice with sugar as needed and let it cold settle in the refrigerator. The majority of the juice will clear as the pulp settles to the bottom. Carefully rack the clear juice off the sediments and use it, discarding or drinking the portion with the pulp. Sweeten your stabilized wine with the clear portion -- thawed if previously frozen.

You also need to keep track of (1) your finished wine’s alcohol level (computed using the starting and finished specific gravity numbers) and (2) the amount of dilution you'll experience when adding the juice. You do not want the sweetened wine to dilute down lower than 10% alcohol. If you aren’t sure how to calculate this, go to my "Blending Wines" page and use the Pearson Square. Just read the article and you’ll figure it out.

• Mark Roberts’ Blog, scroll down to September 4, 2004 for the "welcome" sign at Hondo
• Glossary of Winemaking Terms, words mean things, so use them correctly if you want to be understood
• Blending Wines, use the Pearson Square to calculate alcohol dilution
• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

Generally speaking, the aroma of mead fermenting in primary is much nicer than that of wine. I know this is not a truly fair statement, as it certainly depends on what exactly is fermenting, but all other parameters being even, a given base being fermented as mead is more enjoyable to the nose than the same base being fermented as a wine.

The thoughts expressed above came to me as I walked into the house yesterday afternoon. My nostrils were filled with the scent of pomegranate mead being fermented. There was no doubt that it smelled different than a pomegranate wine undergoing fermentation only a week and a half ago. Granted, I used more fruit in the wine, and they were a week and a half less ripe, I suppose, but it was clearly the honey component I was smelling and it made a difference. And that reminds me of a recent discussion.

The topic was crabapple wine. A website was mentioned with a crabapple wine recipe. The recipe called for chaptalization with sugar, fermentation, at least two rackings, and then the inclusion of 1/2 cup of honey to the nearly finished wine. The reader was assured that the honey would yield a quite different taste than if mere sugar was added at the end. And this is absolutely true.

I once did an experiment that I invite you to replicate. I made a gallon of blackberry wine using 4 1/2 pounds of blackberries and six ounces of Welch's red grape frozen concentrate, chaptalized to an s.g. of 1.085. I fermented this using a Burgundy yeast and racked it several times over as many months. At this point, the wine was both still and clear. Without stabilizing it, I divided it into two half-gallon jugs and sweetened each -- one with one-quarter cup of honey and the other with a quarter-cup of sugar. I was quite annoyed when both began fermenting again, although this seemed to finish fairly quickly. I stabilized them, reclarified them and tasted each. There was no doubt that the one I had added the small amount of honey to was a smoother wine with only a hint of greater sweetness.

I have repeated this experiment twice with similar results. Even a little honey makes a difference.

How many times do I need to discuss sulfites? If my email is any guide, at least once more, evidently. A recent email said, "I don't care if my wines oxydize [sic], so I don't use sulfites." Okay. Do you care about bacteria? Vinegar? Brown wine?

In truth, sulfites have numerous benefits and almost no drawbacks to about 97% of the population. That small, 3% residual, consists of people with allergic reactions to sulfites. If you nearly stop breathing after eating a handful of raisins, you're allergic to sulfites. Otherwise, you probably aren't. Most people who say they're "sensitive" to sulfites aren't; it's all in their heads. But the real allergy is serious. Having difficulty breathing is bad enough, but rare symptoms similar to anaphylaxis can manifest -- flushing, fast heartbeat, wheezing, hives, dizziness, nausea, diarrhea, collapse, tingling, or difficulty swallowing.

Winemakers can use commercial sulfur dioxide gas from a gas cylinder or use the salt, potassium metabisulfite. When dissolved in water or wine, the salt converts to a bisulfite ion that bonds or reacts with acetaldehyde and other compounds and becomes "fixed," or remains unfixed and becomes "free sulfur dioxide." It is the latter that assists the winemaker. It protects fruit, juice and wine from oxidation, retards bacterial growth, kills fungus, counters the enzymes that cause browning, reduces the smell of oxidation, helps dissolve red grape pigments and thereby improves the color of red wines, enhances the smell of wines by removing the smell of any oxidized acetaldehydes, inhibits malo-lactic fermentation, and at aseptic levels completely stops vinegar formation. At levels above 150 ppm (total SO2 concentrations of 350 ppm are permitted in commercial wines in the United States), it retards the growth of most wild yeast just long enough to allow cultured yeast to gain dominance in the fermentation. All in all, sulfites are the major difference between reliable winemaking in modern times and a toss of the dice in more ancient periods.

So, depending on how you count,I just listed 9, 10, or 11 reasons to use sulfites, any one of which should be sufficient as a reason to use them -- unless you are one of the rare ones who are genuinely allergic to them.

Three times in the last 18 months or so I've been asked for a recipe for carnation wine. Carnations have a spicy, peppery, clove-like flavor which can easily overcome a wine, so don't think "more will be better." Use only garden grown flowers, as florist's flowers may contain dyes, pesticides and fixatives that could endanger the wine. I have only made this with pink carnations, so cannot speak to wine color or flavor of other colors of the flower. The pink flowers make a white wine.

