Due Wednesday, October 16
- In the groups designed in class on Tuesday, October 15, state here as a reply base wine the group would like to work with. (Half the class will work with red base wines and half the class will work with white base wines. Base wines
Due Monday, October 28
- Two business style thank you notes. The first addressed to Red Hook Winery, the second to the Julia Child Foundation.
- Reflective Blog entry explaining the process you and your fellow winemakers undertook to create the wine made at the Winery on October 21.
Group 1 -Red Wine blend
#5 BF JVME 2009 Merlot
#6 BF JVME 2010 Merlot
#8 BF ACKCF 2010 Cab Franc
#9 BF RMME 2011 Merlot
#10 BF RMME 2012 Merlot
A majority blend of merlot variety with a hint of spiciness of the Cabernet Franc. This blend will represent 4 different vintages.
Group 1:
Petra Panak
Ebelisse Vargas
joann liew in group one too
Team # 3 ~ Sunflower Bloom
Team members :
Tetyma Ryvitska
Segufta Amin
Nicole Young
Blending
#3 Askl 1. 2009 SB /chard
#11 BF Palpb 2012 Pinot Blanc
##14 RH Palpb 2013 Pinot Blanc
(#12 BF Lzch 2012 Chardonnay)***
Group 5
Betsy Torrau, Maren Koya, Marjorie Mejia
Blend profile: refreshing, tarty, citrus, grafruit and apple taste.
Wines from the list:
1- BF RIES 2011 Riestling
3- BF SARGCH 2009 SB/CHARD
11- BF PALPB 2012 (stainless) Pinot blanc
13- BF MACSB 2013 (WOOD) SAUV BLANC
Ula Chin
My Comment
Wines Of New World
Group # 5: With Betsy Torrau, Maren Koya, Marjorie Mejia
The most rewarding part of the Red Hook Winery experience was blending, wine tasting and then blind tasting. From the hands on blending, Iāll always remember that Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay had a neutralizing effect when blending 1:1 ratio; it did not have much of a characteristic and the smell was diluted. Pinot Blanc wasnāt quite fermented; because it was still kind of sweet, we decided to leave that out of our trials. We wanted to have a more consistent blend later on.
Originally, we tried 50% Sauvignon Blanc with 30% Riesling and 20% Chardonnay and it was aromatic and like taste with a bit of citrus and lemon. It looked a bit cloudy and a very little dim of white.
The second trial was 50% Sauvignon Blanc with 30% Chardonnay and 20% Riesling. The result was more enjoyable. Although, it smelled fruity and vanilla, it didnāt taste as fruity; which was why it was quite intriguing. It was mildly oaky though. It became our first favorite, but it was not our final blend.
The second blend tasted and smelled better with more Chardonnay, we decided to dramatically change the formula. We formulated the 3rd trial as 50% Chardonnay with 30% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Riesling. It was pretty surprising. It didnāt come out well at all. It was rather insipid. Smell was not special. Taste was not any better than the smell. It was not a productive blend. It was still pretty flavorless when Chardonnay percentage was slightly lowered to formulate: 40% Chardonnay, 30% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Riesling.
The 5th blend was 40% Sauvignon Blanc with 40% Riesling and 20% Chardonnay. It was kind of sour and acidic. The flavor was like sour apples with some citrus. It was a bit rough.
After the blend, we all agreed on the 6th and last trial to keep Sauvignon Blanc on a higher percentage and to have the rest more of an even blend; 40% Sauvignon Blank, 20% Chardonnay and 20% Riesling. Riesling had a refreshing effect. It was the most aromatic, refreshing and enjoyable blend. We didnāt really have to debate between the 6th blend and the 2nd blend; 40% Sauvignon Blank, 20% Chardonnay and 20% Riesling was the best.
During our blending trials, we all had fun. We learned a lot. I was glad I was teamed up with these group members: Betsy, Maren and Marjorie. We should have more group activities with wine.
