Such great work in progress. Blending and discussing and negotiating and succeeding. I’m impressed with your work and your progress.
Red Hook winery was a great experience for all of us. The owner of the winery Mark spent his quality time with showing us how new and old technology works, steps that his employees follow to make a great wine which we enjoyed after our trip. After meeting all these new technologies I can understand how some wines of new words are being made. Mark Snyder shows us how different is white wine from red, and what steps they follow to make “orange”, red and white wine.
Mark Snyder uses two culture wine maker friends Abe Schoener and Robert Foley to join him. So he has different kinds of wines.
We tasted different kind of wine, however most impressive wine for me was Macme 2013(fermenting red)Merlot. This type of wine was very juicy, fruity and it tasted like smoothie with a touch of alcohol, this type of wine I will definitely use for spring dinner with some lights dinner meal.
Nicole Young
Repost Oct 18, 2013
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 landscaped 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. I’ve learnt that there are some wines that won’t 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 lees 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 lees 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 isn’t 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 lees; 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 haven’t 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.
Mark Synder
Founder of Co-owner of RedHook Winery
Our wonderful instructor for the winery tasting experience
I enjoyed my brief visit and appreciated the Winery’s unique experience. The guide was very informative and the winemaker was looking like he was having fun at work. The best part was the open barrel demonstration where the winemaker was digging his hands and pushing the “lees” into the barrel to make more contact with wine. 
The tasting was amazing and from my groups prospective, we decided to blend the red wines as they would be less complicated. Hopefully all will work out well as we go further into learning how to make a wine from the new world.
Visiting the Red Hook Winery was definitely an extraordinary experience to all of us. Mark Snyder, the owner, took us though the winery thoroughly to explain the process of winemaking.
At the very first of the tour, he explained that there are two winemakers working in the winery, Abe Schoener and Bob Foley, and each makes different style of wine. I was surprised by this fact since I simply haven’t given deep thoughts about winemaking. If I really think about the ways to create a variety of wine, it makes sense.
The most memorable part of the wine making process was when they showed us the must in the cask which is going through the fermentation process. During the fermentation, grapes’ skin and seed were pushed up to surface so that winemaker gently punch over and down the skin and seed so that the juice can get in touch with the flavor of skins, also, to keep the grape refreshing. They manage this process four to six times a day. They decide the timing depends on the condition of the must. What makes this scene memorable is not only the refreshing smell from the cask, but also they confirm that wine making is all about the “Feeling,” such as smelling and tasting.
We tasted the wine and juice from different barrel. This is entirely just my own personal opinion though, differentiating the flavor or smell of wine is pretty much challenging to me. However, the hardest things become easy by practice so I am hoping to be able to distinguish the smell gradually.
Maren Koya
The visit to Red Hook Winery did not parallel any past experiences I have had so far with wine. So much of what I know of wine has been from the back seat, in a way. The opportunities we were given at the winery to see, touch, hear, smell and taste the various steps in making wine was an experience. To see firsthand the machines and the minds that transform bundles of fruit into wine was quite eye-opening.
The most intriguing part of the tour was trying the different wines at different stages. It is a stark contrast of juice and wine. A few scientific processes and a lot of patience can yield a great tasting bottle of wine from a simple batch of fruit juice. However, as I saw, wine making is no simple task at all. Mark and all the crew at Red Hook Winery have become adept at understanding and analyzing the various stages of wine. Mark was able to explain every part of the wine making process, seamlessly exuding his abundance of knowledge to our novice minds. Some things that Mark mentioned that particularly stood out me were the occurrence of oxidation and reduction, the occurrence of natural evaporation called ‘angel share’ and the constant presence of yeast, dead and alive, throughout the whole fermentation process.
Another part of the experience that stood out to me was when we tried the skin fermented, or orange wine and when we tried the Abe Schoener Bordeaux blend. Both of these wines were quite unique and atypical. Their unique flavor profiles were due to the modern, new age take on wine making that Abe Schoener practices. It was fascinating to me how his decisions during fermentation manifested themselves in the taste and character of his wines.
I think EVERYONE could benefit from networking so I am sharing these videos with you. I attended this symposium and was inspired in many ways. I hope you are too.
http://www.winebow.com/wwls/videos.php
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
Gorgeous winery, lush grapes hanging from rows and rows of vines in some bucolic setting or having a grand tasting room or pretentious tours. All those isn’t what you get in The Red Hook Winery which is the creation of Brooklyn native Mark Snyder, the owner. What you do get is a bunch of very quirky, driven, passionate people getting together in a centuries old warehouse overlooking Manhattan to make some good wine. I was surprised that I hadn’t heard of the winery until the first day in the New World Wine class. The winery is remarkable. First, its creation as a hands-on small craft winery represents a coming together of three dynamic wine makers. Second is how they approach this great experiment; they get some of the best fruit from the North Shore of Long Island, divide the grapes, and experiment with the fruit applying their own personal approach. The third is that all the wines are vinified in a small warehouse in an old seafarers’ neighborhood on the shores of New York Harbor in Brooklyn. . Best of all, Mr Snyder gave us a great educational tour and was extremely generous with the wine pouring. Mr. Snyder is knowledgeable and very patient on telling and explaining to us where those drinks come from, how they are made, or the types of wine. From his tone I can heard his passion of wine making when he is telling the process of brewers and distillers, painstakingly shepherding raw ingredients from sacks and crates, through mills and presses to tanks, barrels and stills, always tinkering and mashing, checking and testing, heating and cooling until they have been transformed into the glittering gold or ruby red gems that are made. Sadly, that day was Tuesday follow Monday class schedule, so I had to leave early before the tour end for working, if not I really which to have a glass of every wines that I saw in there.
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