Bring on the Bordeaux! – A Home Wine Making Experience (6)
And we are ready to go! First, we need to sanitize the press. We don’t want any gross microbes to get into our fabulous wine. Second, we shrink wrap the press to make sure the juice doesn’t squirt out at us. Third, we transfer the must into the press and let the press do it’s thing. Finally, we transfer the juice from the press to the stainless steel tank where we will be aging the wine until we decide to barrel age or add more oak additives.
You can see all the tubes attached to the press above. This is because we decided to use a bladder press. Bladder press’s are easy to use and don’t press the must too much. If you press too hard you run the risk of breaking the seeds and releasing astringent flavors. The bladder press has a happy medium of extracting optimal juice while maintaining the quality of the juice.
And now we wait… Thanks again for stopping by. Next time we will rack our wine. Stay tuned!
Side Note: Don’t Press in November, It’s Cold!!!!
Mulled Wine ~ Getting in the Holiday Spirit
This gallery contains 2 photos.
We hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for and it’s good to take a step back, reflect, and enjoy each others company.
Now that we are in the holiday spirit we have been experimenting with different winter wine recipes. One of them being Mulled Wine. Below is my recipe. I suggest pairing it with friends by the fireplace and a tasty charcuterie plate.
4 cups apple cider (or can use apple juice if you want it a little sweeter)
1 bottle of red wine (suggest cabernet, merlot, or a blend of both)
1 tablespoon – 1/4 cup of honey (depends on your sweet tooth)
2 cinnamon sticks
1 orange – juiced and zested
4 whole cloves
2-3 stars of anise (do to taste)
orange peels/wedges for garnish
Add the apple cider/juice, wine, cinnamon sticks, orange zest, orange juice, and cloves to a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add stars of anise and honey to taste. Let it simmer for 8-10 minutes. Pour into mugs, add an orange peel/wedge for garnish, and enjoy!
Wine Grape Buying Made Easy
From Pick-up to FEDEX and Over The Road Trucking. There are many ways to get your order.
The season is upon us. You’ve likely received numerous emails by now. Each email from M&M updating you on the current state of affairs with this years wine grape harvest. A link on the site shows an updated bulletin of what’s coming in, photos, and brix levels.
As you will see, M&M has an extensive list of offerings, which can be accessed here.
So, how do we take all this information, make sense of it and plan accordingly? Well, that is not a simple feat. There are a number of factors at play in planning your wine making. These include:
1. Are you limited by what date during the season you can make wine?
2. Are you limited to processing grapes an/or juice only once during the season or would you be willing to process at different times?
3. Do you have budgetary constraints?
4. Are the varietals you are considering ones which typically are available at the same time?
5. What product format are you able to handle?
6. Are you flexible and able to take grapes when they arrive?
7. Do you require shipping?
In M&M’s sales department, we know that wine making is an important event for you, whether it is your business or a family tradition. We ask to speak with our customers, rather than simply emailing, because we know that with each customer, a successful sale involves navigating the considerations listed above.
There is one simple fact. Grapes are not ready to ship product. They tell us, by their specs, when they are ready and we adapt accordingly. This is something that folks with tight schedules should consider. If your schedule is what is driving your ability to make wine, the conversation should start by asking what product might be available on that particular date. Even if a product were to not be available at a later date, we could offer options such as our frozen must program, which would allow you to still make wine with quality product.
For those folks who are limited to processing at one time only, we suggest planning around the most important variety or if in conjunction with a date restriction, planning around grapes that will be available that date. We can arrange to process the other products on your order and consolidating those items so each has complete integrity, but can be obtained together.
Some people ask about larger volumes, perhaps in the interest of saving money or easier handling. That is certainly worth exploring with your sales representative, but you need to consider how you will receive the product and your ability to handle the product. The larger formats are a good idea, but you need to consider the handling logistics associated with their purchase.
Another consideration is whether you are able to pick-up or if you require shipping. If you are able to pick-up, we recommend you try to schedule pick-up for off hours when you are likely going to be more able to get in and out with your order. Another benefit to coming during off hours is that our staff will have more time to answer your questions and work closely with you. ALWAYS call ahead prior to coming in to verify your order will be ready for pick-up. M&M does reach out to customers to arrange for pick-up or delivery, but prior to coming in we highly recommend making a pre-pickup confirmation.
For those of you looking for product to be shipped, we have a long history at M&M of trying to accommodate our customer’s delivery needs as much as possible. However, with more and more people wanting to take advantage of delivery, our ability to provide fair freight rates to everyone necessitates that we coordinate shipments according to how M&M is best able to accommodate the bulk of shipping requests. That may mean we are only able to ship to certain locations on certain days. Our ability to provide fair pricing necessitates consolidating shipping requests. If you absolutely require a shipment on a specific date that we cannot accommodate via consolidation. then we will offer you a dedicated rate for shipping.
The harvest season is incredibly busy and as you can see, there are a lot of considerations to navigate together to ensure all goes smoothly for you. That being said, some careful consideration and prioritization will allow us to lay out the best plan together. The first step is making the call into our knowledgeable sales staff who will help you with your planning.
Cheers,
M&M Sales
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