• 1 lb carnation flowers
• 2 lbs granulated sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp acid blend
• 1/4 tsp grape tannin
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1 pkt general purpose wine yeast

Wash the carnation flowers, remove husks, stems and heels. Soak in 1 quart boiling water. Simmer for 30 minutes then let soak for 12 hours. Strains off the liquid into primary and to it add remaining ingredients (except yeast) and stir until dissolved. Add an additional 5 pints of water to bring to one gallon. Add yeast, cover primary and set in warm place. Check specific gravity after 5th day and each day thereafter until it drops to 1.010. Transfer to secondary and fix airlock. If wine does not clear in 30 days, put one teaspoon pectic enzyme in clean secondary and rack wine into it. Reattach airlock and wait additional 30 days. Rack, add one crushed and dissolved Campden tablet and 1/2 tsp potassium sorbate dissolved. Wait 10 days, sweeten to taste and set aside additional 30 days. Rack into bottles and age 3 months. [Author's own recipe]

• Crabapple Wine, this is the recipe mentioned above
• Crabapple Wine, adapted from Terry Garey's recipe, on my site
• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

I received an email from a person -- the name could have been male or female -- who whined that he or she wanted very much to make wine but "...cannot accept the idea of using chemicals, enzymes and genetically engineered yeast in this endeavor." I don't really want to insult anyone, but some people need to be insulted. Anyone old enough to legally drink wine who is handicapped by such thoughts needs to be educated before they harm society in some way. Life is hard enough for those who use their brain....

Chemicals are specific collections of atoms or molecules such as H2O (water) or NaCl (salt) or C12H22O11 (sugar). There is no such thing as a chemical-free wine -- or food, or life-form. It is one thing to recognize that many harmful chemicals are finding their way into our bodies; it is altogether different (and idiotic) to generalize this into a crusade against all chemicals. Don't they teach logic in schools anymore? Don't they still teach students that generalizations are fallacious?

Enzymes

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze (i.e. accelerate) chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, specific molecules are converted into different molecules. Almost all processes that take place in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at significant rates -- significant meaning within the lifetime of the cell. I don't really expect most people to know what enzymes do, but if a person is going to take a solid stand against a thing -- anything, really -- he or she ought to at least open a dictionary and find out what it is they are opposing. Since enzymes are essential for life as we know it and for wine to be made by yeast, to be opposed to their use is rather silly.

Genetically Engineered Yeast

Yeast cells were first genetically engineered by Benjamin Hall and Gustav Ammerer in 1981 to produce human interferon and later that year produced the surface antigen protein of the hepatitis B virus. This led directly to the world's first genetically engineered vaccine against a human disease, the first vaccine against a sexually transmitted disease, and the first vaccine against a virus that leads to human cancer -- a feat considered one of biotechnology's greatest triumphs. This, of course, has nothing to do with wine, but yeast have been genetically altered to produce more alcohol. I believe Nancy Ho of Purdue University was the first person to genetically engineer a yeast cell, in 1995, to effectively co-ferment both glucose and xylose from cellulosic biomass, a development which has made commercial biomass-to-ethanol technology possible. I know of no genetically engineered yeast involved in or even suitable for wine production, but in the event someone develops and produces them you can rest assured they will not be sold in little sachets in local homebrew shops. But beware of the wine you buy....

Another Look - the Carboy Lifter

I have received many emails over the past two-plus years thanking me for mentioning Martin Benke's Carboy Lifter in my WineBlog entry of March 17th, 2005. The Carboy Lifter is a winch-driven fork-lift that lifts a carboy to 3 feet in height, more than enough to rack or bottle the wine. Further, it regularly handles 6.5-gallon carboys, and Martin has made custom Carboy Lifters large enough to handle 17-gallon demijohns.

Martin Benke's Carboy Lifter is a back saver

The Carboy Lifter sits on 4 wheels for mobility and comes with two mini-pallets upon which to set the carboys. Extra pallets are available. Two forklift-like prongs slip into the pallets to hold and lift them. The forklift portion rides up a column, assisted by bearings. The ratchetted winch works easily and quietly to lift or lower the load.

Martin says he can ship the Carboy Lifter anywhere in the contiguous 48 states for about $30 but that was before $2.70-per-gallon gasoline so it may be more today.

While I don't usually promote products, I make an exception here. No one, no matter how young and fit at the time, should lift a 6- or 6.5-gallon carboy of wine. Wine kit manufacturers went from 5-gallon to 6-gallon batches and put the back of every customer who buys their product in jeopardy. Martin Benke has made it possible for even my wife to manage a 6-gallon carboy, and that's worth promoting.

Martin Benke can be reached at home in Dunlay, Texas at (210) 854-2178.

• A Triumph of Biotechnology, excellent little vignette
• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

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October 2nd, 2007

As I stated in my August 31st WineBlog, this is not a political site. I will not turn it into one and will not allow petty intolerance to hijack the site and turn it into one. I have therefore had to insist that several recent entries to my guestbook be removed due to their inflammatory nature. I left the original protest entry in the guestbook, but those that stooped to name-calling were removed, whether they supported me or the protestor.

Before someone screams "censorship," consider for a moment that this is a private website with public viewing privileges granted by the site's owner -- me. If anyone wants to spend their own time and money and create their own site and rant against me, please feel free to do so. But I'm spending my time and my money on a winemaking site. I was hoping it would be visited by adults. If you qualify, please stay awhile.

Stopping Fermentation

A member of a forum I frequent inquired as to whether anyone tries to stop fermentation while the wine still has some residual sugar in it or do we all just ferment to dryness, stabilize and then back-sweeten? Another member guessed that most members ferment to dryness then back-sweeten. He pointed out that aside from the fact that it may be difficult to stop a fermentation mid-stream, back-sweetening can give one more precise control over sweetness, and stopping an active fermentation may leave one with less alcohol than desired, requiring an adjustment with some sort of spirit -- not to mention it is just plain difficult to get yeast to die without doing bad things to your wine.

