August 17th, 2009 - John Klein
 Having acquired 500 pounds of organic grapes we were now ready to crush and de-stem the grapes. Fortunately we had access to a crusher-stemmer which makes this process easy. Once the grapes had been crushed and de-stemmed we divided them equally between three clean trash cans. Here they will go through maceration and fermentation.
We measured the grapes and found they had a sugar level of 24 to 25 which would give them a potential alcohol of 12.5% which is right where we want it, these organic grapes were picked at just the right time by Charlie Barra of Barra of Mendocino to have this perfect sugar level. We also measured the acidity which came out to .76 and the pH 3.3 to 3.4 as well as the relative gravity which was 1.092 to 1.096 which were all desirable measurements.
That night I started the yeast in 50% juice and 50% water and added the yeast to the grapes ever waiting patiently in the trash cans the next morning. This process of fermenting the grape juice with crashed wine berries is known as maceration, during this process the red wine acquirers its structure and color. As a general rule of thumb, the longer the juice and grape solids are in contact, the more tannin and color that will be extracted, and the more full-bodied and colored a red wine will be. Maceration can take from 3 to 21 days but there is a lot to get into for the ease of this wine we macerated the wine till the yeast fermented all or most of the sugar which for this wine was 9 days.
While the wine is fermenting in the trash cans the yeast will raise the solid grape parts to the top, thus you need to punch down the solid grape parts, you can easily do this with an oversize spoon or paddle all you’re doing is just pushing the solid grape mass down into the grape juice. I love punching down the grapes for it releases amazing aromatic smells of a winery, you truly know you’re making wine at this point. The fermentation process will vary based on the temperature that the grapes are at. I measured the grapes specific gravity percentage of alcohol and temperature on a daily basis to know when we would be ready to press the grapes. For this organic zinfandel it took nine days till it was ready to be pressed.
Stay tuned for my next blog on do-it-yourself organic wine making where I’ll talk about pressing the wine.
If you want to read the first part of the series :
You may also be interested in these other articles about wine:
Interviews with Two Italian Organic Winemakers
Winter Organic Wine Pairings
Organic Vines for Better Wines
Organic Wine-A-Tasting DIY Wine Making
Tags: organic win, Organic Wine, organic wine making, wine
Posted in Organic Wine | 3 Comments »
December 22nd, 2008 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
 My credit card hates me. I hardly use it and when I do, I pay my bills on time. So, my credit card company hates me too.
Now, for you charge-oholics, there’s a new card out there, you can feel a lot better about using. Sorry, it doesn’t have a magical spending limit.
It’s biodegradable.
This Discover card is made from biodegradable PVC. Meaning, after it spends 5 months in water, dirt, compost or whatever’s in a landfill, it breaks down 99%, leaving no toxic effects on the environment. However, your credit rating is another story.
Discover encourages people to wait until their current card expires before placing an order.
Biodegradable cards are only 1 of Discover’s green innovations. The company’s also making an effort to convert to paperless billing statements and setup a company-wide recycling program and employee rideshare website.
Via inhabitat.
Tags: biodegradable PVC, compost, credit cards, dirt, landfills, soil
Posted in Organic Wine, The Environment | No Comments »
May 7th, 2008 - Barbara Feiner
 Organic wine lovers who live in the Pennsylvania area will have a chance to participate in tastings geared to their special lifestyle needs.
The state’s annual Wine Week kicks off today with the first-ever Wine Festival in Hershey, followed by the Sixth Annual Pittsburgh Wine Festival tomorrow and the Seventh Annual Philadelphia Wine Festival on Saturday.
“Regular attendees know that each year the festivals are bigger and more exciting than the year before,” says Patrick “P.J.” Stapleton III, chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, the events’ sponsor. “This year is no exception. With more than 200 wineries participating, we have the largest, most diverse group of wines ever represented at Wine Week.”
The week includes a series of wine seminars, auctions and dinners, highlighted by a grand festival tasting in each city. All events raise funds for local medical institutions.
The tastings will feature wines from some of the world’s most renowned vintners—from France’s Chateau Mouton Rothschild to California’s Rubicon Estate. Many smaller, undiscovered winemakers from around the world—from the Pacific Northwest and Canada to South America, Australia and New Zealand—will also be pouring.
Highlights include organic wine tastings from producers like Frey Vineyards and Bonterra, as well as locally made wines from notable Pennsylvania producers.
Suggested Reading
Posted in Organic, Organic Wine | 1 Comment »
August 29th, 2007 - Barbara Feiner
 Artisan sausages have become extremely popular, and they’re readily available in natural and organic food stores. Paired with wine, they can be the star of any fall dinner party.
