How to Make Wine at Home

Think winemaking is only for the professionals? Much as home-brewing has taken off, winemaking at home is now seeing its time in the spotlight. And while it may take a few more steps and a lot more patience than making a home brew, a home wine is just as easy. 

As Allrecipes.com and Washington State University explain, there isn’t much to making wine: it’s the fermentation of fruit juice. With a little bit of yeast, and a lot of patience, you too can make at home. Washington State University shares how to avoid the two most common problems when winemaking — sanitation and oxidation — so that your wine won’t pick up strange odors and tastes. 

How to do it? This fun infographic can inspire you to get started. Let this kick-start your own winemaking project at home!

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A dream come true: our very own wine

On Wednesday, March 27, the Wine Goddess, myself and nine other pioneering oeniphiles made history, turning out our first batch of homemade wine.

Well, at least it was the first time for Belvidere Hill Estates Winery, the name of the new Campanini enterprise.

It was with proud eyes — and anxious palates — that we watched this venture unfold at Vintner’s Circle, located in the new Cornerstone plaza in Westford.

Under the supervision of VC owner and instructor Mike Ziethlow, a new class of winemakers was born when we bottled, corked and labeled our precious liquid. Four varietals, two reds and two whites, came off the line — South African Chenin Blanc, Italy’s Greco di Tufo, Australia’s Shiraz/Viognier, and Argentina’s Bonarda.

All total, we produced 106 bottles of wine, some of which can now be sampled at Vintner’s Circle.

After our final bottle was corked, we all sat back and enjoyed the fruits of our labor with a wine tasting and hors d’ouevres. I was pleasantly surprised by the vitality and flavors of our handiwork.

I wrote about the Vintner’s Circle franchise last December and did a video on its operation. I found it interesting and decided to enroll in a beginner’s class with the Wine Goddess. We selected a group winemaking session called the “Wines of the World” which attracted 10 other people, mostly couples. We started the wine process on Tuesday, Feb. 5, by transferring the pasteurized liquid into six-gallon plastic drums and

fermenting it. We met every two weeks thereafter — four meetings total — in which we learned to test the liquid, transfer it to carboys for more fermentation, add certain chemical stabilizers, clarify it, and study it as it made a glorious transformation.

Ziethlow gave us a good education on how the process works. We even played Wine Trivial Pursuit to increase our knowledge of viticulture. It was fun. More important, we met some great people from throughout the area who wanted to learn about wine.

I would encourage anyone who is looking for a great experience to join a Vintner’s Circle group class or to do it with a partner. There is absolutely no pressure, and Ziethlow runs a clean, crisp and efficiently exciting ship that produces good drinking wine at a fair price.

If you’ve ever dreamed of having your own customized label on a wine bottle — a bottle that you produced — this is as easy and rewarding as it gets.

Now the lowdown on the wine:

1. Greco di Tufo is a white varietal grape from Campania in southern Italy that dates back to ancient Rome and was the sweet wine of the wealthy. With the fall of Rome the grape was basically “lost” for centuries until it was “rediscovered” in the late 20th century. The new Greco is now grown at higher elevations, along Mount Vesuvius, and the cooler air shortens the ripening process making this a drier white. The Wine Goddess believes this is the best of the batch we made. It is a fuller white, with scents of pears and peaches, apricots and minerals. We enjoyed it with chicken and believe it is big enough to stand up to veal too.

2. Chenin Blanc is the most widely planted grape in South Africa and for good reason: It’s a cool resurfacing white wine that is high in acid and exhibits a nice, rich fruit taste. I liked the balance of this wine, and I think it will actually get better in the bottle. It had a round apple taste and a drier than expected finish. This will be my summer sipper for sure.

