Welsh Solaris receives a 98 from Decanter

A vineyard in Wales 'Gwinllan Conwy Vineyard' scored a 98 from Decanter World Wine Awards for their Solaris 2019. I wish we had known about this vineyard when we visited Conwy a couple of years ago. That score won them the bronze medal in the prestigious competition in 2021. It builds on medals won recently at the International Wine Challenge (IWC) for their Pefriog and Solaris products. 

Montgomery Vineyard, also in Wales, produces high-quality Rondo red and pink. Their 2018 Sparkling White Seyval Blanc won a Silver medal in the IWC, with 90 points. They also make a Seyval and Solaris mix, and a Pinot Noir. Their sparkling rosé 2017 won the best wine in Wales and their still rosé, red and white wines have also received top accolades.

White Castle Vineyard won an IWC silver medal and a gold in the Decanter World Wine Awards 2021 for its 2018 Pinot Noir Reserve. Their Siegerrebe 2021 white took silver in the WineGB Awards 2022.

In fact, there are almost 30 vineyards in Wales now. Most are in South Wales but a few are in the North.  As far back as 2012, a wine from the Ancre Hill Estate in Monmouthshire, one of few vineyards in the UK using biodynamic growing, was voted the best sparkling wine in the world at the Bollicine del Mondo International Competition in Italy.

What is truly fascinating is that almost all started with Rondo and Solaris and soon moved on to other grapes, in particular Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Maybe we're not so crazy after all? What has me confused is the Ancre Hill Estates Orange Wine is mostly Albariño but why is it orange? 

So if they can make great wines in Wales, we should be able to do the same in Ireland!

Bottling Day

Not Earth Day, not Oceans Day but Bottling Day. Today was the day we finally managed to bottle our wines from 2021. We had intended to bottle after six months but life and death both got in the way. 

The red has a beautiful colour and nose. A bit sharp on the tongue but not undrinkable. Let's hope it ages well from here on. 

The white has an interesting colour, sort of rose, and nose as well, but to me it tasted more like a dessert wine. Alex just thought it had a strange flavour. We only have 2.5 bottles of it so no great loss, but it's back to the drawing board. I think it is time to take a course in winemaking now that I know what questions to ask. 

The Brix reading was 14 for the white and 15 for the red.  That would make the alcohol content 2.8% for the white and 3% for the red if I am calculating it correctly. It's hard to remember how to do something when you only do it once per year. 

The specific gravity was 1.010 for the white and 1.020 for the red. Not nearly enough and the hygrometer indicated it was the finishing SG for beer in both cases! Oh my. I hope it does not spoil with too low an alcohol content. How did we get it right the first time? 

We got 18 bottles of red plus one for the remainder with dregs to settle out. It was six bottles plus a little extra for each of the three demijohns of red. 

Naturally, we made a mess in the pantry as I was doing the filling while Alex was watching the volume in the demijohns. At least now we have room in the pantry again. Next year, we should have a shed in which to work and store our winemaking equipment. That will make it more reasonable. 

The patron saints of wine

St Vincent, patron saint of winemakers

Throughout mankind’s early history various civilizations sought to personify the world around them and the food and drink it provided. Wine, beer, grapes and grain, as fruits of the land, were usually represented as deities connected to fertility or pleasure – the ancient gods of lore. 

But with the rise of Christianity, those gods were replaced with reverence for the men that took up the roles of transforming those fruits of the land into riches of the church. That gave rise to an extraordinary number of patron saints of all aspects of wine production from growing the grapes to making the barrels. Moreover, it reveals that the church’s attachment to the drinks industry is deeper than just Dom Pérignon’s “invention” of Champagne. After all, Communion involves both bread and wine. It also attests to the longevity and importance of the trade as part of Europe’s cultural and religious history.

Perhaps the single most important feast day is January 22 -- Saint Vincent's Day. The Feast of Saint Vincent of Saragossa, the official patron saint of winemakers, is celebrated every year on January 22nd the mid-point in the vine’s growing cycle in the northern hemisphere. This dormant period is situated in between pruning and when the vines begin to bud break and flower. Vin, of course, is the word for wine in French. Saint Vincent died a martyr in 304 AD. 