The following tips have been provided by the experts at Don Sebastiani & Sons and Emeril’s Smoked Sausage. Tune in tomorrow for a Stuffed Mushrooms recipe that pairs gourmet sausage with Syrah, a full-bodied red wine.
- Savory and sweet flavors, as in chicken and apple sausages, will shine with a Viognier (an exotic wine with layers of ripe honeydew, vanilla and vanilla custard).
- Tart and tangy flavors, as in sun-dried tomato sausages, are even more delicious with a Pinot Noir—a wine with balanced flavors of fruit and soft tannins.
- Combine herb flavors, as in chicken pesto sausages, with a deep and rich Merlot.
- Pair garlic- and red-wine-flavored sausages with a blackberry-like Cabernet Sauvignon.
- Spicy flavors are complemented by an equally spicy Syrah.
- Hot and spicy flavors, as in habañero and green chile sausages, go well with a crisp, fruity Chardonnay.
Posted in Organic, Organic Food, Organic Wine | No Comments »
October 24th, 2006 - Barbara Feiner
 One of the top medical stories dominating press coverage this week focuses on men who drink moderately and their lower risk of heart attacks. It’s a topic OrganicAuthority.com has covered before in stories like A Great Reason to Buy Organic Wine and Nutrition & Gender.
Yesterday’s Archives of Internal Medicine reported that men with healthy lifestyles who drink moderate amounts of alcohol may have a lower risk of heart attack, compared with those who drink heavily or not at all. Previous studies have confirmed this finding.
Researchers suspect these individuals have increased levels of HDL (“good” cholesterol”) in their blood. But because there are many risks associated with heavy drinking, physicians do not typically recommend that patients begin consuming alcohol to reduce their heart disease risk. Instead, they focus on other proven lifestyle interventions, including diet and exercise. These habits, however, are not mutually exclusive, according to Dr. Kenneth J. Mukamal and his colleagues at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
“For individuals who exercise, abstain from smoking, maintain optimal weight and adhere to an appropriate diet, there may be few other standard lifestyle interventions to lower risk,” they write. “Whether alcohol intake is related to a lower risk for myocardial infarction [heart attack] in such individuals is unknown.”
The 8,867 men in Dr. Mukamal’s study had healthy lifestyles, defined as not smoking, having a body mass index (BMI) of less than 25, getting at least 30 minutes of exercise per day and eating a healthful diet, including large amounts of fruits, vegetables, fish and polyunsaturated fats, with low amounts of trans-fats and red meat.
Between 1986 and 2002, 106 of the men studied had heart attacks. This included eight of the 1,282 who drank 15 to 29.9 grams of alcohol per day (about two drinks). This group had the lowest risk for heart attack; those who did not drink at all had the highest.
“There is a complicated mix of risks and benefits attributed to moderate drinking in observational studies, and the individual and societal complications of heavy drinking are well known,” the authors conclude. “It is easy to understand why clinical guidelines encourage physicians and patients to concentrate on seemingly more innocuous interventions, despite the relative paucity of effective, straightforward and generalizable methods for encouraging regular physical activity, weight reduction and abstinence from smoking in clinical practice. Our results suggest that moderate drinking could be viewed as a complement, rather than an alternative, to these other lifestyle interventions, a viewpoint espoused by some authors.”
Suggested Reading
Organic Vines for Better Wines
Winter Organic Wine Pairings
Organic Wine Pairings for Holiday Menu
Organic Wine Pairings: American Classics
Organic Wine Pairings: Chinese & Thai Food
Organic Wine Pairings: Mexican, Indian & Japanese Food
Technorati Profile
Tags: alcohal, alcohal consumption, Health, heart health, Organic Wine, wine
Posted in Health, Organic Wine | 4 Comments »
August 4th, 2006 - Laura Klein
 
If you haven’t yet tried our recipe for Rose Geranium Sangria, it is a must. It is perfect for weekend barbeques, family gatherings or even a wedding shower. It is really just a simple twist on the traditional recipe. One taste of this sangria and your guests will be coming back for more.
Rose Geranium Sangria
6-8 Servings
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups of water
½ cup of sugar
24 medium organically grown rose scented geranium leaves*
2 bottles of chilled dry rose wine – I recommend Silver Mountain Vineyards Rose of Pinot Noir
1 blood orange, thinly sliced
1 lemon, thinly sliced
1 pint of fresh raspberries or blackberries, or a combination of the two, washed
1 pint of strawberries, washed, hulled and thinly sliced
6-8 cups of sparkling water or club soda if desired
Method:
Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan. Stir in the rose geranium leaves, cover and remove from heat. Let steep for 20 minutes. Strain and press liquid out of leaves using a wooden spoon. Chill infused syrup in an ice water bath or refrigerator until cool.