3. The truth is wine lovers should be drinking more Bonarda from Argentina but the fascination with Malbec has put this enduring red varietal in second place. Our Bonarda has not yet reached its full cherry richness but it’s color is deep and dark and there is a good hint of tannic structure, so this will continue to transform itself in the months ahead. I am confident this will be a winner for my first grilled cheeseburger on the deck. The Wine Goddess detected a fig characteristic on the palate.

4. Yalumba Winery of Australia produces a quality Shiraz/Viognier blend at under $15 a bottle, and I was expecting ours to be nearly as zesty and spicy with a smooth mid-palate feel. This creation was our only disappointment; it was way out of balance on the acid, and tasted more like a salad dressing in distress than a wine. My next bottle will sit for at least four months in the cool cellar before opening.

Send comments to jcampanini@lowellsun.com and visit blogs.lowellsun.com/wine novice.

Throw a pot

Just about the same time mankind developed the potter’s wheel (about seven to eight thousand years ago), we fortuitously discovered how to make wine. We learned to create vessels to store grains, liquids and fruits—along with a precious new gift.

Standards in pottery sizes and shapes developed over time. The more commonly known vessel, the amphora, was made in a wide variety of sizes (just as today’s glass containers). Great vessels known as “Pithos” had the capacity to contain over 2,000 litres. Eventually, however, amphora size settled on the Roman standard of 39 litres. The shape of amphorae was perfect for creating and holding wine. It allowed contact over a wide area, with a narrow pointed base to collect the lees, and a narrow neck to eliminate spoilage when properly sealed. Despite the invention of the barrel (sometimes attributed to the Gauls around 400 B.C.), amphorae were mass-produced and used for transporting oils, wine, fish and olives right up to the 7th century.

At what point in time wooden barrels were first used in the production of wine is difficult to determine. Ancient historians note that barrels made from palm trees were used to transport wine in the eastern river systems. The wooden barrels with which we are familiar were used extensively throughout the Roman Empire, mainly for the shipment of dry goods. The effect that wood (especially oak) had on wine was noticed only later, when winemakers began to more commonly use barrels for storage. Up to the 19th century barrels were the primary container used to make and store wine.

About that time producers began to build concrete tanks to make wine. Concrete tanks allow for stable, controlled temperature during fermentation: the lack of wood allows fruit notes to shine. The effect is much like the kwevris (a fired clay jar that is still used in Georgia) which is buried in the ground to control fermentation; and help in storage. Like the original pottery vessels, concrete vats are manufactured in various sizes. They are still very popular, and are used extensively by winemakers in Europe and South America. Here in the County, Glenn Symons of Lighthall Vineyards has a concrete tank in which he ferments memorable Pinot Noirs.

Next week: steel, plastic—and which came first?

THIS WEEK’S PICK
Scheduled for opening in May 2013, this week’s wine is a real “teaser.” Hubbs Creek 2010 Pinot Noir ($29.95) is beautifully crafted from 100 per cent County grapes by owner/winemaker John Battista Calvieri. It is beautifully rich in color, with deep aromas of spiced red cherry, pipe tobacco and vanilla. With balanced acidity, the palate is a generous mouthful of cherry with a hint of green olive and fennel.

John Battista will not likely release this beauty until he feels it is perfect. Put it on your calendar for follow-up in May.

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Beyond nouveau hype is a diverse, quality region – Lifestyles & People – The … – Scranton Times

If you have shopped for wine since the third week of November, you likely have encountered Beaujolais nouveau hype.

The slightly sweet, very young, very fruity wine is the first of the 2012 vintage you will see from the Northern Hemisphere. Picked from the low-lying vineyards in the Beaujolais region of the southeastern France, it is rushed through fermentation and into the bottle.

It’s meant to be a fun, fruity wine. In French tradition, households buy two bottles and drink them by New Year’s Eve.

Don’t assume

With all the attention given to nouveau, casual wine drinkers may conclude all Beaujolais is nouveau. But nouveau is just one product of a diverse region capable of making serious, high quality wines – both red and some wine. The hysteria around nouveau often overshadows the other fine wines of Beaujolais.