Not surprisingly, there are many other saints of wine. 

• St. Trifon Zarezan, or St. Trifon the Pruner is the Bulgarian patron saint of vine growers and winemakers.  His day is February 14th. He is known as the pruner because after his donkey nibbled some vines, they were found to be more productive. And so pruning the vines was introduced. 
• Saint Morand is revered particularly throughout the Alsace, Burgundy and Champagne regions of France, and also the Rhine region of Germany. His day is celebrated on June 3rd.
• St. Armand of Maastricht is the patron saint of vine growers and vintners, as well as of brewers, innkeepers and bartenders. For some reason, he’s also the Patron of the Boy Scouts! His feast is on February 6th. 
• Saint Urban of Langres (327 – c. 390) is the patron saint of Dijon (in the Northern Burgundy wine region of France) and also of vine-growers, vine-dressers, gardeners, vintners, and coopers. He is also particularly popular with German winemakers. He was active in the fight against alcoholism. His feast day is 23 January in Langres but 2 April elsewhere. There is a German proverb that says “Ist Sonnenschein am Urbanstag / gedeiht der Wein nach alter Sag” which translates to “If there is sunshine on St. Urban’s Day/ the wine thrives afterwards they say.”

Ireland was a centre of monastic settlement and education. Monks were schooled in farming and cultivation alongside reading, writing, scripture and penmanship. Some of them travelled to Europe and established vineyards. Some of the most successful even ended up as saints! 

• St Fiachra, the patron saint of gardeners, honed his skills in the vineyards of France. He was born in Connaught in the 7th C. Saint Fiacre is the patron saint of the commune of Saint-Fiacre, Seine-et-Marne, France. He is the patron of growers of vegetables and medicinal plants, and gardeners in general, including ploughboys. He died c 670 AD. 
• St Kilian (c 640- c 689) planted vineyards in the Main Valley in Germany where he is the patron saint of winegrowers. There is an annual festival in Würzburg, the capital of Franconia, the northernmost corner of Bavaria, which celebrates German-Irish connections in July. 
• Fridolin of Säckingen is the patron saint of Alsace and established the wine industry in Switzerland. His feast day is March 6.

Here's how they celebrate in Champagne. Very civilised. 

Stalled fermentation

The wine after racking

The red wine (Rondo) had stopped bubbling so we assumed it had stopped fermentation. The sediment had settled nicely so we decided to rack it and naturally measured the Specific Gravity and Brix. Lo and behold, the SG was1.02 and the Brix reading was 14. Way too sweet for a dry wine, which was our objective. We tasted it and, although a lovely colour, aroma, and taste, definitely too sweet. 

So it was back to the book to determine what can stall fermentation. It turns out lots of things can stall fermentation. (p51 of First Steps in Winemaking lists at least 8 possible causes.) I didn't want to add sugar water as it was too sweet and I don't like the idea of diluting wine. One of the suggestions was to add more yeast. So I dissolved one level tsp of yeast nutrient in 1 cup of warm previously boiled water and added in one level tsp of brewer's yeast. I added one cup to each of the three gallon jugs of wine after racking. That topped off the container perfectly after racking and now one of the demijohns has already started bubbling. I am hopeful to complete the fermentation. 

1.02 SG

The white wine, which got the sugar water addition, is not doing much of anything. We might have to rack that again and do the same. 

Alex decanting wine left behind

The sediment

Brrrrr, the big chill has arrived

Sunset today - so early. This was at 4:17.

Until today, November has been exceedingly mild. The mean temperature was 10.3 degrees for the month through the 20th, which is more than a degree warmer than last year. Last year at 9.1C was 2 degrees warmer than 2019 and a degree warmer than the prior two years (8.3C). Lots of flowers have been blooming right through the month, including amazing roses. Bees have been flying right through to this morning. Alex put up a lovely gate to the Apiary and made a cute sign for it.

This afternoon, it turned bitterly cold. We are to have about a week of arctic chill and Friday we will have a gale. They are saying that it may drop below zero at night but as there is no precipitation in the forecast until Wednesday at the earliest, there is little likelihood of snow. We will have little cloud cover so we may yet get frost. That would be welcome as it might kill off some of the pests and coax everything into dormancy. 

