Regression Analysis

It would be nice to think that a self-education in winemaking involves a linear trajectory from A to Z, but as I learned on Sunday, my worst day of winemaking yet, instead it sometimes goes from A to J, then back to B, with Z nowhere even on the horizon.

This much anticipated day started with my visit to the Maryland Wine Festival to compete in its annual amateur winemaking competition.  Last year I entered a Chardonnay and Malbec, both of which scored 14s on a 20-point scale, summarized as follows:

18-20 Extraordinary

"Sorry!"

15-17 Excellent

12-14 Good

9-11 Pleasant

6-8 Mediocre

0-5 Poor, objectionable

This year I entered my latest Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  The Chardonnay scored a 13.  Less than last year, but still solidly “Good.”  My Pinor Noir scored a six.  A six!  That’s barely mediocre, one point from objectionable.  In the comments section my reviewer gave me a one word response: “Sorry.”  Mind you, I’d be the first to admit this wine is flawed.  As frequent readers might remember, this wine was tarnished with an inferior (cheaper) brand of oak chips, giving the wine an off smell and woodsy aftertaste.  But the Malbec had it even worse!  How the Malbec gets a 14 last year and the Pinot gets the 35th ranked score out of 37 wines is beyond me.

Not good.

Anyway, you can see what kind of mood I was in when I went to complete my second task of the day, harvesting my Corot Noir grapes.  When I arrived I quickly learned that in an effort to improve the sugar content I had waited perhaps a week too long to pick.  Significant black rot and shrinkage had occurred, and what I expected to be a production significantly larger than last year’s crop turned out instead to be less than half its size.  How exactly does one spend a year making wine out of less than ½ a gallon of grape juice? 

I was so pissed that I decided to both crush and press the grapes at once in a half-hearted attempt at making a rosé.  In the end though, the season looks pretty much like a complete write-off, in what by all accounts is expected to be one of the best growing seasons Maryland has ever had. 

It’s all enough to make you want to drink, if only I had something worth drinking.

My entire 2012 production.

Disaster Strikes

It’s been a busy month at the winery with some serious highs and lows.  Over the weekend, I was in the process of racking my 2011 Russian River Pinot Noir when I accidentally clipped the granite counter top with a gallon carboy on my way out to the garage.  Next thing I know, it shatters, and I’m left to clean-up the world’s largest mess, including disposing of our new rug, and mourning the five beautiful bottles worth I just lost.  That’s 20% of my entire production!  You won’t see any pictures of that event here, as frankly I was too upset at the time to want to memorialize the moment. 

Measuring sugar content with refractometer.

Nonethless, once the task was complete (two days later, mind you) I confirmed my belief that this is shaping up to be my best red wine release yet.  For me, the remnants at the bottom of the barrel were worth keeping, and I enjoyed them over the rest of the weekend.  By the time I bottle this wine near the end of the year, I expect to have something I’m proud of.

Not so, I’m afraid, for my 2011 Corot Noir, which I bottled last week.  As a reminder, this is my first ever production from the home vineyard, and was overrun with problems from the start, from attacking birds and bees, to a resident bacteria, and a lack of skin contact time that has left the wine tasting flat and weak, although not offensive.  In the end, I had enough for ten 375-ml bottles, which is the perfect size bottle for this production really.  It’s not good enough to want to drink an entire bottle with dinner, but since it is homemade from start to finish, it's probably interesting enough to want to open in a crowd to give everyone a taste, before turning to something more enjoyable.

"Vineyard" view from the dining room.

Finally, this year’s vintage of Corot Noir seems to be shaping up much better than the last.  For ecological reasons I’ll never understand, the birds and bees just haven’t been around this year, which means the production remains in much better condition (although I have found the occasional ladybeetle).  Meanwhile, the hotter, dryer summer has caused the grapes to ripen sooner and with higher sugar content than last year’s mess.  I’m currently planning to complete my second ever harvest in two weeks, on the same day as this year’s amateur winemaking competition at the Maryland Wine Festival, where I’ll be entering my 2010 Pinot Noir and my 2011 Chardonnay. 

Which begs the question, the next time you hear from me, will it be more good news or bad?

Westminster vines, two weeks prior to harvest.

Giant Asian Ladybettle -
Not a friend of the vineyard's.