No matter what you buy, the wine will be made with the red grape gamay, a pinot noir relative rarely seen outside Beaujolais.

Georges Duboeuf is the marketing mastermind behind nouveau. Beaujolais growers love him for making a market for their grapes. Other quality producers in Beaujolais, many of whom have roots in northern neighbor Burgundy, think his work has hurt Beaujolais more than helped it. I joined many others recently in trying the Georges Duboeuf 2012 Nouveau and it was better than in past years. A tasty, fresh wine with candied cherry and black pepper character. In some ways, it may call to mind homemade wine. $13. ★★★

Other wines

At $13, nouveau is overpriced. For just a few dollars more, and sometimes a few dollars less, you can do much better with a Beaujolais Villages, made from grapes grown in better vineyards of Beaujolais.

The next level up are Cru du Beaujolais, bearing the melodic names of the 10 regions. The regions are worth knowing because many producers don’t put Beaujolais on the label, fearing their wine will be associated with nouveau. Brouilly, Cote de Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas, Morgon, Moulin à Vent and Régnié are easy to find. You are less likely to see Chénas, Chiroubles and Saint Amour. They all have their charms.

Domaine de La Conseillere 2009 Juliénas, is mouth watering and light-bodied but has big flavors of blackberry, pepper and herb with a short finish. $19. ★★★ 1/2

Subtle and elegant, Louis Jadot 2010 Pouilly-Fuisse needs to be the right temperature for it to be appreciated. Let it warm a bit from the refrigerator to unveil its light pear, apple and quince flavors with a slight caramel backdrop. $21. ★★★★

You can also find white Beaujolais, both as Villages White or under the names St. Veran, Pouilly-Fuisse or Mâcon, all made from chardonnay grapes.

If you enjoy nouveau and have made it part of your tradition, that’s great. But reach out and try the full range of wines from the great region of Beaujolais.

GRADE: Exceptional ★★★★★, Above average ★★★★, Good ★★★, Below Average ★★, Poor ★.

DAVID FALCHEK, a Times-Tribune business writer, reviews wines each week. Contact him at dfalchek@timesshamrock.com.

Beyond nouveau hype is a diverse, quality region – Scranton Times

If you have shopped for wine since the third week of November, you likely have encountered Beaujolais nouveau hype.

The slightly sweet, very young, very fruity wine is the first of the 2012 vintage you will see from the Northern Hemisphere. Picked from the low-lying vineyards in the Beaujolais region of the southeastern France, it is rushed through fermentation and into the bottle.

It’s meant to be a fun, fruity wine. In French tradition, households buy two bottles and drink them by New Year’s Eve.

Don’t assume

With all the attention given to nouveau, casual wine drinkers may conclude all Beaujolais is nouveau. But nouveau is just one product of a diverse region capable of making serious, high quality wines – both red and some wine. The hysteria around nouveau often overshadows the other fine wines of Beaujolais.

No matter what you buy, the wine will be made with the red grape gamay, a pinot noir relative rarely seen outside Beaujolais.

Georges Duboeuf is the marketing mastermind behind nouveau. Beaujolais growers love him for making a market for their grapes. Other quality producers in Beaujolais, many of whom have roots in northern neighbor Burgundy, think his work has hurt Beaujolais more than helped it. I joined many others recently in trying the Georges Duboeuf 2012 Nouveau and it was better than in past years. A tasty, fresh wine with candied cherry and black pepper character. In some ways, it may call to mind homemade wine. $13. ★★★

Other wines

At $13, nouveau is overpriced. For just a few dollars more, and sometimes a few dollars less, you can do much better with a Beaujolais Villages, made from grapes grown in better vineyards of Beaujolais.

