Mountain Spirit Winery

Why does my wine have crystals on the cork?

Question...I opened a bottle of white wine that had some crystals on the bottom of the cork and in the bottom of the bottle.  What is it?  Are they harmful?

Answer...The crystals are the result of tartaric acid, which is the principal acid in wine made from ripe grapes.  They are not harmful and are natural deposits of the wine. 

This suspicious looking substance is also know as cream of tartar.  It is a by-product of the wine used in the manufacture of baking powder.  If you an accumulation of cream of tartar crystals in a bottle of wine, you need only allow the material to settle to the bottom of the bottle before carefully pouring off the clear wine into a clean, fresh container.  Then you can enjoy your wine with complete peace of mind.

By the way, here's a little household hint for cleaning a greasy aluminum pan with cream of tartar:  Add one tablespoon of cream of tartar to the pan filled with water and boil it for a few minutes.  Rinse and wipe clean!

Wine works wonders, even with its by-products!

A side note about Mountain Spirit Winery's wines as it relates to this subject...

Many people who frequent our winery and purchase our wines know that Mountain Spirit Winery always performs cold stabilization on all our white wines.  In this process, we drop the temperature of wine in a tank almost to the freezing point, at which point we add potassium bi-tartrate crystals to encourage precipitation of the tartaric acid.

Over several weeks, the tartaric acid crystals precipitate to the bottom of the tank.  We then "rack" off the clean wine, leaving the crystals behind.  We then do freeze testing of the clean wine to be sure all crystals have precipitated.

It is absolutely true that the crystals in the wine do no harm, but they can be distracting, especially if someone is not certain why they are in the wine they are consuming.  We have heard stories about customers thinking such crystals are glass!  For similar reasons we also heat stabilize our white wines to remove excessive protein which can form a haze in the wine.  We would rather not have anything take your attention away from just enjoying our award winning wines!

Phew!  That's about all the chemistry I can stand right about now.  Time for a glass...

Mike

What does pH have to do with wine?

What does pH have to do with wine?

Remember pH in high school science class?  I remembered that acids were not as corrosive to skin as bases were.  And that was about it.

Until I got seriously into wine making.  With wines, pH can have a great impact on how a wine tastes, looks and lasts!

Simply stated, the lower the pH in a wine, the more acidic, sharp, or clean a wine will taste.  A wine with a high pH will taste flat or lacking in acidity. 

Here's a question for all you wine trivia buffs out there.  What is the average pH of wine? 

Any guesses? 

It's right around 3.5 or perhaps just a bit lower.  It's this low pH that helps wines be stable in that a low pH tends to naturally inhibit spoilage. 

The pH of a wine affects its color.  Red wines with low pH appear more red while wines with a higher pH have a blue or purple case, even when quite old!

Wine with a high pH will not only lack crispness, but it may also have "off" flavors like a metallic tin can or worse.  Also a high pH wine will contribute to that not-so-great vinegary smell in the wine.

Now you know more than you ever needed to know about wine and pH.  Just wait till you can access that bit of information at just the right time.  Won't you look like a wine superstar!

Mike

Wine and Your Health

Have you heard the latest news about wine and your health?  The latest research is showing that people who drink moderately - no more than two glasses of wine (or beer) a day - are much less likely to suffer from heart disease than people who don't drink at all!  Can you believe it? 

When I first heard this on NPR several days ago, my ears perked up.  Could drinking a couple glasses of wine a day actually be healthier than not drinking at all?  This research said yes!

The report went further and stated that moderate drinking combined with regular exercise helped lower your risk of heart disease even more!  And those who exercised without any moderate drinking had lower risks, but not as low as those who simply drank moderately.

This, as in so many things, leads us to the crucial philosophy that should guide so many of our actions:

All in moderation!

Enjoy your wine!

Mike

That barrel is juuuuust right!

Last post I was speaking about why wine makers utilize wood barrels for aging their wines.  Not only does the wood impart a delicious flavor to the wine, the wood allows the perfect amount of oxygen to age the young wine so nicely.  Most wine barrels are oak and are about 60 gallons in size.  The question I asked was, "Why the 60 gallon size?"

Turns out that the 60 gallon barrel is, in the words of Goldilocks, just right!  Like I mentioned, it allows a specific amount of oxygen into the fermenting process, mellowing the harshness of young wines, but not letting the wine spoil.  It also imparts just the right amount of oak flavoring into the wine.  A smaller barrel would actually give too much oak flavor to the wine and a bigger barrel wouldn't give quite enough. 