I added that if you have the right yeast you can stop a fermentation shy of dryness and end up with a sweet or semi-sweet wine. Take Cote des Blancs yeast, for example. It ferments right up to 13% and then just dies. You might get 13.25% out of it, but don't shoot for 14%. So, if you sweeten a must to yield 15.5% potential alcohol (PA) and inoculate with Cote des Blancs, chances are excellent you will end up with a yeast-stable wine with 2.5% residual sweetness. But, in my estimation, it is a complete waste of time to take a 16% PA must inoculated with Lalvin BA11 or some other comparable alcohol-tolerant yeast and try to stop the fermentation at 12%. If you want a 12% sweet wine, sweeten the must to 16% and inoculate with Cote des Blancs -- or sweeten the must to 12% PA, ferment to dryness and then back-sweeten to taste.

I repeat this here because it is important to remember that the yeast is a tool. Even if you let the juice ferment "spontaneously" with wild yeast, you are still using the yeast to convert the sugar in the juice into alcohol and thus change the very nature of the beverage. As long as you're going to use tools, you might as well use the right one. In making wine, there are many yeast choices. No one can say that one strain is the best choice in a given situation above all others, but it sometimes is easy to say that a particular strain is the wrong one. Eliminate the wrong ones and select from what is left. There will still be many choices.

Fermentation Rate

An innovative winemaker experimented with staggered yeast nutrient additions. He begins with about half the nutrient he anticipates needing and adds the remainder at strategic points along the way to dryness. (He also added equal parts of yeast nutrient and energizer, but this is very wrong so let's ignore that for the rest of the discussion.) One thing he noticed was that his fermentation time grew shorter using this method, and he thought this was a good thing. Since this case was a forum entry too, others chimed in and expressed the belief that slower fermentations were better for the wine quality and hypothesized that fermentation at lower temperatures contributes more fruitiness and aroma to the wine and also slows the fermentation rate.

I pointed out that way back in 1884 Muller-Thurgau showed that lower temperatures result in slower fermentation, higher alcohol production, and better flavor and aroma integration. Over the years, many studies have refined and supplemented the data and quantified the various byproducts of fermentation as a consequence of temperature and fermentation rate, but the conclusion hasn't changed.

The optimum fermentation temperature for most wine yeast strains is 60 degrees F. (15.5 degrees C.). Lower alcohol production is obtained on either side of that optimum. In other words, you get less alcohol production by fermenting an average yeast at 55 or 65 degrees F. than you get at 60 degrees. Volatile acidity formation is lower at lower temperatures, but the right balance for table wine is obtained between 58-60 degrees F.

When you get into the various fermentation byproducts it gets rather complicated, but the bottom line is that lower temperature means slower fermentation rate which means more flavor and aroma integration. In other words, you do not want a fast fermentation if you can help it. But, if things just happen and your yeast just rip through a fermentation, don't lose any sleep over it. Just let it age a little longer than you otherwise would and it will probably be okay.

• Yeast Strains, on my site -- learn their characteristics
• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

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October 8th, 2007

Today is the celebration day of the American holiday, Columbus Day. The actual anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the Americas is October 12th, but for some reason that makes sense only to lawmakers and bureaucrats in Washington, DC it is being celebrated today. Nothing is sacred any more, but especially not Columbus Day.

On the radio this morning I heard a complete ass vilify Columbus for causing the destruction of the natural paradise that existed in the Americas before his arrival. What drivel. Whatever Columbus was, he does not deserve blame for everything ugly that followed his discovery. He had no knowledge of microorganisms, immunity and epidemics, and was not responsible for the great conquistador campaigns that followed. Finally, the indigenous peoples themselves were doing a wonderful job of subjugating and exterminating each other long before Columbus happened upon the scene. I, frankly, am sick of the revisionist history being proselytized by people who wish the past were other than it actually was. End of rant....

Persimmon Wine

A forum member inquired about some difference he noted in persimmon wine recipes. Almost all of them say to use three pounds of ripe persimmons for a one gallon recipe. However some also say to deseed and mash and some recipes call for three pounds that have already been deseeded and mashed. He was confused by these differences, fearing three pounds of deseeded persimmons would be appreciably different from three pounds that were subsequently deseeded. While this is a small point, it is one I can appreciate. The devil, as they say, is often in the detail.

The persimmon recipe on my site is adapted from the legendary San Antonian Dorothy Alatorre. I used that recipe the first time I made persimmon wine, but never again. It is not intended to make a dry table wine, but rather a sweet wine of quite considerable alcohol. If made perfectly, the wine will balance and be a delight. If not, it will be...well...less than perfect. Except for a wine I made with wild Texas persimmons -- those small nuggets that ripen black and whose wine looks exactly like motor oil after staying in the crankcase twice as long as intended -- I use a completely different procedure for persimmon wine. You'll notice I did not say "recipe," and that's because there isn't one.

In answering the fellow on the forum, I opined that it really doesn't make all that much difference whether one measures the seeded or deseeded persimmons -- the differential will not be all that great. Indeed, the only reason I know of to remove the seeds is for aesthetic reasons -- the seeds themselves are edible. They will also yield some tannin, as they retain tannic acid long after it disappears from the flesh.

Persimmons (Diospyros kaki) are technically a berry -- as is the watermelon -- but most people think of it as a fruit. However you consider it, it is one of the sweetest fruits in the world when fully ripe. For this reason the Japanese consider it a divine food.