The next level up are Cru du Beaujolais, bearing the melodic names of the 10 regions. The regions are worth knowing because many producers don’t put Beaujolais on the label, fearing their wine will be associated with nouveau. Brouilly, Cote de Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas, Morgon, Moulin à Vent and Régnié are easy to find. You are less likely to see Chénas, Chiroubles and Saint Amour. They all have their charms.

Domaine de La Conseillere 2009 Juliénas, is mouth watering and light-bodied but has big flavors of blackberry, pepper and herb with a short finish. $19. ★★★ 1/2

Subtle and elegant, Louis Jadot 2010 Pouilly-Fuisse needs to be the right temperature for it to be appreciated. Let it warm a bit from the refrigerator to unveil its light pear, apple and quince flavors with a slight caramel backdrop. $21. ★★★★

You can also find white Beaujolais, both as Villages White or under the names St. Veran, Pouilly-Fuisse or Mâcon, all made from chardonnay grapes.

If you enjoy nouveau and have made it part of your tradition, that’s great. But reach out and try the full range of wines from the great region of Beaujolais.

GRADE: Exceptional ★★★★★, Above average ★★★★, Good ★★★, Below Average ★★, Poor ★.

DAVID FALCHEK, a Times-Tribune business writer, reviews wines each week. Contact him at dfalchek@timesshamrock.com.

What is wine?

Most of us are aware that there is something out there called “wine” and that it comes in two varieties: red and white.  

It turns out that there is a huge spectrum of wine from sweet fizzy whites that weigh in at about 4 percent alcohol to big bold reds with no sugar at all whose body balances a 15 percent alcohol content. Throw in Ports and it goes up to 19 percent.

There are more types of wine than there are ways to use Cream of Mushroom soup in a Minnesota hot dish. I guarantee that you like at least one of them.

So what is wine? Some wines, indeed some very good wines, are made from things like cherries or raspberries or apples. In fact, there are some delicious sweet raspberry wines made locally at St. Croix Vineyards in Stillwater.

However, the vast majority of wines, and the ones that I will focus on, are made from grapes.  

And most grapes have French names (dang it). Some common ones are Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir, which are reds. Whites include Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio (aka Pinot Gris), Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling.  

A wine drinker doesn’t necessarily need to know how wine is made, but later on this information will come in handy. Most wine, very broadly speaking, is made via a similar process (obviously, there are wines that will depart significantly from the narrative below like Ice Wines where the grapes are allowed to freeze on the vine).  The grapes are tended carefully and picked at just the right time. They are crushed and the juice is drained. An interesting note here is that any grape, when crushed, will yield a nearly clear liquid. Red wines get their color from soaking the skins until the red color bleeds out which also imparts flavor specific to red wines.

Yeast is added and the juice (or “must”) is fermented into wine. This is often done in large stainless steel vats. After fermentation, the wine is filtered and aged. Sometimes this is done in the bottle and sometimes in oak barrels. Ultimately, the wine is shipped and sold.  

This is where we come in. We get to enjoy the wine without any of the headache of making it. And that’s a good thing, too, because my first (and last) batch of homemade wine was so bad that when we tossed it out, it killed the grass.  

Since we have arrived at my favorite stage in the process – drinking the wine – I will pass on the conventional dogma that wine buffs like me will tell you. Imagine you are serving dinner to guests. Wine conventionalists will tell you the following: start the evening with a light white wine and move to more fuller bodied wines as the meal progresses. If the entrée is beef or something else with lots of flavor and body, serve a big wine such as a Cabernet Sauvignon or Petite Syrah. If the entrée is a light fish, serve a dry white; for salmon (a heavier fish), try Pinot Noir or Chianti or Rioja. Finally, serve your sweet wines with dessert, be they red or white. To summarize, progress from white to red, light-bodied to full-bodied, and serve the sweet last.  

Now for the disclaimer: If you like ice-cold Cabernet Sauvignon with mint chocolate chip ice cream (not something I personally recommend), drink it and make no apologies. Drink the wine you like in the manner in which you like to drink it. There is no more important lesson than this. Wine is to be enjoyed. Period.