Now you know all you need to know about oak barrels and wine production. 

Make sure you stop by our blog or website next week.  I've got a whopper of a deal coming your way.  And it's only for our internet savvy friends out there in cyberspace, reading this blog or checking out our website.  I'm not talking about a little discount or a free wine opener.  No, this is a biggie.  And it will only be available for the first 300 orders.  (This is the first time Terry and I have provided a deal of this magnitude in the entire time we've been producing wine!)

So, check back on Monday for a deal you won't want to miss! 

Until then, be well and love each other.

Mike

Why use barrels to age wine?

I've often been asked why we use wooden barrels to age some of our wines.  In fact, it's hard to imagine a winery without barrel upon barrel of wine sitting in a dark vault waiting to be bottled.  There's a very good reason why these barrels are so closely linked in our minds with wine and wine making.  Simply stated, the barrels, more than any other container, allow oxygen to very slowly penetrate the wine, refining and softening the flavors of what would otherwise be an immature and rough tasting wine.

This slow aging through the wood also allows a subtle flavor of oak to transfer into the wine.  Mountain Spirit Winery utilizes French and American oak.  A preference for this specific oak lends our wines just one aspect of their distinctive flavor! 

Did you realize that the optimum size of barrel is around 60 gallons?  Just to keep things interesting, I'll offer another of our limited edition Mountain Spirit Winery corkscrews to the individual who can tell us why these 60 gallon tanks are preferred when aging wine in the wood.

Take care everyone.  We hope to hear from you soon!

Mike and Terry

A stumper of a question...

I guess I must have stumped you with that last question.  Just to catch you up in case you missed the last post, I asked if anyone knew about how many acres of land was dedicated to the growing of grapes. 

The answer?

Right around 25 million acres, give or take a grape or two here and there.

That's a lot of vine waiting to be pressed!

It just adds to my motto:  So much wine to try, so little time...

Peace and love everyone!

Mike and Terry

A question to ponder...

Here's a stumper for all of you with countless neurons full of wine trivia:

Approximately how many acres of grapes are planted in the entire world?

The reader who guesses closest, as long as they are within half a million acres or so, will receive one of our special edition wine openers direct from the winery.

Now you've got something to discuss while you enjoy that white wine you've got chilling in the 'fridge!

Peace and love my friends!

Mike

Older is better?

Many people assume that the older a wine is, the better it tastes.  While it is true that some wines age very gracefully, the vast majority of the wines produced in the world were made to be consumed within three years of their harvest!  Here are a couple of guidelines when considering whether or not to age a wine:

• What kind of cork is present?  If it is a sparkling wine with a plastic cork, you probably should be enjoying that wine within a year of purchase.  The carbon dioxide that keeps the oxygen from turning a wine bad will slowly leak out around that plastic cork, making the wine undrinkable over time.
• What color is the wine?  Usually, red wines are the best at aging gracefully.
• How much did you spend for the wine?  Only premium wines have been designed to get better with age.

How do you know which wines are best suited for aging?  Ask your wine dealer or your winery manager.  They will be glad to help you choose wines suitable for aging or for immediate enjoyment!

I can still remember wiping the dust off the old bottles my dad had in his dingy cool wine cellar.  The mystic surrounding those old bottles is still with me today with my own collection of gracefully aging beauties.

If only I could age as gracefully...

Peace and love my friends!

Mike and Terry. 

Champagne Advice

A friend recently asked me about the proper way to open a bottle of champagne.  Contrary to what is seen on TV, I highly discourage popping the cork halfway across the room!  Not only can you hurt people with that flying cork, but you also lose a large amount of the delicious bubbles that make champagne so fun! 

Instead of going for the showy pop of the cork, wrap the cork with a towel and slowly ease it out of the bottle.  The less pop, the better.  Regular wine glasses really aren't appropriate for champagne- if you're in the position to choose.  Wide mouth glasses, even worse than wine glasses, let too many of the bubbles dissipate too soon.  The best champagne glasses are the thin tall glasses that allow one to watch the bubbles slowly float all the way up before popping. 

Just the other day we had a few guests over for a festive breakfast.  I'd been saving a bottle of champagne for just such an occasion.  Plopping bits of fruit and a splash of orange juice into our glasses, we all enjoyed a morning mimosa with our quiche and waffles.  What a way to start the day!

Peace and love everyone.