Spring Winery Practices

Last week's topic in class was Evaluation of Wine in Storage and Wine Maintenance - visual inspection of wine in tanks and barrels (spotting microbial activity and leaks); tasting the wine's progression through the aging process (concentration and extraction of oak flavors); chemical analysis (red flags and what to do about it); wine "maintenance" (topping, additions); and housekeeping (barrel cleaning, etc.) As always, the best part of class was tasting! This time we tasted one Chardonnay, one Sauvignon Blanc and one Riesling, and then had to determine which of those three was the "mystery wine" in the paper bag. The Chardonnay and SB were close in flavor, surprisingly, and half of the class guessed incorrectly that it was the SB; I got it right this time - it was the CD! Lastly, we got to taste five reds that are in the aging process (the Shone Farm label wines made from our own Syrah, Cab and Zin grapes). They were all quite good even at their early stages. That particular day, I somehow "forgot" to eat breakfast or lunch (class started at 1 p.m.) so I sure felt the effects of all that wine tasting pretty quickly! Good thing this class ends the week on a Friday afternoon :-)