OK, as a “conventionalist,” after telling you that there are no rules, I will pass on a few guidelines:

White wines should be served chilled.

Red wines should be served at room temperature or (very) slightly cooler. An 80-degree Cabernet is less pleasant than a 68-degree Cabernet.  

Young red wines can be a little rough, so to soften them, pour the wine into a separate glass container such as a carafe. This does two things: it improves the wine and gets the bottle off the table. Your wine friends will like it and won’t have to know that you paid $9 for it.

Another important thing to note is that wines from Europe are generally labeled by geography rather than the type of grape. Rioja (a place in Spain) is made from the Tempranillo grape and red Bordeaux (a region in France) wines are generally made from a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and others.  

Also know that place names like Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne and Chablis are respected around the world as protected trade names. Wine makers in Bordeaux have been labeling their wine as such for

hundreds of years. However, in the U.S., wine makers are free to use those names without royalty. Respecting that these names are the property of those who originated them, I will never personally purchase a “Chablis” from California.

These names are fodder for a future article so we’ll leave it there today.

Finally, the only way to get to know what you like is to try it. Most of the liquor stores in the area will periodically host a free wine tasting. Some (like Haskell’s in White Bear) don’t advertise this fact much, but it is done. Don’t be afraid to ask. Also, some places have a bottle of something open most of the time. On The Rocks next to Festival in Hugo is one of those. So go out there and taste boldly. You have nothing to lose and a lifelong passion to gain.

Paul Lundh writes from Centerville. You can email him at lowdownnews@presspubs.com.

Passion for crafting perfect wine brings vintners together

It is a shared passion for wine that has brought them together.
The dozen or so men and women that belong to GreyT Fermenters, which is accepting new members, meet about once each month to chat about red and white wine, share winemaking secrets, problems and success stories and sample their homemade merlot, pinot gris, cabernet Franc and other creations.
They crush grapes together, observe fermentation, create new wine blends, drink, eat and socialize.
“It’s a lot of fun. And you get something out of it in the end. Any project where you get to drink some alcohol at the end of it is fun,” said the club’s newest member Ben Brown of Desboro.
“You also meet new friends. And I enjoy the do-it-yourself aspect of winemaking as well. It’s one more thing that you can create yourself.”
On Saturday morning, members gathered north of Owen Sound at the home of Ted Loughead, who started the amateur winemaking club nine years ago, for arguably the most fun day on the club’s calendar.
Dozens of lugs filled with fresh grapes from California had just arrived the night before and had been stacked inside Loughead’s garage. The grapes had been pre-ordered by each club member, who paid for and selected only the varieties and quantity that they planned to turn into homemade wine.
For several hours, club members worked together to ready the grapes for fermentation.
Grapes for red wine were loaded lug by lug into a stainless steel machine that crushed the fruit and removed and separated the stems. The crushed grapes, with the skins still on, were then poured into pails where they will be left to ferment with the help of yeast and bacteria. Later, the grapes will be pressed.
Grapes for white wine were loaded into a custom press. The juice was extracted and put into pails to ferment, with no skins.
The pails were then loaded by each club member into the back of their cars. They were to be taken home where they will be left in a warm place for the fermentation process.
“I like to think this is more of an art than a science,” Loughead said, as club members worked to crush grapes.
Homemade winemakers are for the most part a frugal bunch, he said, and like the fact that they can make wine for about $3 a bottle.
“These wines we make can compare to wines that go for $12 to $15. If you’re really good, it can compare to wine that costs $25 to $30 a bottle,” he said.
Bernie Range of Big Bay said he is still improving the art of winemaking, even after 35 years of creating his own.
He said he has learned a lot from his fellow club members, many of whom enter wines into competitions where medals and prizes are up for grabs.
“It’s about crafting the perfect wine,” he said.
Range said he has created wine from peaches, pears, raspberries, choke cherries, even plumbs and rhubarb.
The flavour of wine, made from fresh fruit, is more intense, he said, and much better than wine made from kits.
People interested in joining the GreyT Fermenters, which is affiliated with the Amateur Winemakers of Ontario, can call Loughead at 519-372-1746. The annual membership fee is $50. Club members also pay for the amount of grapes they want to turn into wine.
 

