Turns out an apple wine updates is overdue.
I made apple wine from 5 different trees this year. We had actually harvested from 7, but two were held for a time in the not-yet-very-cold-cellar and those apples were a mess in the crush/press stage – just wouldn’t release their juice for some reason. Of the 5 batches, 1 was outstanding, 1 was a dramatic failure, and the others came in somewhere in between. All were made in the same way with the same yeasts, so apparently I’m in the process of discovering which apples make superior wine. I have one batch on oak at the moment, but most are unoaked this year as they’re so fruit-forward – the best one of candy-like, high-toned fuzzy peach and grapefruit.
All of the carboys are well done their alcoholic fermentation, and different than last year, no malolactic fermentation seems to have taken hold. I either missed observing it, or I’m right and the cellar was so cold that the wine was cold-stabilized before it could do its thing. I’m only bottling a short-term supply and bulk aging the rest, in case the wine decides to have an MLF party in the summer when the cellar warms up a bit. It’s currently 4C – a tad cold for my liking for the long term aging of posh french reds, but certainly lovely for storing fresh flavors in apple wines.
Good quality apple wine is vastly underrated. Now that I’m set up for it, my marginal cost per bottle of wine is under $0.25. Free fruit abounds in the city. And I know, I know, crappy home-made wine isn’t even worth that, perhaps – but this stuff isn’t crappy, I assure you. Ridiculously cheap, local, tasty wine – one of the fronts to fight towards a cool regional food scene.
5 Comments on “Apple Wine 2010 Vintage Update”
Very interesting results. So if i’m understanding you correctly, each tree represents a single batch? No mixing of the apples from the 5 trees? If so, that is certainly interesting. Did you happen to taste each apple prior to crushing/pressing and take notes on flavor, crispness, etc? How far apart were the trees (different zipcodes??) Were there any unique features (environmental) close to the trees that produced sub-quality wine (runoff, etc)? Sorry for all the questions, its the scientist in me that wants to know why you had the large variety in quality from apples grown in virtually the same climate (micro-environment). Were they the same strain of apple?
~Barry
How exciting to hear your results, my wife and I are very much interested in producing some sort of liquor with our apples in the near future. I honestly must say I never did consider apple wine though…how interesting, something new to think about. Enjoy your wine, in my mind a decent wine made from ones own hands would be more enjoyable than the best wine made by another…such a fine accomplishment.
I think the bottle itself must cost 25 cents! I love your description of the best of the lot. I could feel the fuzzy peach tickle my tongue just reading it!
:)
Valerie
Mmmm, I bet the wine is so tasty! I bought my bottles secondhand (you can get everything for wine making secondhand and CHEAP) so I think after a couple batches you do get down to mere cents per bottle for cost.
What type of apples produced the outstanding wine? I am really curious!
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