It was a beautiful Autumn, with lots of colour. Most of the leaves have now dropped, the donkeys are in the barn, and the sunrises and sunsets have been spectacular. But we did not get to see the lunar eclipse as there was too much cloud cover. We even had enough leaves remaining that we had to rake them today. 

The wine is doing well; the bubbling has slowed down. Time to rack the white in particular. The yeast has settled nicely at the bottom of the demijohn. The red is taking longer to settle but it has more volume.

The mushroom kits have stopped producing so I put one out by the alder trees above the 'Avenue' and the oyster mushrooms I put out by the beech tree in the opposite corner. Hopefully, there are enough spores left to populate edible mushrooms in our 'forest'. 

Beautiful Autumn colour this year. 

The leaves didn't get blown off or burnt.

Vineyard today.

Polytunnel goodies.

Roses still blooming

Mushrooms in the fallen leaves

Cosmos finally bloomed - in November

Poppy this morning

Hesperantha or Schizostylis - not sure which.

Sunrise Sunset Times of Newport, Co. Mayo, Ireland

Location: Ireland > Co. Mayo > Carrowbeg (Fergus) >

Timezone:

Europe/Dublin

Current Time:

2021-11-21 16:57:56

Longitude:

-9.5463685

Latitude:

53.8852758

Sunrise Today:

08:19:00 AM

Sunset Today:

04:29:50 PM

Daylength Today:

8h 10m 50s

Sunrise Tomorrow:

08:20:44 AM

Sunset Tomorrow:

04:28:38 PM

Daylength Tomorrow:

8h 7m 54s

The new gate to the apiary path

Correcting the sugar content

Looks like we messed up. 

Our red must has tested at just over 1.008 on the hydrometer and 5 on the Brix scale. That won't get us to the right alcohol content - too low. We should have added sugar to the must at the first stage but we didn't.

When making wine, the Start Gravity should be 1.070 (normal finished ABV will be 10.5%) to 1.090 (normal finished ABV will be 13%). Finish Gravity should be 0.990 (for dry wines) to 1.005 (for sweet wines).

Alex made a simple sugar syrup dissolving sugar in boiled water. We have to wait for it to cool to room temperature. 

Now we have to figure out how much syrup to add. Because I had to dilute the sugar solution by half to get the hydrometer to read the SG, the specific gravity of the syrup is 1.110 x 2  or 1.220. 

So to increase the SG to where the potential alcohol would be sufficient, we'd have to add 40 oz sugar per gallon or 2.5 lbs per gallon. That would be 1 l of water or 1.5 l of syrup. (Alex did the maths.)

Just as a note to self:  3 kg water plus 3 kg sugar = 1 demijohn.

So we expanded our two demijohns to three with the sugar syrup and must (stirred to keep the yeast equal) divided equally among the three. I tested the SG of the resulting must and it read SG 1.070. That should get us to over 9% ABV. 

Curiously, I just measured the SG of the Solaris must, and it, too, reads 1.008. Not surprising as it started out at the exact same SG as the Rondo must. So we'll have to repeat the procedure for the white. 

So we have 1.5 l of Solaris must, measured by weight. So if we need 40 oz sugar per 3.78 l above, we need:

40/3.78 = x/1.5 = 15.9 or 16 oz of sugar. We added 16 oz of sugar dissolved in 16 oz of water to the 1.5 l of must and essentially doubled the volume. The SG read 1.082, a little higher than the red but perfectly fine. 

Let's hope we have restarted the fermentation. At least we now have 1/3 more wine to bottle. 

Here are 10 more things that can go wrong in fermentation. 

https://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/ 

Adding sugar to control alcohol

Measuring SG with a hydrometer

When must ferments, it is turning sugar into alcohol. Last year, our wine was high in alcohol. This year, I think it will be lower and may need a boost. Less sugar in the fermentation equals less alcohol in the wine. 

Trying to control the alcohol content of your wine is not always necessary. Most recipes are designed to make a wine that is in balance and has an alcohol level that is appropriate to the wine’s traditional style.

Wine recipes often call for specific quantities of sugar. But if you are starting with grapes, adding half the sugar that a wine recipe calls for does not give you half the alcohol in the wine. This is because some of the sugar is coming from the fruit itself.