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Introducing Robert Levis

The Chemistry of Wine is a general education course offered in the fall in the School of Science and Technology. In the class taught by Professor Robert Levis, students learn about the science, as well as the art, of winemaking.

Robert Levis, a winemaker himself, is also involved with other aspects of chemistry. He directs a center for strong field research, which involves the study of super-intense laser molecules interaction.

The Temple News talked with Levis about the class, what it entails and what students should expect, as well as how he got involved in the field of chemistry, in honor of our annual Bar Guide insert.

TTN: Why did you decide to get into the field of chemistry?

RL: I can tell you almost to the day when it was. I was a pre-med major at La Salle University, and the first month of the second semester, I was memorizing all these biology terms, and…it just had the answer for everything. You could explain the entire phenomenon that you come into contact with just in a daily existence. I always liked to explain things and right there I switched from pre-med into chemistry, and then chemistry to grad school, and then grad school into teaching and research.

The Temple News: Why did you decide to teach the Chemistry of Wine?

Robert Levis: Ultimately it came down to that the associate dean, George Palladino knew that another faculty member and I made wine every year and they were looking for new gen-ed courses. They said, “why don’t you teach something on wine?” So they spent the summer designing what we wanted the course to be and kind of developed it over the course of two years and then the third year it was really nice.

TTN: Do the students get to make their own wine? Do they get to keep it?

RL: No, what the students do in the experiment is learn about fermentation and how temperature affects fermentation. So if you open a jelly jar and you just leave it on the counter, after about two weeks it’s going to taste bubbly, because it’s fermenting. But if you open it and leave it in the refrigerator and you can leave it in there for a month and basically nothing will happen and that’s because the higher the temperature, the faster this process of fermentation occurs.

What the students will do will take grape juice and put it in three bottles with a balloon on top and yeast in the bottle and put one in the refrigerator, just one in the standard temperature room of the house, like the living room, and one in the hottest spot of the house, which is usually the attic, and they find that at the higher temperature, the fermentation goes really fast and the balloon expands in like two days. In room temperature it takes about a week, and in the refrigerator it never ferments. That is to the extent of the wine that they make, and it’s not really wine, they can’t drink it.

TTN: How would you rate the difficulty of this class?

RL: It’s easier than they think it’s going to be. After the first two weeks into the class, everybody gets desperate because they start learning some chemistry. They’re typically scared stiff about science, but we make it so that almost everybody passes the courses, and they learn some science, too. We’ve actually gotten [students] to switch from whatever [major they were in], art [or] history, into science, which is just great. Though, that’s not the idea. We’re not trolling for new majors, the idea is to teach these students that scientists have a different way of looking at the world, that when we say something, we mean something different than when a politician says something or someone in humanities. There’s always room for argument there, and while there is room for argument in science it plays out in the laboratory, not in the opinion polls.

TTN: Do students just learn how to make wine, or do they learn about any other substances like drugs?

RL: Nah, we were thinking about running a course on the science of sex, but we could also do something in the chemistry of narcotics. They do in a way. They learn how drugs work in a human, or any organism, by binding into active sites in proteins. We actually go over three-dimensional crystals structures in proteins, because that’s the way students learn about how taste, smell and perception of flavor come about, so it’s essential. So they could jump from there to how drugs interact with the body at that point, since we don’t specifically cover that.

Matthew Hulmes can be reached at matthew.hulmes@temple.edu.

Briley: Visit to Italy leads to dream of building of Magnavino Cellars

Robert Wagner took a trip to Italy 20 years ago that changed his life.

