I've just locked in another 350 pounds of Syrah from Bennett Valley. So, lined up we've got Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah both from Bennett Valley and Zinfandel from Sonoma's Dry Creek Valley.

I'm still hoping to make a Malbec and maybe even a white to be determined but that depends if I can find a good source and can figure out the logistics. Now that I'm going to mix in new barrels to the process this year, plus increasing productions... (my wife is already rolling her eyes)... it's a container management issue.

In the next couple weeks, I'll be working on articles with growers, coopers and more winemakers. Lots of site updates in the works for June too -- hence the quiet nature these days.

I am SUPER excited this morning. I received an email explaining that one of their regular buyers had to back out from purchasing some Cabernet Sauvignon and would I be interested in buying it.

So this year, I'll be making 350 pounds of Cab Sauv as well as 350 pounds of Zinfandel. Both from Sonoma County, both I'll be hand picking myself.

I would like to also make a Malbec and have inquired with Tzabaco Rancho Vineyards but haven't solidified anything yet.

I'm also tempted to grab some Syrah from Bennett Ridge as well but that's starting to become a lot of wine. I'm planning to acquire barrels this year too so with the madness of over tripling production size, I'll be figuring out life with barrels. This will be an exciting year for wine making no doubt.

I spent most of my weekend fiddling with my various wine batches currently in the works. My Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Zinfandel were all racked off their fine lees and probably won't see the light of day until bottling (which is my next challenge). I'm really liking how they're tasting so far!

In the process, I also removed the oak cubs from those batches. They were all tasting a bit heavy and figuring the intensity would taper off a bit, I think they received just the right amount overall.

I also took this time to measure the PH, play with measuring red wine using titrets, all so I could add the right amount of SO2. This is a lot more difficult than it sounds though. First of all, PH meters, if not taken care of become unreliable. The node that measure the samples has a shelf life of one year (6 months without using the storage solution). The one I have is an old model and frankly, it sucks. I'm very tempted to but the Phep 5 this year or even the Martini Pro Series if my other "wants" don't get too crazy.

The Titrets are tricky business. First off, they're not very accurate but will give you a good "ballpark" ideas where your free SO2 levels are at. They're meant for white wines but if you dilute your red wine sample with water, you can make these work. Basically, instead of the solution going from blue to colorless, it'll go back to whatever your diluted sample looks like. Aim to make it look like a rose and the titrets should help you out.

I've recently acquired a source for Zinfandel crop this year that caters to the home winemaker. You can "cherry pick" the best fruit by picking it yourself for .75 cents per pound. Since it's Zinfandel, the grower worries about uneven or unripe fruit so he'll let you pick what you want, when you want.

For the home winemaker looking for a new experience dealing with harvest, this is a great opportunity. I'm committing to about 350 pounds which I'm intending to track the growing conditions throughout the year.

If you're interested to know more, just drop me a line: ryan@vinesugar.com

I was talking with a fellow winemaking friend, now recently turned grape grower. He informed me that a single vine will produce about 1 gallon of must/juice.

The reason I found this interesting is that while I'm not buying or making a vineyard any time soon, I will likely plant vines in my backyard eventually and it's good to know how much wine I can make off them.

I always thought it would be fun to try a "field blend" that way and make something totally unique.

I've journey to two different apartment complexes and a rental home with the same bottle of cheap white wine in my refrigerator. It was sort of a tradition to bring it with us everywhere we moved.

I felt it was time to enjoy it or pour it down the drain. To my wife's surprise, she saw what looked like sand crystals at base of where it was resting. "EEWW!" she clamored.

Actually, though it visually unappealing, it's harmless. The "crystals" are just naturally ocurring potassium and tartaric acid molecules that solidified.

All it means is that the wine did not go through the cold-stabilization process. This is when the wine is chilled to 30 degF for at least 36 hours; it forces precipitates to gather, clump together then fall to the container vessel. The wine is then racked off those particles then bottled. The process exists so that when the wine makes it to you and toss it in the fridge, these visually unappealing, but harmless particles don't occur in the bottle.

Cold stabilization requires a pretty big and costly operation so not all wineries, especially the smaller guys, can even afford to put their wines through it.