Most persimmons, especially the wild orange ones, do not ripen until after a frost but may drop from the tree prematurely. Persimmons in good condition will often then need to be ripened at home. Leave them out on the counter at room temperature or hasten the process by putting them in a paper bag with a banana or apple. The ethylene gas given off by the other fruit will help the persimmon ripen. A fully ripe persimmon will be slightly wrinkled or have a few brown spots. At this very soft stage, the pulp is almost like a firm jelly. It's then at the peak of perfection and should be eaten immediately or used in other ways, as in cooking, baking, jelly, or wine.

There are many different cultivated persimmons. I have long been familiar with the common wild orange persimmon of America (Diospyros virginiana) and later with the black Texas persimmon (Diospyros texana), but the ones we buy at the market will probably be a cultivar from the Orient.

Cultivars Fuyu, Maru, and Hachiya are perhaps the best known. The shape of Fuyu fruit is round and somewhat flattened, Maru is more sphericallt round, and Hachiya is heart-shaped and pointed at its apex. Fuyu is the most widely planted cultivar in Japan and easily the most popular everywhere. It is most noted for its nonastringent fruit -- even when not yet ripe -- but also for its good yield, vigorous upright growth habit, and ease of training. Maru has more brittle branches, the fruit is astringent, and it matures about three weeks earlier than Fuyu. Hachiya fruit is also astringent before softening to ripeness. These and most other cultivars bear only functionally female flowers (with stamens present but sterile) that without fertilization produce seedless (parthenocarpic) fruit. In Japan, these flowers are sometimes hand-pollinated with pollen from varieties that bear male flowers. When I planted persimmon trees, my nurseryman suggested that I plant a minimum of three trees, with the more central one being a common persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) or known male.

I quarter the fruit and scoop the flesh out with a spoon. Mash the pulp in a primary and sprinkle with powdered pectic enzyme (one teaspoon per three pounds of fruit). Stir the mashed pulp to mix in the pectic enzyme and let it sit about 30 minutes. I use a spay bottle to spray the strained juice of one lemon over the surface and then wait the 30 minutes. Then add about 6 pints of water and stir the pulp well to moisten it through and through. Cover the primary and wait 12 hours, stirring once or twice during that time. Strain off a sample of the liquid and test with a hydrometer. Based on this reading, now calculate the amount of sugar actually required to reach a desired yield.

Once the sugar is added, the following ingredients can be added.

• 1 tblsp acid blend
• 6 pts water
• 1 crushed Campden tablet
• 1/2 to 3/4 tsp yeast nutrient

Allow the must to sit, covered, another 12 hours and then add a Montrachet, Pasteur Red or Champagne yeast starter. If you can get it, SB5 (Hock yeast), Gervin No. 5 (White Label) or Gervin Varietal B (Rhine) all work very well with persimmon. Ferment normally, strain after vigorous fermentation subsides and transfer to a secondary under airlock. I prefer persimmon wine more in the 11.5% to 12% abv range, fermented dry, stabilized and then sweetened to about 1.5% residual sugar (1.006). Your taste may differ. [Author's own recipe]

• Common Persimmon Wine, on my site -- adapted from Dorothy Alatorre
• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

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October 13th, 2007

I wanted to thank all of you who so generously have made financial contributions to support the continued operation of The Winemaking Home Page. I cannot tell you how grateful I am. The link to make such a contribution is at the end of each WineBlog entry.

The 2000 Bordeaux Vintage

The other day I read an article on Bordeaux's first growth 2000 vintage wines. I am unable to find it just now, but it was an eye opener and I did manage to commit some of it to memory. First off, it is one of the best vintage years in ages, and by best I mean for potential. All five of the Premier Crus were rated at 100 points on the 100-point scale, yet are wines that will not mellow enough to drink for 30-40 years (or more). Unable to locate the original (which I'm sure was delivered by email), I have searched the five Bordeaux first growths.

The Châteax Margaux 2000 Premier Grand Cru is selling for $980 a bottle if you can get it. Think that's high? The Château Haut-Brion 2000 Pessac Léognan is selling for $1,186 a bottle; Châteax Lafite-Rothschild at 1,814 a bottle; Châteax Latour at $1,730 a bottle; and Châteax Mouton Rothschild at a mere $1,134 a bottle. But, in truth, the prices are all over the board (and I consider the listings at Antique Wine Company to be very high).

What makes these wines so pricey? The answer, in short, is their perceived value over the next 30-80 years. And what creates that value? Well, if I knew the answer to that one I I would not need viewer contributions to keep this web site afloat. But one thing everyone agrees on is that these wines have layers and layers of tannins -- no, not just tannins, but the right tannins. Plus, of course, they have everything else a fine wine needs -- acidity, pH, flavor components, structure, body, and on and on and on. But they not only have these things in spades, they have them for the long haul -- they aren't going to peak in six years and turn brickish in eight.

I have only tasted one "great wine," although I have tasted a lot of great wines. By "great wine," I mean a wine approaching what the 2000 Bordeaux first growths are hyped to become. The wine I tasted was 30 years old exactly, had been recorked once, was the finest tasting and best finishing wine I have ever tasted, and was drank before its time. Yes, we drank it too young, but could not have known that until we tasted it. And that is why people who can afford these wines buy them by the case. Oh, but to dream....

Off-Topic Entries

Completely unrelated to wine, a friend sent me a URL and said to go there and type in my ZIP Code. I did and was surprised by wealth of information retrieved on my community. I then started comparing data between places I've lived, with places my siblings live, etc. The link is at the end of this WineBlog entry....

