Our lavly Dornfelder!

This week we had a tasting session of the wines we had made, not as a chance for a 9am drink, but an opportunity to collect some data on our trials. Our group had made a red wine from Dornfelder grapes, focussing on how leaving skins to fester in juice (maceration) effects the overall composition of the wine. The results were as expected in terms of the science, longer maceration = more colour and more tannin (think of stewing a cup of tea). We had to do an entire afternoon of testing for colour, which was more than a bit dull, and we had to add some MLF bacteria to soften the insane, tooth-ripping acid that had come from our good ol' English harvest, but the results were good, and as expected.

In terms of taste, we wanted to know who preferred what, and if the "more maceration = more colour and tannin" conclusion transferred into peoples perception. Personally I preferred the 8 day maceration, but others seemed to enjoy the 12 day maceration more. This was the longest period of maceration, and it gave an awesome "electric purple" colour, which I think swayed some people palettes.

Anyway, the trial was a success, and people liked the wine, which was a bonus given that the aim of the game wasn't to make the best wine possible.

Oh... And I took a few bottles home with me after. Don't tell my tutors....

The new Cloudy Ridge

Bottling time at Plumpton! Today we started bottling the winning blend of Plumpton Cloudy Ridge white. We had a mini contest at uni, each winery team of 3-5 people spent a good few hours mixing various wines that we had made from our own Plumpton grapes in order to find a winning blend. We then had a blind tasting session, deciding as a group which blend was to be sold in supermarkets and restaurants across the land. My team came an average mid-table, with the winning team dumping a SHED LOAD of sugar in their recipe. And we ALL love sugar don't we...??? Evidently!

Bitterness aside, It does taste pretty good, and ridiculously aromatic. A classic English still white.