Chris Minnick is featured in a new book:

My wit and wisdom about winemaking are featured in a new book (along with my Grapefruit wine recipe): 101 Recipes for Making Wild Wines at Home: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Herbs, Fruits, and Flowers
. Check it out!

The 2008 Wines are Coming Fast!

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but much has been happening in the Bad Astronaut Wine world, so I think it's about time I got back to it and filled you all in!

First of all, the 2008 Wines are incredible! We bottled the Zin a little while back, and I'm having to hide it from myself so that I don't drink it all before it reaches it's peak.

If you participated in the bottling, and/or if you have some of the wine, I would say that it's just about now fully over the bottle shock and is tasting really good. I'm really looking forward to how it will taste next year!

Pretty soon, we'll be bottling the 08 Merlot, the 08 Petit Sirah, some 09 Charonnay, and perhaps a couple other surprises!

The season of releasing the Grapefruit Wine has begun!

Tomorrow will be the first official tasting of the Bad Astronauts Galactic Grapefruit Wine. We did an unofficial tasting a little while ago in Sonoma, but since then, we've gotten approval on the label, printed the labels, and labeled and foiled the bottles. Tomorrow, we'll be pouring grapefruit wine at the Sacramento Institute of Fun's Jazz De-Mystified event (the Institute of Fun is another one of the businesses I'm involved with, by the way).

Next weekend, we'll be pouring at Revolution Wines' Christmas Walk.Big things are happening for the Bad Astronauts.

Wine updates

Sam and I drew samples, tasted, and tested the pH on all 9 of the 2008 wines tonight. I'm happy to report that I'm very happy. The Chenin Blanc and Rose' are stable, clear, tasty, and have good acidity. The Zin, Cab, Petit Sirah, and Barbera are all delicious and fault-free. The Merlot is an interesting case...we think it has smoke taint.

Remember all those fires during the summer? Well, things were particularly bad in Napa and Sonoma. Our Merlot came from northern Sonoma (Kenwood). The taste of this wine is spectacular for how young it is. The smell is sort of like a forest fire.

The question is: do we try to eliminate that smell, or is this a uniquely 2008 sort of a thing that people will come to love and will pay a premium for in 2010? We're going to run this question (and the wine) by a couple people who have been in the business much longer and see what they think. Stay tuned!

Galactic Grapefruit Coming Soon!

We're completing our focus group testing and getting the label ready to be printed. We expect that Galactic Grapefruit Wine will be available for purchase in time for Thanksgiving.

This weekend, Jeff took a bottle to Philadelphia, and I shared a bottle with Molly, John, and Maya here in Sacramento. Grapefruit Wine has now been enjoyed by people on both coasts as well as by someone who has been to space!

Sonoma Home Winemaker Pouring

Yesterday, Margaret and I poured Bad Astronauts wine at the Sonoma Home Winemakers Celebration. We met a lot of people, including a couple who were going to astronaut Rusty Schweickart's house for dinner and wanted a bottle of Bad Astronauts Galactic Grapefruit wine to bring him! We gave them one, of course! I hope they post something here about how he liked it and whether he'd be willing to be the good astronaut spokesperson for Bad Astronauts wine!

We also met a guy who's dad worked for mission control in Houston and who described himself as a "Space Baby". He very much enjoyed our wine.

This was our first public Bad Astronauts pouring, and it was a huge success. Everyone who tasted our wines loved them, the Galactic Grapefruit was a hit with the crowd, and we raised some money for Sonoma High School while having a lot of fun!

Bad Astronauts Merlot

Here's the merlot status so far:

I drove to northern Sonoma county (Kenwood) Monday morning to get the grapes. I got to downtown Sonoma at about 6:00, had some coffee there, and then drove up highway 12 for another 20 minutes or so to the vineyard.

Morrison Vineyard is the most beautiful place in the world. Ian Morrison, the owner of the vineyard, grows only Merlot, and he does it very well. He's also a very nice man.

After chatting with Ian for a while, I walked the vineyard. The grapes were ripe and delicious. The yield per vine was definitely much lower towards the top of the hill, and I think I preferred the taste of the grapes at the bottom of the hill.

The picking crew started picking at about 8:00, and I had my grapes loaded into the truck by 9:00. I drove back to Sacramento, and arrived back at the winery at around 11.

Initial numbers:

24.5 - 25 brix (depending on testing method)
pH 3.66

After crush (thanks Priscila, Sam, Jim, Zach, and Dave for your help!) I added enzymes and potassium metabisulphite.

Tuesday, I threw 20lbs of dry ice on the grapes.

Wednesday, Margaret and Priscila put 20 more lbs on.

Wednesday night, the must temperature was 50 degrees. I added superfood, followed by yeast, and 800g of tartaric acid. My goal is to get the pH down to about 3.4.

Thursday, I added 2 lbs of untoasted oak chips (in a nylon straining bag).

Friday morning, fermentation was underway, but slow. I added my phase 2 superfood and DAP addition.

Everything's looking great, and I'm very excited about this wine.