Wines have been bottled and stored. Ready when you're around:

Those look professionally bottled!!
You have done a fantastic job Joe!!!
Thanks for the pics!! I have proof I have a bottle of wine in Cal that has my name on it!!!
I don't think I'm going to make the January thing.. Trying to juggle a bunch of want to do's and that is one that will probably have to be cut for now.. Just a plan put on back burner for now..
Again thanks!!
Gina *BabyBlue*

Scott,

Hope you enjoy your visit to our neck of the woods! Depending upon the route you take north from San Francisco through redwood country, the breweries/brewpubs I would suggest are:

Russian River, Santa Rosa, english/belgian ales (former multiple Great American Beer Festival medal winner)
Bear Republic, Healdsburg, various ales (2006 Small Brewery of the Year winner, Great American Beer Festival)
North Coast, Fort Bragg, various ales

Those above presume you'll be traveling up either US 101 or US 1. If you go inland on I-80, Sudwerks in Davis, where Joe lives, has great german style beers. It's available in bottles, so you can take some with you and spend your time visiting with Joe instead of at a brewpub.

In case anyone thinks this is off topic, Belgian Wit Bieres generally are spiced with Seville orange rind, among other spices.

Kent

Scott and Kent,

I love the Raddler myself, with some lemon on it!

Our graduate advisers at UC Davis often take us to Sudwerks after each major exams during my graduate studies. I might take you there if you drop by, that is, if you survive tasting more than 20 kinds of wine at my place.

I have just finished serving wine at our company party where I served about 20 kinds of wines:

Prickly pear, persimmon, Fantasy grapes, Concord Grapes, Pineapple, Blueberry, Raspberry, Kiwi fruit Sweet, Kiwi Fruit Off-dry, Blueberry-Cranberry-plum, Weeping Santa Rosa Plum, Cabernet, Sweet Viognier, Ginger-Lemon Grass, Minted Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sabdariffa, Goji Berry, California Gold Sherry.

The top five that were immediately consumed were Calamondin wine, Ginger-Lemon Grass wine, Cabernet Sauvignon, Weeping Santa Rosa, and the Minted Chardonnay wines. If anything else, you should try these out first. If you are a true citrus lover, you would go crazy over calamondin wine. My officemates would say that it tasted like exotic margarita with body of chardonnay and aroma of calamondin.

I'm holding another round of party on December 24th with wine tasting again and lechon, anybody here, including Kent and Scott, feel free to drop by at our place, PM me for directions. Party starts around 5:00 pm till you go home. For citrus forum members, you can come early to sample my citrus fruits. I currently have Vainiglia sanguigno, Miho Wase, Page Mandarin, Algerian Clementines. I still have lots of other citruses but are not yet sweet and enjoyable. Of course the calmondins and lemons are year round.

But the wines are ready for taste testing should anyone care to drop by on or before the 24th of December.

Joe

Joe, that wine is crystal clear! Some people have a problem clearing their wines, although I never did.
I will be embarrassed to give you a bottle of mine...I have no seal over cork, & masking tape for label LOL. But, it's what's "inside" that counts--right? You are very generous. Still would like to rack my 5 gal's of elderberry before I bottle it. When cast comes off, I'll bottle it. Right now, I still can't hold a cup of coffee, or turn a doorknob with right hand.
BTW, the first wine that I bottled was raspberry (from my garden), & I gave abottle to a couple of friends. It tasted terrible then - 3 1/2 yrs ago. Her husband died earlier this yr., & she was one of the girls I went to east coast expo with. She stayed overnight here night before we left, so I got the last bottle out of that wine & we all tasted it again. She had the first & last bottle of that run, & geeze..what a DIFFERENCE! It was so smooth & mellow with the aging! Great dessert wine. I'm dying to taste calamondin wine.

Goodness!!! 10 yrs!!! I don't think I can wait that long!!
I got it...
I will host Mid America Citrus Gala.. Or call it....... Mid America Citrus Bazaar!!! LOL and everyone is invited!!!
Wine tasting.... and... hmmm.. till my plants are producing better that is all I can offer and You would have to come for that to work.. LOL

I will make it there befor 10 yrs.. I will give you 2 week notice at least..