An easy way to get around this is to use this general rule of thumb when attempting to control the alcohol content of a wine:1 pound of sugar dissolved in 5 gallons of must will raise the potential alcohol content by approximately 1%.

“One pound of sugar added to 5 gallons of must will increase the wine’s potential alcohol by 1%.”

The opposite holds true as well.

Controling the alcohol content of your wine

The biggest problem with this generality is that it does not tell you what your potential alcohol level is  before you make any adjustments. If you are following a wine recipe that calls for a specific amount of sugar, it will only get you in a potential alcohol range, not an exact target. This is because the amount of sugar contributed by the fruit can vary.

The best way to adjust the beginning sugar level in your wine’s must is to use a wine hydrometer. Most gravity hydrometers have a Potential Alcohol scale that will tell you how much alcohol the sugar in your wine can potentially make. Knowing this will allow you to control your finished wine’s alcohol level with more precision.

What's the best alcohol level in the finished wine?

The wrong alcohol content can have consequences. Too little and your wine can spoil, too much and it can taste harsh.

The alcohol level of a wine should be at least 8%. Wine needs alcohol to keep contaminants in check. Over time, wines that have 5%-7% alcohol are more susceptible to spoilage and tend to turn brown.

You also do not want your wine’s potential alcohol to be more than 14%. There's a limit as to how much alcohol a wine yeast can tolerate. Shooting for an alcohol level that is beyond your yeast’s ability to ferment can result in either a stuck fermentation or a wine that is too sweet.

The Alcohol by Volume (ABV) is calculated by subtracting the start gravity from the finish gravity and dividing this figure by 7.362. For example, the starting point for our wine last year was 1.100 and if this fermented down to 0.990, the drop will have been 110 points. This divided by 7.362 is 14.94% ABV. In fact, we ended up with a very high alcohol content but not as high as the calculation. 

Raising the specific gravity (SG)

Raising the specific gravity of wine with sugar syrup is a good way to get the SG up to where you need it when making a wine that just needs a little boost. Knowing how much sugar syrup to add to the wine to get from point A to point B on a hydrometer scale is very useful. To do this you need to know the specific gravity of the sugar syrup. 

You can use a wine hydrometer to determine the specific gravity of the sugar syrup you make. Just put the hydrometer in a sample of the syrup just like you would when testing your wine. If the reading goes off the scale, add an equal amount of water and sugar syrup to a sample large enough to fill the cylinder in which you are doing your readings. Then take a gravity reading and times it by two.

As an example, after you added equal parts of water and sugar syrup, let's say you get a reading of 1.110. That would mean that the sugar syrup’s 'actual' SG is 1.220. You double the 'gravity' part of your reading because you cut the sugar syrup by half. 

Once you know the SG of the sugar syrup, raising the specific gravity of your wine with sugar syrup is just a matter of some calculations. 

Let’s say you want to add 6 ounces of sugar syrup that has a specific gravity of 1.300 to a gallon of wine:

A gallon of wine has 128 fluid ounces. You want to add 6 fluid ounces of sugar syrup for a new total of 134 ounces. Now you need to spread the gravity of (220 times 6) over the 134 ounces. So it is (220 X 6) divided by 134. That equals 9.8507. 

Let's make an equation

(Gravity of Syrup x Ounces of Syrup Per Gallon)/(128 + Ounces of Syrup Added) = Rise in SG

or

(220 x 6)/(128 + 6) = 9.85

There is a very good explanation and useful chart on this page. 

So if you are raising the specific gravity of a must with a sugar syrup that has a specific gravity reading of 1.220, and you add 6 fluid ounces of that syrup to each gallon of homemade wine, then the specific gravity of that homemade wine would be raised by 9.85 points on the gravity scale. For example, if the wine has a specific gravity of 1.060, the new reading would be 1.06985. You could round it to 1.070.  That yields a potential alcohol figure of 9.2. That's perfect!

I have ordered a book that many call the bible of home winemaking:  First steps in winemaking. It apparently covers this topic very well. 