I don't know why, but I woke up wondering what happened on this date in history. If you want to know, check out the link at the end of this entry, which features a short video clip. There are many other sites that list the events that occurred on any given date, but I haven't really found one that I consider "the best." Indeed, on completely different sites I learned that on this day in 539 BC the Persian armies under Cyrus the Great captured Babylon; in Rome in 54 AD Emperor Claudius was poisoned by his wife Agrippina so her son Nero could take the throne; on this unlucky Friday the 13th in 1307 King Philip IV had all Knights Templar in France arrested for heresy; in 1792 President George Washington set the cornerstone of the executive mansion, later to be known as the White House; and in 1963 The Beatles performed for the first time on live television (at the London Palladium). Obviously, this is a sampling of what happened on this date, but my point is that no one site listed all of these events.

• Fine Wine Investing, the cached copy because the original would not come up
• Chateau Margaux, Wine Menu's site -- scroll to the end
• Chateau Haut Brion Chateau Classics' web site
• Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, on Antique Wine's site
• Chateau Latour, on Antique Wine's site
• Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, on Antique Wine's site
• ZIP Skinny, just type in your ZIP Code....
• This Day in History, at History.com
• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

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October 16th, 2007

My wife Donna is out in California attending to some real estate and medical affairs. Last weekend she and her friend Mary went up to Grass Valley to visit Mary's sister, Amy, who lives next door to a winery they had visited previously. What a blast they had. The winery was closed, but they joined Amy and her friends in a private visit -- not to taste wines, but to help bottle 50 cases of Barbera.

A Bottling Party at Sierra Knolls

I really can't say what happened, but my wife evidently had a good time. She said she sure does like the people, the locale and the wines of Sierra Knolls Winery. We've been to a lot of wineries, so if she thinks a place is special, it is. I'm going to have to get out there, see for myself, and find out how they got her to help them bottle their Barbera. I can't get her to help me bottle mine, but she does everything else to make our home a wonderful place to be so I can't complain. But what I really want to see is the cave where they age their wines in French and American oak barrels. Donna said it smelled wonderful....

Actually, I'm pretty sure she sampled their wares. She admits to dropping and breaking one bottle, something I've never known her to do. And she seemed awfully knowledgeable about their wines -- not your normal California offerings. Take the Barbera, for instance. This is the second most widely planted variety in Italy after Sangiovese, and is widely planted in California as well. And yet, most people are unfamiliar with it. That is because most Barbera grown in the vast Central Valley is beautifully colored and nicely bodied, but it has indistinct flavor and aroma. This makes it a perfect blending wine, and that is where most Barbera goes. But, in the Sierra foothills, Paso Robles, Sonoma and Santa Clara regions, the cooler nights allow this grape to come into its own -- exhibiting an attractive aroma of ripe blackberries, red fruit and currants that is enhanced by vanilla, smoke and toasted notes created by barrel aging. I'm looking forward to the bottle she picked up for me.

Other wines made at Sierra Knolls Winery are, again, not your usual fare. Among their white wines are Marsanne as a varietal and a Rhone blend of Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne countering their more conventional Chardonnay. Cabernet Franc, Sangiovese, Zinfandel, and Barbera counter their Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with a late harvest Zinfandel rounding out the reds as a dessert offering. This is a solid and decidedly fruity stable.

And thinking about Barbera sent me to my wine logs to find the one I made. I doubt it holds a candle to Sierra Knolls' wine, but I do remember it as being wonderfully satisfying. I don't say that about many wines.

Barbera Grape Wine from Juice

If you can obtain high quality Barbera grapes from the right climate zone, by all means use them. I can't obtain such grapes, so I have to buy juice. Without fermenting on the skins, the wine is medium-bodied at best but still robust, dark and fruity (cherries, raspberries and currants). It loves oak and is suitable for long aging regimens.

• 5 gallons Barbera grape juice
• 3 1/2 teaspoons yeast nutrient
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pectic enzyme
• 1/4 teaspoon potassium metabisulfite
• 3 tablespoons Oak-Mor [Optional]
• 1 sachet Wyeast chianti wine yeast or Red Star Pasteur Red

In a 6-gallon carboy as primary, stir the potassium metsbisulfite into the juice, cover, and wait 12 hours. Add the pectic enzyme and at the same time begin a yeast starter solution. Cover the juice and wait another 12 hours. To the juice, stir in the yeast nutrient, Oak-Mor and yeast starter solution. Cover and watch for active fermentation to start. Wait two days and attach airlock. When vigorous fermentation subsides, wait 7 days, rack into 5-gallon carboy and attach airlock. Allow wine to clear, wait additional 1-2 weeks, rack, stabilize, and sweeten if desired. If sweetened, allow additional 30 days and rack into bottles. If not sweetened, bottle. Now here's the difficult part. Age 12 months before you even think of tasting, and even then don't expect the wine to be ready. Instead, make detailed tasting notes and pretend you like the wine. Wait another 6 months and taste again. While doing this, re-read your tasting notes from 6 months earlier. The wine will be much better and should continue to improve over the next 6-9 months, but at some point you will know it is ready. Throw a party. Invite me. [Author's own recipe]

Off-Topic Entries

Some of you undoubtedly already know about NationStates. NationStates is a...what? Game? Not really. Simulation? Sort of. Role play? It can be. Whatever it is, it is played on the internet. It was created in 2002 by Max Barry, loosely based on his novel Jennifer Government. The following is from the Wikipedia entry for NationStates:

"In the game, a player has charge of a "nation". At the time a nation is created, the player chooses a few basic characteristics such as name, currency and style of government. The nation's population starts at 5 million people and increases automatically with play.