He spent a month touring the country and visiting many wine regions during the grape harvest season. He witnessed the passion that goes into family owned and operated wineries. He knew one day he would love to make his own wine.

Years after coming home, visiting and tasting at many wineries, he relived his experience in Italy. Robert and his wife Barbara decided to spend a weekend at Hope Merrill Bed and Breakfast in Geyserville, Calif. to learn more about wine. The bed-and-breakfast has a program where you spend two days picking grapes during harvest, then crushing them and starting fermentation. You come back the next year and blend the wines from the grapes that you helped harvest. You also are asked to create a label for the wine.

They make it fun by judging both your blends and label. The Wagners took first place in both. With the “wine bug” now firmly implanted, they went on to make wine from kits, and then small-lot home batches from grapes they acquired.

In 2007, they met Chris Brown from Cantara Cellars at a wine tasting event. She introduced them to Mike Brown, owner and winemaker at Cantara Cellars. They worked out a deal that would enable the Wagners to make their own commercial wine at Cantara Cellars. In 2008 they produced their first Magnavino Cellars vintage.

In 2009 they started building their own winery and tasting room in Oxnard. By the 2010 vintage they had completely moved into their new facility.

During the time the Wagners were making their wine at Cantara Cellars, I worked many a weekend alongside Robert and the Cantara team — trying to learn how to make wine myself.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down and taste Magnavino’s current offerings at its elegant tasting room and winery. The winery produced 10 varietals — all from the Lodi appellation. Their whites are pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc and viognier. The red lineup is Grenache, Sangiovese, zinfandel, tempranillo, cabernet sauvignon, syrah and petite sirah. While I was very impressed with them all, the viognier, Grenache, syrah and petite sirah were my favorites. Magnavino Cellars currently produces about 2,400 cases, which will grow to about 3,000 from the 2011 vintage.

While having good wine is a great start, it does not hurt that Barbara’s “other”career is in sales management in the entertainment industry and Robert’s is in advertising and marketing.

I asked about their roles at the winery. Robert said Barbara handles the tasting room and sales for Magnavino Cellars at 961 N. Rice Ave., Suite 5 in Oxnard. Magnavino’s tasting room hours are Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, go to http://www.magnavino.com/.

A great time to visit them and other local wineries is during the Ventura County Winery Association’s Valentine ‘N Wine event Feb. 10-12. You can visit all seven participating wineries during the weekend for one price. On the Net: http://vcwines.com/

Wine column: Vintage variations

With the Northern Hemisphere’s grapes long since harvested, opinions are being sought on the state of the 2011 vintage. It’s a bit like the latest model of your favorite brand of automobile: Everything depends not on what you expect, but on the actual quality.     

In leading regions, especially those such as Bordeaux, where vintage is all, collectors can make fortunes by betting well when putting their money on the raw, immature (en primeur) wines still undergoing fermentation. On the Right Bank, for instance, the sought-after names, like those of the chateaux-garagistes in a highly rated vintage, will be so hyped-up they will sell like hot cakes before they even leave the barrels, as did the excellent 2000 and 2005. Others, reckoned almost as good, may see only sluggish progress with prices usually deemed extortionate, while anything other can face a very tough time moving at all.

Nowadays with technological advancements, the worst vintages need not happen, whatever extremes the weather comes up with. Years seen as a 1 on the 1-to-10 scale are no longer. Winemakers understand how to mitigate the effects of extreme damp, persistent drought, insufficient sun hours, pests, mildew and so forth. Controlling tannins, sugar, acidity and alcohol levels once the grapes are in is now understood by all, which was not the case as recently as 20 years ago.

Nevertheless, the hype persists; it is huge business. Leading authority Hugh Johnson cites the owner of one of the top Bordeaux Left Bank houses, Chateau Lynch-Bages, who said of his 2003 – a notoriously hot growing season – he thought it was not really very good, but then a certain American wine critic asserted it was fantastic. “So then we knew,” he added wryly.