I read a brief article in a new wine related magazine that spoke about wine bloggers reviewing wines that were sent as samples and what the etiquette is when reviewing the wines. In summary, this article said that wine bloggers should more or less feel special for receiving samples and review them positively to keep the samples coming in the door. And if a wine isn't agreeable, its better to ignore writing it up than write a bad review.

WFT?!? Seriously?

With VineSugar, we believe that anyone willing to send their product(s) for review should be prepared for the good with the bad. Wineries, like any other business, should stand behind their product when facing the public and the press.

We disclose the source of the bottle (sample, wine store, wine club, etc.) we review so readers can formulate their own opinions given all the information. If readers want to believe that I pad the reviews in hopes to get more samples, well, they're entitled to their opinions. More times than not though, we taste wines blind, write them and rate them then reveal their identity. We try to be as objective as possible whenever we can.

What really irked me was this idea that wine bloggers should feel "privileged" when they receive free samples. That they should be more positive than objective when writing it up is some sort of understanding. That thinking only feeds the notion that wine is some elitist drink of upper class people. I suppose, if the blogger's only intent was to get free wine then I guess they succeeded, but a credible source, they are not.

At the end of the day, writing about wine is simply writing one's opinion since everyone's palate is different. There is no standard to review wine against so all you can do is be honest to yourself.

I often perform blind wine tasting events where I brown bag a few bottles and make people try and guess specifics. It's usually a theme of sorts like, all cabernet sauvignon: guess the region or all California red wines: guess the varietal.

I recently heard of folks tasting blind that couldn't guess if a wine was red or white. Initially, I thought the people tasting were morons but the more I thought about it, I figured it would at least be an interesting test some time.

Well, it was time to give it a shot. My family gathered over one weekend and I received a big sampling from Icon Estates, so the blind blind tasting was on.

No one knew how many red vs. how many whites or even which varietals were there. What my father didn't know was that two of his own wines were mixed in. His Chardonnay and his Cabernet Sauvignon.

This was going to be interesting... Among my dad's personal wines were a Wild Horse Pinot Noir and Montes Chardonnay.

Since I didn't have black glasses, I opted for theatrics and blind folded everyone during their tasting. Everyone guessed the Wild Horse Pinot was a red wine and everyone got that the Montes Chardonnay was a white wine. Unfortunately for my Dad, people mixed his wines up... and even worse thought they were pretty bad. Even he couldn't guess that his Cabernet Sauvignon was a red wine. He and many of us thought it was a funky white and his Chardonnay was a cheap red wine.

Go figure.

To my Dad's defense, these were his first wines ever made and they were from kit concentrates so we all cut his some slack but when he heard the results, it was like someone punched him in the gut.

This was more family fun than an actual experiment but it proved that mixing up red from white is possible. I've since bought black glasses and will be performing this test again with a few ranges of varietals.

So lesson to all you wine tasters, when you're smelling the aromas and taking in the flavors, take note for maybe one day someone will put your palate to the most basic test!

I've started logging notes for my Sangiovese and Pinot Gris on the site.

So far, everything is pretty standard practice with the Sangiovese. I did add Opti-Red prior to fermentation to help with mouth feel a bit but my focus has mainly been on the Pinot Gris-- this is my first white wine.

The challenge with making white wines is keep the fermentations long and cool. Being a home winemaker, you're faced with more challenges of logistics than technique. I've figured that using a larger carboy then submerging that in a tub of cold water which is replenished with ice cubes and bags is a great way to manage the temperature. I'm able to keep it in the range of 58-62 degF. I've also added 10z of French oak to simulate barrel fermentation. I'll remove the oak once fermentation is complete and depending on taste will either forgo malolactic fermentation or initiate it through 25%-50% completion. I don't want to lose the fruit but the acids were a bit high and ML could bring new level of complexity that could be fun.

I've taken loads of pics which I'll upload shortly.

I'm excited to announce that we've posted a great Q&A with winemaker Matt Michael of Baldassari Family Wines (also assistant winemaker of Sebastiani)

I had a blast meeting Matt and learning what he had to say about his winemaking approach. Check out the full article.