tonyhibbett
Landlord.
English vineyards produce world class sparkling rose, so I thought I'd have a go.
I have 2 Mueller Thurgau, 1 Cabernet Sauvignon and 1 Wrotham Pinot (Pinot Meunier) vines. The latter 2 yielded 4 bottles of light red, nice smelling but harsh tasting wine. The harshness was due to leaving the skins in for too long, and thus way too high in tannin. I mixed the chilled white with the red (2:1) into a Sodastream 1 litre bottle and injected carbon dioxide and poured the results into 2 chilled 550 cc swing top (Grolsh) bottles, held at 45 degrees over a jug (to collect excess foam). Having closed the bottles, I returned them to the fridge and opened one later. The result was most impressive. I repeated the experiment with Merlot, which was no good at all, so the grape varieties are important. Mueller Thurgau is the notoriously bland Liebfraumilch grape, Pinot Meunier is used with real Champagne and Cabernet Sauvignon has a wonderful flavour. The blend, combined with co2, eliminated the blandness and harshness deficiencies. The rest of the Mueller Thurgau has been carbonated, which significantly improves it, but the rose has more body and a better flavour.
I have ordered Youngs reuseable plastic champagne stoppers and wire cages and am scouring the post festive recycling boxes for champagne bottles because I tried screw top wine bottles but they can't hold the pressure and tend to drip when stored in a wine rack.
The Sodastream Jet cost £37 from Argos and the stopper/cage combo is 40p each bottle so the initial cost is a bit high, but thereafter pretty cheap.
For presentation purposes, I've designed laser labels, (8 per sheet) covering the tops with aluminium foil, held in place with black tape
I have 2 Mueller Thurgau, 1 Cabernet Sauvignon and 1 Wrotham Pinot (Pinot Meunier) vines. The latter 2 yielded 4 bottles of light red, nice smelling but harsh tasting wine. The harshness was due to leaving the skins in for too long, and thus way too high in tannin. I mixed the chilled white with the red (2:1) into a Sodastream 1 litre bottle and injected carbon dioxide and poured the results into 2 chilled 550 cc swing top (Grolsh) bottles, held at 45 degrees over a jug (to collect excess foam). Having closed the bottles, I returned them to the fridge and opened one later. The result was most impressive. I repeated the experiment with Merlot, which was no good at all, so the grape varieties are important. Mueller Thurgau is the notoriously bland Liebfraumilch grape, Pinot Meunier is used with real Champagne and Cabernet Sauvignon has a wonderful flavour. The blend, combined with co2, eliminated the blandness and harshness deficiencies. The rest of the Mueller Thurgau has been carbonated, which significantly improves it, but the rose has more body and a better flavour.
I have ordered Youngs reuseable plastic champagne stoppers and wire cages and am scouring the post festive recycling boxes for champagne bottles because I tried screw top wine bottles but they can't hold the pressure and tend to drip when stored in a wine rack.
The Sodastream Jet cost £37 from Argos and the stopper/cage combo is 40p each bottle so the initial cost is a bit high, but thereafter pretty cheap.
For presentation purposes, I've designed laser labels, (8 per sheet) covering the tops with aluminium foil, held in place with black tape