In fact, the 2003 vintage in most of Europe is a good example, and the Czech Republic was no exception, as those who were here will attest: no rain, and searing sun for months on end with parched earth and grapes that ripened to raisin-like bullets. The resulting red wines tended to be big, overbaked, often unbalanced and hollow with no life expectancy, and these can be judged very well today from those bottles still unfortunate enough to be found on the shelves.

However, a poor vintage (such as the 2010 in Central Europe) does not necessarily mean that the end-product need be abysmal. There are many examples of individuals who understand how to make wine and have done very well for themselves. And the same goes for the hyped-up 2011.

Generally, it is boasted the 2011 vintage will be super, thanks to an abundant harvest and healthy grapes. Only now is it beginning to emerge, according to oenologist Pavel Buriánek of Vinařství Kosík (see below), all the winemakers’ chest-beating was rather premature. High sugar levels at harvest combined with a lack of acidity often result in mousy wines full of faults. So you are advised to buy 2011 vintage from a reliable source and not fall prey to all mass-produced bulk of industrial blandness.  

Winery of the month:

Kosík, Vinařství z Tvrdonic, Runner-up Winemaker of the Year 2010

Dr. Pavel Kosík, a general practitioner, developed the family tradition by establishing a boutique winery as a hobby in 2003. His father, Cyril Kosík, who continues now as vineyard manager, began systematically planting vineyards in two local southeast-facing sites in and around the villages of Tvrdonice and Týnec, near the Slovak border: 20 hectares in the Stará hora and Nové vinohrady vineyard tracts.

Pavel Buriánek, a young oenologist, formerly at the Valtice Wine School, has been at the winemaking helm since 2010. Preferring to work alone, and pretty much given a free hand, he does everything himself, other than label and pack the bottles, which, especially at harvest time with trailers full of raw material arriving regularly, is no mean feat.

Nevertheless, since his arrival, the winery has changed beyond recognition, not only in size, growing into a medium-sized modern concern with obligatory tasting rooms and BB facilities, but in the quality of wine produced. His philosophy is to come up with around 30 different cuvées in all, often including several variations of the same grape variety. Annual production now stands at an optimum 200,000 liters, mostly of bottled wines. And since being named runner-up in the prestigious Winemaker of the Year contest last year, stocks have all but sold out, though their wines can presumably be had at Kosík Wine and Coffee Bar in Prague 3. Kosikbar.cz

Wines of the Month:

White: Rulandské šedé 2010, late harvest   

Producer: Kosík, Vinařství z Tvrdonic, Moravia

An expressive yet elegant example of this noble grape variety, reminiscent of exotic fruit, with plenty of citrus, the addition of luscious ripe apples and pears, plus a generous touch of honey. This is a fine example of how a well-made wine from an underrated vintage can outshine the competition. 200 Kč. Ukosiku.cz

Red: Ambrosia Barbera del Monferrato DOCG 2008 Superiore

Producer: Oreste Buzio, Vignale Monferrato, Alessandria, Italy    

This organically produced wine is deep crimson in color and with a lovely, typically Italianate nose, replete with masses of cherry fruit, yet with a good deal of subtlety and complexity: This was our verdict at a recent Prague tasting organized by V.P.V. (Víno pro vás/Wine for you), representing this southern Piemontese winery. 290 Kč. Vpv-praha.cz  

Events diary

Something from a different barrel: A cider tasting Jan. 24 at Kofein Tapas Bar, Nitranská 9 in Vinohrady. In its second year, this cider show offers a range of home-produced samples from a country where the alcoholic potential of the humble apple is largely overlooked, as well as at least one commercial producer (Mad Apple).  Tickets 100 Kč; bookings necessary. Winepunk.cz

John Helena Baker can be reached at
features@praguepost.com