"Oh, the weather outside is....

...just right for moving this year's batches of home made wines from the cellar to the tool shed for cold stabilization. Primary fermentation is done and they've all been racked once, so last night I moved them all (except the reds) out to the tool shed for a few weeks while the temps vary in the 20s and 30s F. This year's project consists of:

5-gal Riesling
10-gal Chardonnay
10-gal Vignoles
10-gal Cayuga
10-gal Vidal
10-gal Steuben Rose
10-gal Leon Millot
10-gal Foch

From the whites I will make 10 gallons of sparkling wine, so I have to come up with a good blend for the cuvee.

Howie, just came across a fortified Foch whilst doing some shopping downtown!!

Howie, is that your first Riesling? Or have I just had my head in the sand the last few years.

No, OW - this is the third. '04 was my first. I brought my last bottle of that to NiagaraCOOL '06 for the Riesling Taste-Off, but it somehow went funky, so I dumped it. Somehow I ended up putting too much SO2 in the '05, so it has that burnt match odor, which I'm hoping will dissipate over time, so I'm not drinking it (see Brian Hayes' post on sulphur smells). On a related note, I plan on blending some Vignoles into Cayuga to see how close it really is to a Riesling.