Gina *BabyBlue*

Joe,

Thanks for the generous offer, although I don't think I'll be able to make it. I'm hosting my parents for dinner Christmas eve; my first as a home owner at age 42. I have to admit though, it's difficult to pass up an offer to visit your collection at this time of year.

I do want to get back to campus for Picnic Day this coming April. Perhaps we can arrange a meeting then, if not sooner. Also, I seem to remember you and Benny went on a grove tour down around Castroville or Monterey about January last year. Are you guys still planning to do that this year?

Most appreciatively,

Kent

Kent, perhaps we can meet at CRFG scionwood exchange this Jan 13, 2007. It is a Saturday from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. Usually I'm done by 1:00 pm. Benny, EZ, you and I can meet over there. I have announced this in another thread:
link


Benny and I went last year, around early March to Citrus Tour at Gene Lester's farm and that's in Watsonville.

Thanks Patty!

You are right that wines with citrus zest in them will be a real challenge to clear up. Even the companies selling those fining agents would warn you about the citrus peels or zest as a big no-no and won't guarantee their products when it came to that.

Honestly, I love my Calamondin wines as cloudy as margaritas as they deliver more citrus power, and also for me it is the taste that counts and not the clarity of te wine. The crystal clear types are more acceptable to the public and to most of my friends, so I spend extra fining tricks and filtration to make them sparkingly clear. I simply enjoy making them very pleasing to the eyes, and store them in that state, so I spend some time to make them very presentable. If I would drink them, yes, I would simply sterilize a bottle, don't care about the labels at all, take some from whatever is on the racking shelf and then put that in my pantry, the bottle doesn't need to look nice if consumed that week.

Almost all harsh wines become become mellow and smooth with age. For those with ABC of less than 13%, they can turn bad after 4 years. I always keep my wines at 14% and above if they are intended for long storage. Thus the Calamondin wine is at 14.5% abv.

Joe

I'll see what I can do for you to have taste of calamondin wines.

Patty_in_wisc wrote:

Joe, that wine is crystal clear! Some people have a problem clearing their wines, although I never did. I will be embarrassed to give you a bottle of mine...I have no seal over cork, & masking tape for label LOL. But, it's what's "inside" that counts--right? You are very generous. Still would like to rack my 5 gal's of elderberry before I bottle it. When cast comes off, I'll bottle it. Right now, I still can't hold a cup of coffee, or turn a doorknob with right hand. BTW, the first wine that I bottled was raspberry (from my garden), & I gave abottle to a couple of friends. It tasted terrible then - 3 1/2 yrs ago. Her husband died earlier this yr., & she was one of the girls I went to east coast expo with. She stayed overnight here night before we left, so I got the last bottle out of that wine & we all tasted it again. She had the first & last bottle of that run, & geeze..what a DIFFERENCE! It was so smooth & mellow with the aging! Great dessert wine. I'm dying to taste calamondin wine.

I just have to share this web site..

http://www.freethegrapes.org/

I might sign up just to get me a Shakles t-shirt!! LOL

Gina *BabyBlue*

forgot to add this link.. where I got the free the grape page.. also very interesting...
http://www.wineinstitute.org/programs/shipwine/

Gina *BabyBlue*

Wine hobbyists cannot satisfy the license requirements unless they go commercial. Any individual cannot ship wine to any individual.

Here's my big dilemma: The commercial license for wine making is only about $100 per year at the start plus taxes of how much you actually sold. I can easily afford this. The paradox is that my house is not zoned for a commercial winery, a major requirement to have a commercial license. None of my properties are zoned for commercial wine making. Perhaps I can have them at my small island (about 1 1/2 acre) in the Philippines, but then again, the import export regulations are a nightmare.

Joe, yes, Gene Lester's tour is what I was trying to remember. Guess it's a little later into the season than I had thought.

As for the scionwood exchange, I'm not sure I'll have anything this year worthy of trading, except perhaps my Corpaci lemon, although even that would benefit from another year's growth before harvesting any scionwood.

Kent

Joe. Will have a taste of your wine tomorrow. Scott is coming down with a few of the wines you gave him. Thanks in advance !