In a large glass pitcher or medium size punch bowl, combine the chilled wine, syrup, orange and lemon slices, and fresh berries. Chill for a minimum or up to several hours to let the fresh fruit infuse their flavors. Before serving add the sparkling water or club soda if desired. Serve chilled.
* You can find organically grown rose scented geraniums at a local nursery or farmers market. They must be pesticide and chemical free in order to be fit for consumption.
Note: Because you follow an organic lifestyle, OrganicAuthority.com recommends using certified organic ingredients, when available, in all recipes to maximize flavors and nutrition while minimizing your risk of exposure to pesticides, chemicals and preservatives.
Tags: beverages, Rose Geranium Sangria, sangria, summer refreshment
Posted in Organic Food Recipes, Organic Wine | No Comments »
July 27th, 2006 - Barbara Feiner
 Enjoy an evening cocktail or glass of organic wine with dinner?
Light to moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages may protect your heart and extend your life, according to the latest research from the Institute on Aging at the University of Florida, Gainesville.
Older adults who consume one to seven alcoholic beverages a week may live longer and have a reduced risk for cardiac events than those who do not drink, according to Dr. Cinzia Maraldi and her colleagues, whose study was published in the July 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
First, the caveat: Alcohol may worsen some chronic diseases, and the overall effect of drinking on survival is not clear. But several studies have shown that alcohol may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and heart failure and contribute to a lower death rate. Light to moderate alcohol intake has been shown to reduce levels of C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, two compounds that circulate in the blood due to inflammation. Researchers have therefore suspected that the mechanism linking alcohol to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease may be related to inflammation.
The researchers studied almost 2,500 older adults without heart disease, grouping them by the number of alcoholic beverages they consumed in a typical week over the last year. Those who drank lightly to moderately (one to seven drinks a week) had a 26% lower risk of death overall and an almost 30% lower risk of cardiac incidents than those who never or seldom drank alcoholic beverages. In contrast, heavy drinkers (more than seven drinks per week) were more likely to die or experience a cardiac event than those who never or seldom drank alcoholic beverages.
Alcohol’s anti-inflammatory properties alone do not explain the reduced risk of death or cardiovascular disease associated with light to moderate drinking, the authors note. Alcohol may have cellular or molecular effects that reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, or it may interact with genetic factors to produce a protective effect. In addition, the health effects of alcohol may not be the same for everyone, the authors caution.
“The net benefit of light to moderate alcohol consumption may vary as a function of sex, race and background cardiovascular risk,” they conclude. “From this point of view, recommendations on alcohol consumption should be based, as any medical advice, on a careful evaluation of an individual’s risks and benefits, in the context of adequate treatment and control of established cardiovascular risk factors.”
Tags: Health, Organic Wine, wine
Posted in Health, Organic Wine | 1 Comment »
June 29th, 2006 - John Klein
 This is the beginning of my series of blogs on DIY (do-it-yourself) Organic Wine Making At Home. I will be blogging about my experience of making wine for the first time. It is a process that takes about 20 months for red wine and about 6 moths for white wine.
A Tasting:
About a year ago my wife and I hosted our wine club at our house. Of course being the organic enthusiast that we are, our theme for the night was “Organic Wine.” That night we poured 13 special organic wines, and yes it was a feat just getting through all 13. Of the all the wines we tasted there was one in particular that stood above the rest, Barra of Mendocino.
Later that year, our friend Cory Wells hosted the wine club and the theme was “how to make your own wine”. Her stepfather Ken acquired several thousand pounds of Syrah grapes from the Temecula Valley in California. Our wine club purchased 500 pounds of the Syrah grapes to make our wine.
This was my first exposure to DIY winemaking, and I was hooked. After crushing and de-stemming, primary fermentation and pressing and racking (all of which were a party in themselves) we discussed how great it would be to do this with organic grapes. We were on the hunt for organic grapes.
Laura determined to find 500 pounds of organic grapes called numerour grape growers and also call our local organic wine distributor Bruno Allaire of Dynamic Imports. Finally she spoke to Martha Barra, the charming wife of Charlie Barra of Barra of Mendocino. She told Laura that Charlie would probably be willing to give us 500 pounds of grapes. Thus, we embarked on a venture from Los Angeles to Mendocino County to pick up 500 pounds of organic grapes. Not only do the Barras’ grow and make amazing organic wines they are incredibly generous and kind people. They put us up for the night and gave us an amazing tour of Ukiah and their vineyards. When Laura talked to Charlie they discussed which grapes we would be getting, and zinfandel was the chosen grape.
Charlie Barra is an amazing and inspiring person. He comes from a long line of Italian wine growers. He started growing wine in Ukiah when he went to high school. We spent less than 24 hours with the Barras’ but in that time I was inspired by this amazing man Charlie Barra.
