Nope, too much to do in the vineyard. Bottling in August before
harvest...when I need the carboys.

Sounds like you put up some nice wine, though. I love pear, along
with blackberry and elderberry one of the best fruit wines.


Steve
Oregon


On Tue, 01 May 2007 18:40:47 GMT, > wrote:

>
>
>Is anyone else finding themselves knee deep in bottle cleaning and
>wrestling with the corker machine? We spent the better part of the weekend
>bottling some recent past vintages.
>Our '05 Syrah finally found it's way into the bottle. We're really
>pleased with this one, albeit a small batch (5 gallons). This is the vintage
>that we lost over 30 gallons due to some serious H2S problems. We were
>only able to save a 5 gallon carboy of free run we had put aside. But it
>is wonderful. While I grieve for what would have been about 40 gallons
>of great wine - at least we have a couple cases put away in the cellar.
>hard part now will be leaving them alone for another year. Final alcohol
>12.7%; pH 3.63; free SO2 at bottling 30 ppm. Clear, spicey but subtle
>nose, firm tannins and a long finish. Lightly oaked for about 3 months on
>French medium toast staves.
>The '06 Pear wine also made it's way into the bottle - 5 cases of it. We
>left about 3% residual sugar to make it an off-dry apertif style wine.
>Slight bentonite treatment, and extended settling time got this year's
>wine perfectly clear with no filtering. No MLF of course, brought
>fermentation to a halt with refrigeration, then used potassium sorbate to
>prevent any further activity. Delightful wine - we really recommend pear
>wine for anyone looking for a fruit wine that is more "wine like", yet
>fresh and light.
>Lastly, we bottled the small batch of '06 Pomegranate dessert wine that
>we experimented with. We have been pleasantly surprised. The color is a
>brilliant (and I mean brilliant) clear blood red. The nose is not great
>- smells like the pithy part of a pomegranate (kinda woody), but the
>flavor is great. We made this more in the 7% RS range, with a crisp lively
>acidity (pH of 3.1).
>Still have the '06 Marsanne / Viognier to bottle, but all in all, a good
>weekend, It's always good to see the bins full of one's own wines. --
>