Sunday, September 06, 2009

Happy Blogday.

It is one year today since I started blogging. The photograph on my first blog was a close up of yeast cells. Fascinating stuff eh? Well, yes it is and it just so happens that Vinomaker got a delivery of an exciting selection of oenological yeasts yesterday from the kind people at Scott Laboratories.
Vinomaker likes to make a variety of wines; Cabernet sauvignon, Viognier, Cabernet franc etc. Every harvest the fruit arrives and many decisions must be made, yeast selection is perhaps one of the most important. The Rhone 4600 in the left of the photograph is the yeast that he will be using to produce a Marsanne for 2009. However, the yeast he is most excited about is the RP15, second from the right, which he will use to ferment the Syrah grapes grown by yours truly. This is a newly available yeast isolated from spontaneous fermentations by Jeff Cohn of JC Cellars. RP15 has low to moderate nitrogen demand, is alcohol tolerant up to 17%, and will show "bright cherry components, dark colour and sweet tannins"...everything you want in a yummy Syrah. I can't wait.
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I just want to say a quick thank you to those who regularly comment on Vinsanity. It is always a pleasure to read your comments and I am very appreciative of your input.
Roll on year 2!

14 comments:

tercero wines said...

Thanks for the blog. I'm wondering why all of Jeff's isolates end in '15' . . . his VQ15 is a great yeast isolate to use for Petite Sirah or syrah btw . . .

Happy Harvest!

Cheers!

Weston said...

gratz~

can you make bread with those yeast?
Cherry Flavoured Bread =P

Vinogirl said...

Tercero: Thanks for visiting Vinsanity. I will look into VQ15.

Weston: I think this yeast may be a little agressive for breadmaking...that would be one huge slice of toast :)

Do Bianchi said...

congrats Vinogirl! :-) and happy harvest (it's been fun to see harvest through your eyes)...

Vinomaker said...

Yeast selection is a bit of a slow trial and error method of discovering which one seems to allow the vineyard specific fruit to yield the desired properties, at least according to the winemaker. Over the last 12 harvests of mostly the same vineyards, I have had an opportunity to try various yeasts with the same varieties. Each year I find a quality I like and then hope to improve on it the following year. This year, for example, with the various Syrahs, I will again use the D-21 and D-254 yeast strains along with the new RP-15, which I assume will be similar to the VQ-15 I have used previously. Unlike those larger wineries with multiple lots from the same vineyard, I must hope for similar growing conditions each year to test my theories. Then, of course, if I like the result in my glass, whichever yeast was used was the right one for that year!

Thud said...

One of your usual snappy posts...ha!...congrats.

Vinogirl said...

Vinomaker: I have no complaints about your yeast selections thus far, keep up the good work.

Thud: You know you can count on me for snappiness!

The villager: said...

Well done on your year of blogging !

Marc Winitz said...

Congratulations on making it to the one year mark!

Vinogirl said...

Do Bianchi, Villager, Marc...thank you all :)

phlegmfatale said...

Happy blogiversary! And many more. :)

David McDuff said...

Happy bloggin' birthday, VG.

Vinogirl said...

Thanks Ms. Fatale.

Thanks McDuff.

monkey said...

belated congrats on the blogging keep it up it makes a change from reading about bricks and ridge tiles....hehe