[vintner]

Sorry I haven't been around in a while. Went to see Frank Loyd Wrights house "Falling Waters" w/the wife, bro, and sis-in-law. Trippin' to say the least! I couldn't live there though. I'm 6'4", and a lot of the ceilings are too low for me to stand under. but if any of you ever get the chance to drive east of Pittsburg, it's a cool site to see.

Originally Posted by Don Cotyle

Tolpan your english is pretty good, I understand entirely what you ment! You make your vino the oldschool way...that's great! Wish the big companys did that no chemicals but all they see is half decent taste and big Dollar$$$ signs! Congradulations to you for makeing your wine your way and not takeing the easy way out!!! It sounds like your wines are top shelf!

Keep on doing it the right way, your way!!! Your vinyard looks great!!! Don

^^^Ditto that TolpanThat is a pretty nice looking vineyard. Sounds like you put a lot of love into it. What kinds of wines do you make? I can't wait for the day when I can get some land out in the country and put in a small vineyard and orchard myself. As well as strawberry and blackberry patches. I like a variety of wines. I also plan to learn how to keep bees and make my own meads. Nothing close to your scale though LOL.
Thanks for the compliment, and chime in any time. I'm sure you could teach us a lot.
Endo: You and Don sound a lot a like. You both like them potent LOL Keep your cleanliness up to par, and you might think about adding a crushed campden tab every third time you rack or so. Just to prevent any unwanted bacteria. Make sure your wine is crystal clear before you bottle, and is that 1/2 full jug still fermenting pretty good? If not, you should really move it to a smaller vessel.
Thanks for stopin by everyone. By my count, I should be bottling in the next week or so. Can't wait! This is the first wine I've made in months LOL.
MJ: What up Bro?

[Tolpan]

Hey Vintner and Don, thanks for your kind words!

70 % pint noir
15 % pinot gris
15 % diff. white wine varieties, which I blend and add some CO2 to it, like a Prosecco or champaign
Perhaps I will show some pics from winemaking, like I do


Last year I harvested with 12 young female students that helped me press my redwine ! I put about 1000 Kg of pinot noir grapes that already finished producing alcohol, into a big pot that is in another pot! Put the girls in there and gang bang!
What a show, great fun and the wine didn't get bad ! Just oldschool!

First the girls didn't like the glibbering juice with seeds and grapeskin in it. But one time they were in it, they loved it. A friend if mine, a music teacher, played french chansons, while harvesting and winemaking, he played an accordeon.
It's always a celebration, even if it's a hard time with less sleep and a lot of backhurts.

My other passion, next to growing. Can't say which I love more!
Two beautiful plants with a lot of varieties, great finished product, that give us great moments and experiences! Used in the right way.













Just a little view of some of my loved wines!
They are not mine, won't show my label.

Take a search for Domaine Viret! Mind blowing crazy architecture. Visited this monument last year! Unbelievable!

The last pic is the best wine in my cellar and only a few wer produced! I think about 2000 bottles, it's one of the most searched pinot noirs in the world!

Oh, I forgot this thread was about winemaking, lol.
Sorry for off-topic!

I will visit this area next week , tasting some great wine directly from one of the best winemakers, right out of the barriques! Love that!

Think I have to do a thread, lol!

Greets Tolpan

[titoon29]

Hi guys !
Great to see you enjoying the wine making... i love so much wine like you tolpan ! I miss so much the french wine here, australian wine is good but really expensive...
Have fun !

[kid606]

Originally Posted by Tolpan

..I will visit this area next week , tasting some great wine directly from one of the best winemakers, right out of the barriques! Love that!..

hey tolpan..
that's what i missed in this thread..no one ever talked about barrels..i thought it's the good old barrel that makes the wine..but in times of big aluminum tanks and f'd up plastic one hardly ever stumbles across some good old barrels..
nice pics tolpan..pretty sure it was a funny fest with all those students..grrr.. don't forget to invite me next year..

to be honest MY heart says no to those kits..but it may be good for some..allthough we produce lots of wine i hardly ever drink any...i don't like how it tastes and easily get headache if somethings wrong with the wine..but when i was younger i couldn't imagine to drinke coffee..at that time it simply tasted like shit to me and nowadays one of the first things to do in the morning is to refill the espresso machine and make me a nice one..ahh..so good..maybe i'm able to enjoy wine someday..

