Saturday, January 19, 2008

Procrastinator? Then Making Wine is Your Hobby!

Super-Tuscan Rosso FortissimoWhen a couple comes into our store and I start talking with them about making wine as a new hobby, I usually tell them that women make better winemaking hobbyists then men because there are only two simple rules: Keep your equipment clean and read and follow directions. Women are better at both!

Another attribute that makes helps when wine making is the ability to procrastinate! The great thing about wine is that if it is good today, it will be better tomorrow. This statement is for the most part true but during the very initial stages in the winemaking process you do have to stay on schedule in the addition of the various additives and moving the wine to a clean vessel when necessary. Once the process is a few weeks on its way the calendar becomes more flexible and you can go through the various stages with quite a bit of variance in the timing of the winemaking steps. In fact, I have delayed bottling wines for up to two years but for a very good reason. Wine that is stored in bulk ages about 50% faster then which which has been bottled. Here is a time when dallying is a good thing!

BlueStem Winery carries both WinExpert wine kits and Cellar Craft wine ingredient kits and both make superb (even world class!) wine. We have had customers make various kinds of kit wines which they declare are the best they have ever had.

One of our special wine kits this year is one Cellar Craft's Limited Edition kits, the Super-Tuscan Rosso Fortissimo Reserve Cuvee. This kit provides twice the amount of Tuscan Sangiovese juice than Cellar Craft's Showcase Rosso Fortissimo. The crushed grape pack is 30% larger at 2.6 liters and the crushed grapes have been upgraded to Walla Walla Appellation Quality grapes.

This Rosso Fortissimo is truly special and would be a great way to start your wine making hobby.

In addition to the WinExpert wine ingredient kits and the Cellar Craft wine kits we carry, BlueStem Winery also carries its own line of homebrew ingredients kits known as BlueStems Best. BlueStem carries a complete line of wine making equipment, winemaking ingredients, and wine making supplies plus all of the homebrew supplies, home brewing ingredients and beer brewing equipment you need for these great hobbies.

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