My neighbor Niaz Yosofzay is a great guy. He has a farm up in the sierra foothills and always shares it’s bounty with us. When he learned that I was a zymurgist, he volunteered some of his grapes. Given the location of his farm up near the Fair Play AVA, my mouth started to water with visions of old vine Mataro, Zin, or Petite Sirah. Alas, Niaz was volunteering a grape grown over his arbor in his backyard in Alameda.
Despite Niaz’s assurances that this was a wine grape that he brought back from Afghanistan (he’s a Pashtun), I suspect it is Concord (big leaves, slip skins, and the dead giveaway: it smells like Welches)
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth; Niaz and I picked the vine bare and Michelangelo and I cleaned our feet and stomped them flat.
As the wine progressed, I became quite proud of it. It is likely technically the best wine I have made to date. It had great clarity, good balance, a real fruity aroma, and very true to the characteristics of the varietal. Unfortunately, the varietal is Concord. Due to low alcohol, and high PH (and as Concord wine is not really what I was after), I decided at the end to krausen it as I would a beer (the positive pressure in the bottle will help forestall spoilage) and serve it cold. In other words, rather than making a “vineyard designate (Niaz’s Arbor) San Francisco Bay AVA sparkling Labrusca”; I’ll make a cider out of it.

04-Sep-07 – Niaz and I picked the grapes; Michelangelo and I stomped them. We ended up with ±5 US Gallons of must. 17 brix @ 68℉ = 1.067 specific gravity, TA = .6% pH = 4.9. It tastes like Welches Grape Juice. I am worried about the starting gravity. I want to bring it up by another 35G/L (to a specific gravity up to 1.1). My calculations give 412.5g needed so I chaptalized it with 15oz of corn sugar to bring it up. I pitched it with the Lalvin 71B that I had left over from the Mosto Italiano kit. The resulting must soon took on the aroma of bread.
05-Sep-07 – Not much fermentation going on. Smells awesome. Punched down.
06-Sep-07 – Lots of thick cap. on a twice daily punched down routine.
09-Sep-07 – Pressed. Yielded about 2.5 US gallons. Very light in colour.
18-Sep-07 – Racked. Hydrometer reads .996 @68℉ = .997
30-Sep-07 – Racked and finned with 42ml of 10% egg whites. Does not really taste too bad at this point; still predominately Welches.
17-Oct-07 – Smells like jelly. Fantastic colour. Still tastes like Welches.
04-Nov-07 – Started cold stabilization. Normally with the low acid I would not do this; but since I’m planning on serving it chilled I don’t want any tartaric crystals dropping out in someone’s glass. Put oak in the ½ gallon bottle as a test
13-Jan-08 – Fridge in mid 30’s (℉) Clarity is unparalleled. still smells of jelly and tastes of Welches. Colour is awesome. The unoaked sample was very simple in flavour; the oaked is slightly better so I added about ⅓ of the American oak left over from the Mosto Italiano kit
19-Jan-08 – Doug Jefferys came over for a barrel tasting. He said: "Big fruity nose. Yep, Concord when tasting 🙂 Carbonate and drink!"
Sometime between Jan and Apr – Moved to cellar as I’m worried it is warming up in the garage
13-Apr-08 – looks like malolactic has occurred as the corks have pushed out and sprayed residue all over cellar
20-Apr-08 – The small bottle is way,way cloudy
17-Sep-08 – added 7oz of corn sugar and crown capped in 187ml bottles. I had intended on using plastic champagne corks; but the bottles I got do not accept the corks I have. I chose the small bottle as this is not the kind of wine you would want more than a ¼ glass of in a sitting. Cellared all bottles.
27-Feb-09 – Chilled a bottle and tasted. SGK liked it. She thought it was a cider not a sparkling wine. (reaction I was hoping for). Not as much carbonation as I want. I’ll move it to the Garage in spring so the warmer temperature should activate the yeast to continue carbonation.