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My "diploma" from the TTB laboratory just arrived in the mail, suitable for framing. I believe this makes my winery lab the smallest TTB certified laboratory in the US. Let me know if this is not correct...I would be happy to meet other small winery enologists! Now, if I ever want to export my huge production volume, foreign governments will accept my analyses. It was a fun project, and the main reason for me to get certified was less for export (I don't intend to ship outside of California) and more to show that it is not difficult to do. And the methyl orange endpoint for alkalinity of the ash is still the prettiest endpoint in wine chemistry. There is at least one very large winery in Sonoma County that asked about the process for certification a few years ago but that does not yet have their certificate...right, Tommy? Ha! Let me know if you have interest in this process and I can post my procedures for some of the more obscure analytes.10:57 AM GMT | Read comments(3)Napa Fermentation Supplies
I needed to pick up a couple of items and never need much of an excuse to visit my friends at Napa Fermentation Supplies. I've been visiting Pat and Colleen (that's Ben, Colleen, and "Fix Anything" Patrick (not Pat) in the photo) since the early '80's, when I was making small lot experiments for Domaine Chandon. They are located in the Napa Fairgounds. And after seeing Chik's cool sprayball, I'm in the market for a mini spray ball for cleaning my kegs and tanks. Meanwhile, Colleen tells me that my press is "on the water" and should be here soon. I hope so, harvest is just around the corner and I do not want to repeat last year's pressing regime. This new press should work much better for whole cluster pressing for sparkling wine...when it gets here I'll tell you all about it. Last year I had to make do with a standard basket press, which has the wrong dimensions for pressing whole clusters. To make it work, I had to greatly reduce the amount of fruit in each press load, so instead of doing one 500 lbs load I had to do 10 x 50 lbs loads. Very time consuming and very troublesome. Don't want to do that again.10:50 AM GMT | Read comments(0)July 02Day trip to UC Davis
My friends over at the UCD enology department are preparing for their big move to the new building. I poked my head into a couple of labs and offices and saw a lot of moving boxes and the horrible job of going through all those file cabinets...the recycle bins are filling up with paper.
One of my main reasons for my visit was to meet Jim Brown, who is now working at UNEX and hopes to re-vitalize the enology offerings. (Unfortunately I can't find a good link for Jim, but he is not yet one of the famous Jim Browns which turn up in Google image searches). We had a discussion about what areas have not been covered in a long time, and he is hoping by next winter or spring quarters to resurrect some topics that haven't been addressed for a while. Jim is also working with Linda Bisson on a new website, www.enologyinfo.com. It is not yet up and running, so come back and visit in a couple of days and see if they've brought it online yet. This is a collaborative effort of enology programs across the US, and long overdue. Linda hopes to use it to provide timely information on all sorts of relevant winemaking issues.
I also ran into Chik Brenneman, the UC Davis winemaker, and he wanted to show me one of his new "toys". Meissner donated a lovely 30" stainless filter housing, and about the same time Millipore donated about $15,000 worth of filters. Chik can now do a whole range of filtrations, from simple clarification down to 0.45 sterile. Now here's a good discussion: what do you think of dogs in the winery? Should a winery have a food production atmosphere or a family living room atmosphere? That's Maui the Dog, helping Chik with filter set up. I haven't seen Maui in any of the Winery Dog Calendars yet, so his big break is still pending.
Chik's keg/drum sanitizer is pretty nifty, too. His goal is to use non-chlorine sanitizers that don't affect the pH of his waste water stream and also do not contribute salts. I'm very jealous of his little spray ball for ensuring complete coverage with the cleaning solution. I still have a bit too much hand work in my semi-automated system.
Next, I met with Sue Ebeler to discuss find out about how to get going on a review article on Volatile Acid analysis in wines, and talked about a bunch of other fun projects that I'm hoping to do...a collaborative study on degassing, a review paper on industry laboratory performance, a summary of weight per gallon determination, a review of lab management issues, and maybe a couple of others.
I ran into Lucy Joseph and Dave Mills and leaned that Dr Bruce German is feverishly working on a project near to my heart...he's looking to find the human equivalent of what Basil the Cat gets in his special Raw Food Diet. I'm looking forward to hearing more about this!
Finally, I headed over to the library, and looked up some information on CO2 kinetics of solubility and equilibrium as part of the VA and the degassing project. Since my last visit just a few weeks ago, the library has completely changed the photocopy system, and has not yet provided much information on how to use the new machines. Luckily, a fellow pointed me to the one machine on the first floor where you can purchase copy cards, and myself and the three confused students eventually figured it out. I was somehow able to add money to the card of the previous user of the machine...but he hadn't gone far, and was kind enough to pay me back. Technology. Gotta love it.7:09 PM GMT | Read comments(4)June 29Indy International Wine Judging
My first visit to Indianapolis was very cool. Besides the thunderstorms and lovely AAA baseball, there was the famous Midwest cuisine....Kentucky Hot Brown, Breaded Pork Tenderloin (unbelievably delicious with coleslaw), Sweet Corn (soaked in butter), chocolate cake, cherry pie....darn good thing I don't live there or I'd be 300 lbs easy. There was hot debate about the Kentucky Hot Brown, which is a sandwich of ham, bacon, turkey and tomato smothered in a cheese-beer-parsley sauce. Others insist that the cheese sauce in not authentic, it is supposed to be gravy. That would certainly be more brown. We started to refer to this as Indiana Hot Yellow. Oh, and did I mention the 2 1/2 days of judging every imaginable wine type?
The judges came from all over, winemakers, professors, wine salesfolks, wine educators...from all over the United States. I met several Purdue students and they were an interesting and dynamic group. I really enjoyed myself and hope that I get invited back. Our panel of 5 (there were 14 panels) included Dr Tom, an industry icon; Ann from Missouri, Patrick from Chicago, and John from Oliver Winery in Indiana (the largest winery in the state). Here he is showing what happens to teeth after a flight of red wines. I had to promise to not use any tags on this photo so that his impeccable reputation as a winemaker is not besmirched. However, he didn't make me promise anything about his "yak yak yak" video. Should I post it? Let me know, and if John pays enought I will withhold it...Remember, to see the videos, you must be on the BlogSite, not the Blog Tab. Other friends of mine included Ralph Kunkee (here he is helping himself to dessert with a twist) .
Anyway, Dr Christian Buzke and his associates did a great job of running this event, and I can vouch for the judges that we had a great time. I might tell you more about the wines in future blogs...or not. Here's Christian describing the Judges Dinner at the Fairgrounds on Friday night...