"Gameplay hinges on deciding government policies: the player is presented with automatically assigned "issues" and chooses a response from a list of options. Players can also dismiss (ignore) issues: this has no effect on the nation. The frequency with which new issues arise is set by the player (from 5 to 14 issues per week).... All issues have a peculiar characteristic. No option is the "correct" one. Each usually has a positive and a negative aspect, although the latter is usually highlighted and both are always exaggerated. Many issues are posed in terms of radical or extremist beliefs, and the accompanying opinions are rarely well-founded. This is for both humorous and didactic reasons: many opinions are extremely funny or ridiculous, and the player learns that there are no perfect ideas which will work in every case.

"The player's decisions affect the nation's status in the areas of Political Freedoms (how democratic the nation is), Civil Rights (how much freedom the citizens have), and Economy (how strong the nation's economy is), as well as other variables, such as crime rate, industry size and public sector spending.

"Based on the nation's personal, economic, and political freedoms, they are assigned to one of 27 "UN Categories", from Scandinavian Liberal Paradise and Capitalist Paradise to Corporate Police State and Psychotic Dictatorship. The "other variables" are used to compile the game's daily UN reports, which lists every nation in the game in order of their rank in that day's chosen variable.

"Finally, the nation's main page briefly describes the population, government, economy and latest policy decisions resulting from the player's choices.

"Players may choose to join the NationStates United Nations, or NSUN, making their nations automatically affected by the decisions of that body, although various players role-play disobedience. Discussions on proposed resolutions take place on the forums, often home to all manner of political debate. A dedicated team of volunteers moderates the forums; most of them also moderate the game to keep it free from vandalism."

Needless to say, I have started a nation -- the Republic of Wyneries. My nation is only three days old and I have no idea whether or not I will continue playing more than a few weeks, but it has promise and only takes a few minutes a day after the initial learning curve. One thing I like about it is that the game does not allow warfare. You can talk war all you want, but you have no way to actually attack another nation. And considering how many of the nations have unbelievably belligerent names, that's probably a good thing.

• Sierra Knolls Winery, a little piece of foothills paradise
• Nation States: the Republic of Wyneries, my little nation in a world without war
• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

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November 3rd, 2007

When the years begin to accumulate and aches, pains and ailments visit the body with increasing frequency, we tend to think of life as fragile. In truth, it is anything but fragile, as evidenced by the tenacity of the common yeast cell. I will be devoting most of this entry to yeast, but first I want to say how blessed I am in so many ways.

Thanks to the body of knowledge, practice, procedures and technologies we tend to lump together into the term medical science, I am still with you. That may be of small consequence to you, but it is of critical significance to me. My recovery is well advanced and I thank each of you for your kind thoughts, communications and prayers. I am also blessed to have a strong, beautiful and wonderfully caring wife who has been enormously short-changed by the bargain of our union; I can never repay her for what she has endured for me, but I am trying. And I am blessed to still have with me in this world two wonderful and loving parents. My mother very recently had a stroke and is recovering quite well at home after a period of hospitalization. It was while thinking of my mother, now recuperating at age 83, that my thoughts turned to the fragility of life, but it was a question by an old winemaking acquaintance (thank you, Carl) that turned my thoughts to yeast and the tenacity they (and we) have for life.

Culturing Yeast

Carl Goldin asked me yesterday if it's possible to culture one's own wine yeast rather than purchasing it. Carl, the answer is emphatically "yes." Now, two things come to mind when discussing this topic. One is the growing and storage of cultured "slants" of yeast -- jars of very pure and concentrated yeast cultures which are used to inoculate a yeast starter solution prior to making wine. The second is the maintenance of a yeast starter solution from which you inoculate your musts. I will discuss the first option here and the second option later.

First, a little terminology is in order:

• A "slant" has a specific meaning in bio-culturing labs -- a sterile, enclosed tube lain on its side in which a cell culture is grown. As used here, the meaning is the same except we will not be using petri dishes or culture tubes for this purpose, but rather will use 125 mL (1/2 cup) vacuum-sealable jars -- baby food jars.
• "Agar" is the shortened version of "agar agar," a gelatinous substance obtained from certain seaweeds, and an essential ingredient to this process.
• The "culture media" is that which we will grow our yeast in and can be made in various ways. I have selected one for you -- make it exactly as specified.
• "Sterile" here means just that. In general winemaking, the word sterile is often used when "sanitized" is actually meant, but here we mean "sterile" when we say it. That means being immersed in a boiling water bath for 25 minutes or sterilized in a pressure cooker for 15 minutes (see below). If your water is hard (contains a lot of minerals), add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to each 1/2 gallon of water to prevent carbonates from adhering to surfaces.

Your culture jars should be absolutely clean. I use a dishwashing detergent and scouring pad and then rinse in very hot water followed by a 5-minute dip in 5% sulfite solution. Let the tops and jars soak, then set aside to dry. After drying, discard any lids that retained a smell or show black growth (bacterial infection) inside the lid. Cover them with a clean towel while drying upside down until ready for use.

Make a culture media in which to grow your yeast. Two "musts" are listed below. Make one of them and add enough agar to turn the "must" to a gel. You can pay an extravagant amount for agar at a scientific supply house or buy it relatively cheaply at a Chinese grocery. Make a quart of "must" from the list below and heat slowly in a stainless steel pot or pan. The Chinese agar comes in thin strings (like spaghetti); cut 12-15 of these into 1-inch pieces and stir these into the "must" as it comes to a slow boil. The agar will take a while to dissolve, so keep stirring until completely integrated into the "must." Dip out 1/4 cup and pour that into a shallow platter and wait for it to cool (I place it in the refrigerator to speed up the process). It should cool into a gelatin-like layer. If it does not, cut up 3-5 more strings and stir until dissolved into the "must." Repeat the platter test. You want a jello-like layer. This is now your "culture media."