With the grapes in hand, filling three large trash cans, we headed back to Southern California in our hybrid truck. We drove straight to Ken’s house to crush and de-stem the grapes and prepare them for the primary fermentation.
Read the next blog in this series on DIY Organic Wine Making.
Organic Wine – Crush and Fermentation – DIY wine making.
You may also be interested in these other articles about wine:
Interviews with Two Italian Organic Winemakers
Winter Organic Wine Pairings
Organic Vines for Better Wines
Organic Wine Crush and Fermentation DIY Wine Making
Tags: diy wine making, Organic Wine, organic wine making
Posted in Organic, Organic Wine | 9 Comments »
May 24th, 2006 - Barbara Feiner
 Over the last two days, we’ve looked at wine pairings for organic Chinese & Thai and Mexican, Japanese & Indian meals. Our three-part series concludes today with pairing suggestions for American classics, courtesy of the Wine Market Council and Master Sommelier Andrea Robinson, author of Great Wine Made Simple and Andrea Immer Robinson’s 2006 Wine Buying Guide for Everyone.
Burgers
When you’re picking up organic burgers or grilling your own, bring on the big, bold red Shiraz grape. It has lots of robust fruit and peppery spice to hold its own with juicy, beefy flavors. For white wine lovers, a fermented California Chardonnay is perfect. The toasty-smoky flavor from the barrel complements grilled meats. Organic Authority Recipe Suggestion: Hot & Spicy Organic Portabella “Brisket.”
Barbecue
Wines made from Riesling white grapes are best with barbecue. Their concentrated fruit flavor stands up to even the heaviest meats. For red wine fans, the bold Zinfandel grape works well, offering lots of smoky, spicy flavors that can stand up to barbecue’s bite. Organic Authority Recipe Suggestions: Spicy Cracked Black Pepper Brats and Hot Dogs With Whipped Black-Eyed Pea Spread, Relish and Mustard.
Deli Sandwiches
Pile it high! Smoky-salty deli meats and nutty-sharp cheeses are delicious with a Chilean Carmenere. This red grape has a smokiness of its own and plenty of body to stand up to a big, meaty sandwich. If you prefer white wine, try a Spanish sparkling Cava, whose perky bubbles and acidity cut through the richness of deli fixins’ and stand up to mustard’s tang. Organic Authority Recipe Suggestions: Organic Turkey Sandwiches and Tomato, Bacon, Avocado with Arugula Pesto Tea Sandwich.
Photo courtesy of the Wine Market Council
Tags: chinese, indian, japanese, mexican, thai, wine, wine pairings
Posted in Organic Wine | No Comments »
May 23rd, 2006 - Barbara Feiner
 Yesterday, we looked at wine pairings for Chinese and Thai meals that you pick up at your favorite organic food store or restaurant. Here are some additional suggestions from the Wine Market Council and Master Sommelier Andrea Robinson, author of Great Wine Made Simple and Andrea Immer Robinson’s 2006 Wine Buying Guide for Everyone.
Mexican Food
Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine has spunky flavors that need a lively, yet rich, wine to beat the chili heat and complement the spark of lime, while matching the richness of avocado and cheese. California and Washington wines made from rich-but-racy Fumé Blanc grapes are perfect with these foods. Another alternative is dry rosé wine, which has the fruity intensity and spice of the red grapes from which it’s made, while providing the lively acidity and refreshment of a white wine. Organic Authority Recipe Suggestion: Latin Tomato and Huitlacoche Soup.
Indian Food
Stick your nose in a glass of white Viognier wine, and you may well find some of the same scents on your plate of Indian fare: sweet curry, cardamom and mint. That’s because Viognier is an exotic white grape with the perfect aromatics to match up to all those exotic tastes. And for smoky tandoori meats, earthy lentil dishes and samosas, try an earthy-smoky Washington state Merlot. Organic Authority Recipe Suggestions: Spiced Lemon Rice and Organic Butternut Squash Casserole.
Sushi and Japanese Food
The super-fresh seafood and seaweed flavors of sushi and sashimi are right at home with the foamy bubbles of a French champagne. Look especially for the demi-sec style. Its touch of sweetness is the perfect contrast to pungent wasabi dipping sauce. Or for a value alternative, try the affordable and festive Italian sparkling wine called Prosecco. You can even mix in a little peach nectar and turn it into a refreshing classic drink—the Bellini—with your bento box. Suggested Reading: Fresh Organic Wasabi and Favorite Organic Wasabi Products.
Tags: indian food, mexican food, Organic Food, Organic Wine, wine
Posted in Organic Wine | No Comments »
|
|
please Share the Love