Group 4
Team Members: Michelangelo
Brian
Virginia
Blending: BF JVME 2009 Merlot
BF JVME 2010 Merlot
BF RMME 2011 Merlot
BF RMME 2012 Merlot
Ula Chin has been added to this group.
eugeniya š
Group 6:
Carla
Ben
Mateng
BLEND OF RED
#4 As Puncheons 2008 BDX Blend
#6 BF JVME 2010 Merlot
#8 BF ACKCF 2010 Cabernet Franc
Mary M. is also a part of this group
we will post the thank you notes on openlab or hand in hard copies?
Hard copies. I will edit the instructions to make it more clear.
Group 2:
Valery Sosa
Alida Diaz
Emmanuella Kalliangas
Natasha Decena
1. AS SKL1 2009 SB/CHARD
2. BF RIES 2011 RIESLING
3. BF PALPB 2012 PINOT BLANC
4. RH PALPB 2013 PINOT BLANC
5. BF MACSB 2013 SAUV BLANC
Nicole Young
October 15, 2013
Reflection on Wine Tour
Red Hook Site Visit
Today for the first time I visited a winery. I have always imagined that the only wineries that exist are far out of urban city areas. What I have always envisioned was a sea of landscape land that had lined rows of grapes in the stages of blooming, being prepped for picking and processing; I never imagined such an exquisite role as preparing wine for fermentation and blending would be located in the backyard of the borough of Brooklyn. There are a few interesting fact that I learnt during the Red Hook site visit which I thought was quite interesting as well as important to have the background knowledge of how in-depth it is of the process of blending wines.
Mark the owner of the winery embraced our group, without hesitation, vast his knowledge of wine making along with many years of experience. There are a few interesting facts that I was able to take away from the site visit. Iāve learnt that there are some wines that wonāt be placed in a barrel, and that those wines are only kept in tanks, as well as they are fermented in those tanks, it is kept cool to slow down the fermentation process. There after fermentation has completed, the wines will be bottled directly from the tank.
We were also informed that there is a difference of oaks which influences different outcome of flavors. The oak barrel provides two purposes; one is a vessel which is exposed to oxygen, which there is a great balance between oxidation and reduction, and in each barrel it is happening simultaneously. However, the leaves at the bottom of the barrel basically are starving, though not actively eating sugar or making alcohol through fermentation process, it is still relevant to the process in need of oxygen, however because of the lack of oxygen, the leaves causes the wine to be reduced.
Wood barrel are held together by the liquid inside and the band or hoops as they call it keeps the barrel from breaking apart; Wood is porous, which causes a lot of oxygen to get to the outside of the wine, however, there is a combination of oxidation and reduction happening at the same time in the wooden barrel.
There is a difference of flavor when different oaks are used to create the blend, texture, taste while blending and creating any outcome of wine. A neutral oak is an oak which is used over and over; which is mostly used by Red Hook winery as well as there is also new oak barrel; which isnāt so popular at Red Hook however it is still used to create a particular blend of wine. The difference of oak, is that a new oak barrel will impart oaky flavors to the taste of the wine, if indeed a new oak will be used, Red Hook winery uses a particular specific type of new oak barrel which is plunged into hot water for an extreme long time and then into clean water, which releases all the fire power in the wood; however if creating an oaky flavored wine, the process that would be to use a charred new oak barrel and put the wine inside; with a combination of using both neutral oak and new oak to create the oaky flavor it is intended for. In a barrel there is more leave contact with the wine in the barrel.
The difference of use stainless steel barrel or a tank, encourages reduction, the lack of oxygen; and it encourages a much higher contact with the leaves; however if you place something in the stainless steel barrel for too long it becomes too reduced and that kind of reductive petro quality will produce a horrific taste and it will produce a smell like rotten eggs.
During the site visit we were given the opportunity to taste different wines from different years, as well as experience the difference of oak barreled wine from new to neutral as well as the difference between non fermented and fermented wine.