Make a "must" from one of these two formulas:

• 1/4 cup malt, 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient, 1 quart water
• 1/2 cup honey, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, 1 quart water

Line up all but one of the culture jars and pour just enough culture media in them to cover the bottom to a depth of about 1/4 inch. Cap immediately, firmly but not real tight (my wife says to tighten until "finger- tight" -- as tight as you can turn them using just the first joints of your fingers). The excess media can be placed in a sanitized quart mason jar with lid to be used for future cultures. Place the quart jar and the baby food jars in a canning immersion bath for 25 minutes or in a pressure cooker and bring to 15 psi for at least 15 minutes. You should add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to the water in the pressure cooker to prevent carbonates from clouding the surfaces. When finished, remove from heat and allow to come to room temperature. The quart jar will go directly into the refrigerator when cool. The baby food jars are ready for yeast.

Take the one baby food jar set aside and to it add 1/4 cup of distilled water warmed to 95-100 degrees F. To that add the contents of a sachet of active dry yeast you want to culture. Tighten the lid on the jar and shake it gently to immerse the yeast. Every 2-3 minutes for the next 15-20 minutes pick up the jar and shake it gently. At the end, you want all the little beads of yeast to be broken up and suspended in the water to form a cloudy mixture. This is about 55 mL of culture. Count your jars and do the math. If you have 27 jars, you can add 2 mL (about 1/4 teaspoon) to each. If you have 12 jars, you can double that amount. In truth, this is enough yeast culture to easily inoculate 500-550 jars, so the large amounts you will use (2 mL or 4 mL) is actually overkill, but each will make a stronger starter much faster when actually used.

The most sterile method for inoculating the jars of culture media is described in Yeast Culture for Dummies (see links below). It involves using a sterile hypodermic needle, 70% alcohol, and maintaining very sterile working conditions. The jars are wiped with a paper towel soaked in 70% alcohol, opened one by one and immediately covered with the alcohol-soaked paper towel, and the hypodermic needle inserted through the towel and into the culture media before injecting. This is not only super sterile (and smart), but the needle can be used to measure the amount delivered (he only uses 0.1 cc, or 1/10th of one mL per jar) and moved through the gel to disburse the cultures. Intellectually, I must recommend this method. In practice, when I was growing cultures, I did not know of it and so used another, less sterile method.

I opened a jar and used a sterilized knife blade to quickly cut a few slashes through the media one way, then cut a few more at a right angle to the first. This simply allowed the yeast access into the media. Then I poured 1/4 teaspoon of yeast culture into the jar and immediately tightened its lid. Rocking the jar back and forth a few seconds moved the yeast around to coat the surface and allowed it to find the several cuts I had made.

When the jars are all inoculated (by whichever method you use, put them in a dark cupboard in a warmer room of the house (the kitchen usually qualifies). After 24 hours pick up each jar and rock it gently to redistribute the culture over the surface of the media and return it to the cupboard. After 48 hours, crack each jar's lid slightly to allow built-up CO2 to escape, then tighten again immediately. Repeat this 48 hours later and instead of returning to the cupboard place the jars in a bin of the refrigerator that has previously been thoroughly cleaned and sanitized. Since refrigerators harbor all manner of bacteria and fungus, you can even place the jars in ZipLoc bags before placing them in the refrigerator. Store them there until needed.

The day before needed, take out a jar and wipe the outside with an alcohol-soaked paper towel. Set it and a small amount of unpreserved grape, apple or orange juice aside to rise to room temperature (two hours). When at room temperature, shake the fruit juice for a minute or two to aerate it, open the yeast culture jar, fill 2/3 full with the fruit juice, and replace the lid. After 12 hours remove the lid and cover the top with aluminum foil folded over the sides and flattened. This will allow the building CO2 to escape, and the positive pressure will keep any nasties out. After 24-36 hours, the starter can be added to your wine must.

Maintaining a Starter Solution

In a small (2-gallon) primary, add three 11-ounce cans of Welch's 100% White Grape Juice frozen concentrate and five quarts of water. Add one teaspoon of yeast nutrient and enough sugar to raise the specific gravity to 1.090. Finely crush one Campden tablet and dissolve it completely in one cup of the must just made. Add to bulk and stir. Pour one quart into sterilized 1-quart mason jar and put this in coldest part of your refrigerator (do NOT put in freezer). Label this "sterile must".

Now inoculate the must in the primary. After three days pour one quart of this into a sterilized 2-quart mason jar. Label this "yeast starter" and place it in the refrigerator. Every 14 days remove both jars and let them warm naturally to room temperature. When thus achieved, add 1/2 cup of the sterile must to the yeast starter, return the sterile must to the refrigerator immediately, but let the starter sit out for four hours before returning it to the refrigerator.

Adding 1/2 cup of sterile must every 14 days will provide the yeast starter enough fermentable sugars and nutrients on a regular, controlled basis to extend the life of your yeast for years, assuming you start a new batch of wine at least every four months, use half of the starter when you do, and make an extra quart of must which you draw off and refrigerate before you inoculate it. This is similar to keeping a "sourdough starter" alive -- feeding it every two weeks and using half when using it at all. You can use less -- a third or a fourth of it if you start a new batch every few weeks. Flexibility is allowed. The point is, the low temperature in the refrigerator keeps the yeast alive but slows its metabolism greatly.