Hydrometer Chart

Specific Gravity (SG)	Potential Alcohol (PA) % by Volume	Amount of Sugar Per Gallon
1.010	0.9	0 lbs. 2 oz.
1.015	1.6	0 lbs. 4 oz.
1.020	2.3	0 lbs. 7 oz.
1.025	3.0	0 lbs. 9 oz.
1.030	3.7	0 lbs. 12 oz.
1.035	4.4	0 lbs. 15 oz.
1.040	5.1	1 lb. 1 oz.
1.045	5.8	1 lb. 3 oz.
1.050	6.5	1 lb. 5 oz.
1.055	7.2	1 lb. 7 oz.
1.060	7.8	1 lb. 9 oz.
1.065	8.6	1 lb. 11 oz.
1.070	9.2	1 lb. 13 oz.
1.075	9.9	1 lb. 15 oz.
1.080	10.6	2 lbs. 1 oz.
1.085	11.3	2 lbs. 4 oz.
1.090	12.0	2 lbs. 6 oz.
1.095	12.7	2 lbs. 8 oz.
1.100	13.4	2 lbs. 10 oz.
1.105	14.1	2 lbs. 12 oz.
1.110	14.9	2 lbs. 14 oz.
1.115	15.6	3 lbs. 0 oz.
1.120	16.3	3 lbs. 2 oz.
1.125	17.0	3 lbs. 4 oz.
1.130	17.7	3 lbs. 6 oz.

Vineyards in Denmark

Maybe we are not so crazy. I had no idea there were vineyards in Denmark. Whereas we are Europe's westernmost vineyard, they are touting being Europe's northernmost vineland. Since 2000, they have been making wines in Denmark. There are four key regions: Jutland, Funen, Zealand and Bornholm.

We started in 2015 in Mayo. There are vineyards now in counties Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford, and Cork. We are not yet producing thousands of bottles, but hey, it's a start and you never know. 

Sediment settling

 

Day 2 and the sediment is already settling and the juice clarifying. This stage is called racking. Why I don't know. But from here, we will use gravity to siphon the liquid from the top and leave the sediment behind. One does this usually about a week into the racking. Then again until it's as clear as you want before bottling. 

Wine tasting

 
For Easter, Alex uncorked one of our precious bottles of nectar from the Rondo vines. There was quite a bit of sediment, but we don't mind having grown up on French wines. The clarity was good, the colour was deep, the nose was fragrant and so we dared to sip. Blackberries! Not too sweet, high alcohol content, fruity nose -- altogether drinkable. Our first attempt was not toxic. We were both pleasantly surprised. 

The wine actually paired well with the first course of devil-dipped quail eggs, main course of lamb and dessert of apple cake. It actually wasn't that different from a premium Rioja I had uncorked before I knew what Alex was up to. It's almost exactly 6 months since we bottled. With more time, it might mellow even more. But for two novices to have created a wine that we didn't have to spit out was a major accomplishment. 

Happy Easter!

Bottling the wine

As we really didn't have much yield, we didn't expect much in the results. But we are pleasantly surprised by our Rondo 2020. The specific gravity reached 0.99 and Alex has bottled the wine despite not having achieved good clarity. He's filtered it a second time, a slow process but manageable with 4 bottles of end products.  

Our start SG was 1.10 and our finish is 0.99 so our finish alcohol content is 14.9%.  A bit on the strong side, but the taste and colour are very acceptable. Now we wait six months and taste again. Right now it has a fruity and slightly tart mouthfeel. But it's not unpleasant. 

"Wine is sunlight, held together by water." - Galileo Galilei

I suppose we are now among the crazy Irish trying to make wine in the west of Ireland.  

Bottling the wine

Wine is aged to give it more taste and general mouthfeel as well as colour and other properties. Rushing the winemaking process is widely considered a waste of good wine among homebrewers of wine and is highly frowned upon.

Here is a little cheat sheet I found to predict how different ageing times affect the wine in the bottle.

Wine Aging	Properties
1 month	The definite minimum time it takes before you can even taste your wine, anything shorter results in bad tasting wine
3 months	Wine has matured more and gained increasing flavours and distinctions
6 months	The typical time for ageing wine, both red and white. Here your wine has a great taste and doesn't really need any longer maturing
10+ months	Matures the flavour of your wine even further. Can create more bitter, unique flavours. The longer you age, the more unique