[Endo]

Endo: You and Don sound a lot a like. You both like them potent LOL Keep your cleanliness up to par, and you might think about adding a crushed campden tab every third time you rack or so. Just to prevent any unwanted bacteria. Make sure your wine is crystal clear before you bottle, and is that 1/2 full jug still fermenting pretty good? If not, you should really move it to a smaller vessel.

it was fermenting a little for the first few days, since then i have racked it off into a regular wine bottle, added a little honey, and put it in the fridge to settle out. im going to use this for my sample bottle. will probly try it out saturday.
do you put the camden tabs in b4 the wine clears? or will that screw things up. i have 5 gal of orange and 5 gal of cider that are not really clear yet but are not really fermenting anymore. should i put the tabs in? and let them clear? then bottle?

well im sure sounding like don is not a bad thing.. i just like to make sure im gonna get my crunk on! so far they taste great and give a nice warming feeling. plus the way i figure it, by attaining max alchol content, the wine will preserve better and will also respond better if i have to back sweeten without diluting it down.
the orange will be about 60 days old in a week or so. and the cider a week after that...

[vintner]

Endo: No, you put a crushed campden tab in as the wine is clearing every 2nd or 3 time you rack a batch.
Toplan: I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say we'd love to see more pix of your wine making

Originally Posted by kid606

hey tolpan..
that's what i missed in this thread..no one ever talked about barrels..i thought it's the good old barrel that makes the wine..but in times of big aluminum tanks and f'd up plastic one hardly ever stumbles across some good old barrels..
to be honest MY heart says no to those kits..but it may be good for some..allthough we produce lots of wine i hardly ever drink any...i don't like how it tastes and easily get headache if somethings wrong with the wine..but when i was younger i couldn't imagine to drinke coffee..at that time it simply tasted like shit to me and nowadays one of the first things to do in the morning is to refill the espresso machine and make me a nice one..ahh..so good..maybe i'm able to enjoy wine someday..

kid606: I appreciate you chiming in w/your opinions, and I'm not trying to dispute what you say, but one reason I'm doing this tutorial is to teach basic home wine making techniques, and show those that know nothing about making wine that it can be done pretty inexpensively. Wine barrles are even more expencive than carboys, and now days there are several cheaper ways to impart an oak flavor to wine w/out having to invest in barrels.
Making wine from a kit of concentrated juice is no different than making wine from freshly squeezed grape juice. Someone else just dose all that labor for you as well as all the trials and testing in order to get the pH, sulfite, SG levels right, as well as finding the right yeast. I don't have the room or the equipment to make grape wine from scratch. I sure wish I did, but again, my intention in doing this tutorial is to show folks that you don't need all that stuff to make really good, award winning wines w/out having to spend a lot of money. 3 years ago, I bought a (30 bottle) cab sav kit for $50. This past x-mas my brother-in-law (a major wine snob) told me that it tastes just as good as the $15-18/bottle commercial wines he drinks. I like that math.

[Tolpan]

Little update on my winemaking, lol!

Winemaking is the easiest thing to do, if ya know how! Sounds easy, it is !

Show you how I do it!

[Tolpan]

Life's a journey and everyday brings something new!

I learned winemaker in a very old winery that is in my homeland one of the big numbers. I didn't even drink wine when I started working there. I needed money so I tried to get a season job and 2 days after I started there, I asked my boss, if he needs a slave, lol! Just joking, but somedays I felt like that 3 years of hard work 70 hours a week, 6 days a week for 500 Dollars a month, is hard!

He asked if I'm crazy cause I had studied 2 years and everything went well, so he didn't understand, but he said, if you want, I will teach ya!

I quit university and started to become what I'm today! And I love it!



More soon

[Tolpan]

One thing I have to add!

@ kid 606:

In my eyes GFK, kind of plastic is much better than Aluninium or V2a, orV4a!
A barrel is nothing bad, but most people don't know how to use it! They think that the barrel makes the wine that that's just halftrue! It's always a comparison of what quality of crapes you have and if they can face the barrel or the barrel took over the wine and that's what most winemakers did the klast 15 years! And now they realize that they were wrong!
Best medium for wine is concrete!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You all will realize that in the next 5-10 years! Believe me it's the only thing for fermentation!!! Later for malolactic fermentation a meidum toasted berrel, but not a new one and never use a hard toasted barrel! kills the wine!

And sure kid606! You're invited next year!

See ya

[Tolpan]

Yesterday I put my best pinot noirs together to one wine! About five barriques, one is about 225 liters! Little more than 1000 Liters of red wine, should last for a few weeks !

In the second picture you see how I filtrate, through some old 2 weeks used socks, lol!
Just joking!

Tolpan