I havenāt been too much a fan of most of the wine I tasted during our site visit, because I have been a non-alcoholic drinker all my adulthood; however I was able to identify a particular taste that I did enjoy during our tasting experiment. I seem to enjoy wines with sweeter taste, non-dry, not too much tanning and a lot of fruit after taste and smell. One of the blended components that particularly stood out for me was RH Palab 2013 (stainless) Pinot Blanc; it was the combination of pineapple, grapefruit and banana taste, the smell of the fruits was delightful, a bit sweeter than the other blended wines I tasted, not much acidity, it had a cloudy pale shade, but very enjoyable.
Overall, this is one of my hospitality educational highlights; to be given the opportunity to experience wine tasting at a winery and learning the process of wine blending makes me much open to experience more wine tasting in the future.
(Professor Goodlad; I am unable to find a way to have a photo attached to this message)
Bryan Lindsay says:
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October 18, 2013 at 1:20 am
My reflection of our classes first of two visits to the Red Hook Winery In Brooklyn, New York was truly a rewarding experience. It was an encounter that a person needed to rely not only on sight but theyāre other four senses. Our awesome tour guide & owner Mark Snyder was so informative about the harvesting of North Fork Long Island vitis vinifera, fermentation and storage to bottling. The two viticulturalist Abe Schoner and Robert Foley are an example of ying and yang when it comes to their beliefs to approach the way the wine should be fermented, blended and racked.
At first glance of our walk through I realized that the warehouse was old with a touch of modernism. There were also various size barrels and various wood fixtures a semi open kitchen. The smell that I picked up at first was a sulfuric smell as it wore off a smell of sweetness from the fermented grapes filled the air. I gained more insight on oak barrel or steel barrel storage, lees; oxidation, sugar and yeast affect the body of wine. I learned greatly on sampling various stages of wine from the bottle stage to barrel stage and the start of the fermentation process. Each stage has its own characteristics similar the metamorphosis of a caterpillar. Overall the wines were low in tannin but each glass of wine was drastically different. In the prefermentation stage when the grape juice was transforming into wine if you put your ear to the wine glass you could hear popping.
Which is the result of the yeast reacting to the sugar.
great use of descriptive language when conveying the aromas encountered at the winery. They embrace you like no other.
A winery in Brooklyn? I never thought I would see the day. I guess people have a giant misconception that wine can only be created in certain regions, well now we know we were wrong about that. I can honestly say, I have been an avid wine drinker for many years but I vaguely knew the processes in what goes into making a wine or what blending is for that matter. Having that said, Mark Snyder the co founder of Red Hook Winery was the absolute epitome of a knowledgeable wine connoisseur. He not only was unbelievably informative but delivered his speech with gusto and passion which was extremely admirable. It warms my heart to see someone use their passion to their advantage and implement that into their career path. Mark mentioned that he worked closely with two wine makers Abe Schoner and Robert Foley. I love how stylistically they both have different approaches to creating wine yet somehow are complimentary. Abe Schoener is considered more āAvant Gardeā in his process by using spontaneous yeast and keeping the lees in the wine giving his wine a very āboldā yet well rounded taste/smell on the palate. Robert Foley on the other hand is more ātraditionalā he believes in the simplicity of the wine by using natural yeast and racking every 3 months to remove the lees to protect the wine. After the discussion of how the winery and machinery work, we finally had the opportunity to try the many different wines they offered, including the āskin fermented white wine/orange wineā. Mark used the āthiefā straight from the barrels and poured us all a taste of each wine giving us a better appreciation/understanding of the different qualities each wine has that affects all our senses. Also, it was fun trying to guess which wine belonged to the winemakers having known details on their style of creation. Overall, this experience was a once in a lifetime opportunity, I mean how many people can say my class took place in a winery in Brooklyn? Thanks City Tech and Julia Childes foundation!