Off-Topic Entries

Take a look at the fourth link below. This is without doubt the most impressive example of art morphing I have ever seen! If you have a dial-up connection, allow it a minute or two to load before clicking "Play." Oh yes -- it also has sound....

• Culturing Yeast for Brewing, or How to Start a Yeast Farm on less than an Acre (or Hectare), Peter Womack's very useful page
• The Art of Culturing Yeast, very useful site
• Yeast Culture for Dummies, from the Bodensatz Brewing site
• 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art, very impressive
• Help Keep the Winemaking Home Page a Free Website, a self-serving plea for support

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November 8th, 2007

My buddy Carl wrote me twice about my last entry, seemingly having problems with the part on "Maintaining a Starter Solution." One problem had to do with my math -- my mistake -- so I edited the entry to correct it. The other problems were about details. Look, I have re-read the entry several times now and don't think it is at all confusing. But, I did just now add a few words to it to help it along. I don't want to leave anyone confused, but if it just doesn't click for you then please follow the two links I posted under the entry where you can do further reading. Google is also an option. I'm not trying to be snide, but I wrote what I wrote as clearly as I could. I'm not a microbiologist.

But Carl isn't the only person to write to me about my last entry. Another reader wrote, "I realized that one could create his/her personalized yeast strain for wine making, propagating the subcultures that would give specific flavors that the winemaker enjoys. My guess is that the commercial yeasts have gone through some degree of manipulation but I have not been able to find specific details as to how they do this. In the lab, my first step would be to treat it with a mutagen and then isolate ones that give me the desired phenotype. It seems that at home it may not be the best way to go. Would you know of a good reference (book/internet) that would help me through this?"

Right up front I have to say I don't know the answer to these specific questions. I have read quite a bit about commercial wine yeasts, but can't say that I've read about any strains we are using in winemaking that were genetically manipulated. The sum total of the knowledge I have about genetically engineered yeast is contained in my September 29th entry of this year. Please scroll to it and read. And, while I could list a number of very expensive books on genetics and even more expensive books on yeast, I haven't read them so cannot say if any of them would satisfy the question asked. But I can offer a few thoughts about how wine yeasts were selected in the past.

Selective Culturing

Modern wine yeast cultures were undoubtedly isolated in the laboratory, but before that they were subjected to hundreds of years of selection in the vineyards of Europe, but especially France. It is long been the practice to take the pomace from the wine press and return it to the vineyard where it is spread under the vines as a mulch. There, it slowly decomposes and enriches the vineyard, but it is also laden with the yeast that produced the last batch of wine. This yeast is now right under the vines, so when new grapes are produced the bloom that forms on them will contain more of the yeast beneath them than any other airborne yeast.

Let us imagine four neighboring vineyards planted at the same time. New grapes appear for the first time and wild yeasts carried by the wind adhere to them and grown into colonies on the grape skins called "bloom." Each vineyard is planted with a different grape, and when the four different grapes are crushed and the wild yeasts begin feeding on the juices, each must tends to favor one of the many wild yeasts in the bloom more than the others. That is because this one strain of yeast adapts better to the particular acidity of this particular grape variety, or processes its sugars more efficiently, or copes with its unique abundance (or scarcity) of tannins or anthrocyanins or thiols or whatever, or tolerate the alcohol produced. The point is that one strain will rise to dominate the fermentation, and for each of the four grape varieties the dominate strain of yeast will probably differ. And, if the pomaces are returned to the vineyards year after year after year, the dominate yeast strain of each vineyard will become more and more concentrated.

But suppose you have one large area planted with the same grape variety but broken into many separate vineyards belonging to many small wineries. Would not they all end up with the same dominate yeast strain? Possibly, but not necessarily. The vineyards along the valley floor where the air is stiller, the soil more clay-laden and the vines better watered will certainly produce a grape with a different chemistry than those grown on the sunnier, breezier, more rocky, slightly drier, north-facing slope. That different chemistry will invariably favor a slightly different yeast.

And so it was in both types of areas that yeast were collected and taken to various laboratories. There, they were activated, diluted and smeared across sterile culturing media in petri dishes. Tiny circles of growth spotted the media, were compared, and the most common of them among any sample were assumed to be the dominate strain for the vineyard where collected and were easily isolated. Hundreds of these strains were thus isolated and preserved on "slants." The different strains from any one area were then cultured and utilized in making wine in the sulfited juices of many different grapes - the sulfites necessary to retard the yeasts riding in on the skins of the various grapes.

At the end of fermentation, new smears were made from the wines of each batch. From these smears grew tiny new cultures - these were the yeast that survived the sulfites, the high acidity, the low pH, the high levels of alcohol, and the fermentation temperatures. In other words, the yeast still living at the end of fermentation were the yeast that had survived to finish the actual fermenting. These were the yeast with greatest commercial potential.

The wines themselves were then carefully evaluated and the results catalogued and matched to the yeast that were responsible for the results. After conducting many, many such vinification trials, the results could be compared and a specific strain selected as the very best from the many collected from a particular area. Of the many strains collected from the vineyards surrounding the village of Montrachet, for example, culture 522 was selected by the University of California at Davis as the best -- we know it today simply as Red Star Montrachet. We know UCD 595 as Pasteur Champagne, but other favorable Champagne strains are 505 and EC1118.

If you want to select your own personalized strain of wine yeast, crush your grapes (or blackberri