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.