~Captain Science Vineyards~
Welcome to the home of Captain Science Vineyards. Located on the rolling hills
of Hartford, CT our vineyard has been in operation since 12-25-2003! With such
a long and rich history we thought we would give our loyal customers a look
inside the wine making process. You can use the calendar below to follow all
the steps that go into making a batch of "Maison du Capitaine" wine.
From the opening of the box to the final bottling you get to see all the steps
and maybe even a few of our little family secrets that make wine from Captain
Science Vineyards rated one of the best in the world. Enjoy!
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December 25, 2003 - Christmas Morning! The grape
harvest has arrived. The setup includes: 4-750ml Glass bottles, corks, labels,
and thermoseals. A one gallon cubitainer, an air lock and cap for fermentation.
Tubing and a racking cane tip to rack and bottle the wine. A measuring spoon,
instructions, sterilizer to clean and prep all the equipment. The wine making
ingredients include: Concentrated Merlot grape juice, wine yeast, bentonite
and yeast nutrients, gelatin, pectinase, sulfur dioxide tartaric acid, and potassium
metabisulfite & potassium sorbate. Using the above equiptment and ingedrents,
and following the secret family process, in just 31 days we should have 4 bottles
of "Maison du Capitaine" ready for drinking!
December 26, 2003 - Today is the day we begin the wine making
process. We first have to assemble all our equipment
and ingredients. We then soak
all the equipment in a sterilization solution to kill any naturally occurring
yeast's or bacteria that may be present and which can tant the wine. Next we take
our grape concentrate and add it to our steel
wine vat and add the appropriate amount of clear spring water. Once the grape
juice is mixed we add our yeast and nutrients and can pour it into our fermentation
tank. The juice is now on its way to becoming wine. It will sit in this
tank for the first ten days with the airlock on the top to let the gas out
but not let air in before we check on it and possibly move to the next stage if
all is well.
January 4, 2004 - Fermentation has slowed to the point where
there are no longer any visible bubbling like we saw a few days ago. We now transfer
the wine out of the fermentation tank and place it in a temporary holding tank.
This is done through the use of the syphon tube and the "racking" tip
which prevents any of the sediments on the bottom of the tank from being transferred
along with the wine. The fermentation tank is then cleaned out and the wine is
put back
into the tank with the airlock to being its second fermentation. The timing
for the next stage depends on the quality/taste of the wine, but will be a minimum
of thirteen days, if not longer.
January 17, 2004 - The wine has now finished fermenting and
a brief taste test shows that there is little to no sugar left in the wine. We
now can being the process of stabilizing and clearing the wine. The stabilizing
agents of Potassium Sorbate and Potassium Metabisulfate help to kill off any left
over yeast and to preserve the wine from spoiling and growing any bacteria or
other nasty little creatures. The wine will now sit for another 5 or so days before
we add the clearing agents.
January 22, 2004 - Today was supposed to just be the addition
of the clearing agents (Gelatin,Tartaric acid, Sulfur Dioxide, and Pectinase)
to the wine. However after adding the clearing agents a small quantity of American
Oak Chips were added to the wine as well. These were added to take the place
of aging the wine in oak barrels, which in this case would not be practicle due
to the small size of the batch. While normally the wine would be ready for bottling
in three days, because we want the oak to have a chance to add some flavors to
the wine, it will be left for at least another week or two to bulk age with the
oak, before it is bottled.
February 21, 2004 - At last the wine has aged and mingled
with the oak chips and is ready to bottle.
We take and sterilize our bottles and corks in the disinfectant solution, rinse,
and let dry. We then use the syphon tube and the "racking" tip to syphon
the wine from the fermenter into each bottle. The bottles are corked and the
labels are applied. We then use heat to shrink wrap thermoseals over the corks
and our wine
is done! Now of course it will only continue to improve with age even in the
bottle, so you can either drink your "Maison du Capitaine" wine now
or save it for years to come.
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