Aging the Wine “Sur Lie”
In this 2-minute video winemaker Geoff Gorsuch of Goosecross Cellars of the Napa Valley does a show and tell on why we age our Chardonnay “sur lie” and stir the lees weekly. Enjoy!
Wine and Chocolate for The Holidays
Colleen Topper from Goosecross Cellars, Sherry Page from Culinary Getaways and Diane De Filipi from Let’s Go Cook Italian talk about chocolate-dipped wine which makes great Holiday and Valentine’s Day gifts.
Delicious Pairings For The Holidays
Trying to decide what wines to serve for your holiday dinner? Colleen Topper, our proprietor here at Goosecross, Sherry Page of Culinary Getaways and Diane De Filipi of Let’s Go Cook Italian have some great ideas for you!
For recipes from Colleen, go to Colleen’s Kitchen at goosecross.com
For Sherry’s recipes, visit Culinary Getaways
For Diane’s recipes, just go to Let’s Go Cook Italian and send her an email request.
Bon appetit and happy holidays!
Goosecross: Favorite Family Dishes for Thanksgiving
In our last video you heard from Colleen, Sherry and Diane about suggested wine pairings for Thanksgiving.
If you’re in the mood to do something a little different for Thanksgiving this year, in this brief video you’ll hear from them again, talking about their favorite Thanksgiving food traditions and how to pair them with wine. Happy Thanksgiving! To get their recipes:
Colleen’s recipes at goosecross.com
Sherry’s recipes at culinarygetaways.com
Diane’s recipes at letsgocookitalian.com (just send Diane an email with your recipe request).
Goosecross: Thanksgiving Wine Pairings
It’s almost here! Are you ready for Turkey Day? Wondering what wines to serve? Here’s some great advice from three wine and food experts, all within two minutes! Here’s what Colleen Topper of Goosecross Cellars, Sherry Page of Culinary Getaways and Diane De Filipi of Let’s Go Cook Italian have to suggest! Happy Thanksgiving!
To get their favorite recipes for Thanksgiving:
Colleen’s recipes at goosecross.com
Sherry’s recipes at culinarygetaways.com
Dian’es recipes at let’sgocookitalian.com (just send Diane and email with your recipe request)
Goosecross: Pressing Cabernet Franc
It’s all glamour, working at a winery! In this 2-minute video you’ll see the Cabernet Franc being drained and the grape skins being shoveled out of the fermentation tank and pressed after the fermentation is over. Enjoy!
Goosecross: What is Fermentation?
In this 2-minute video wine fermentation, the conversion of grape juice to wine, is explained. Enjoy!
Goosecross: Pumping Over the Cap
We continue with winemaking at Goosecross Cellars in the Napa Valley, two minutes at at time. The “cap” has risen, we’ve added the yeast, and now it’s time to begin “pump overs”. The cap refers to the layer of skins that rise to the top during red-wine fermentation. Enjoy!
Goosecross: Starting the Fermentation
Wonder how we get the fermentation started? In this 2-minute video Goosecross Winemaker, Geoff Gorsuch, inoculates the Syrah (mixes and adds the yeast) to begin fermentation. Enjoy!
Goosecross: Crushing Cabernet Franc
Enjoy this 2-minute video of stemming and crushing the Cabernet Franc from our Estate here at the Goosecross winery in Yountville, Napa Valley. Join us on our crushpad – you’ll see how the freshly picked grapes go into the hopper and are fed into the small machine called a crusher-stemmer before going into a fermentation tank. Fermentation for this Cabernet Franc took about one week. Cheers!
Harvest at Goosecross
Check out this short video of our Estate Merlot being hand harvested. Enjoy!
Goosecross: Pre-harvest Lab Tests
In our last post you saw our Owner/Winemaker, Geoff Gorsuch, gathering grape samples from two different vineyards.
Now, back at the ranch, so to speak, he tastes the juice for flavor maturity and also measures the sugar (provides the alcohol), acid (makes wine clean, lively and food friendly; enhances longevity) and pH (kind of like measuring the strength of the acidity – important to the health and stability of the wine). Read more about the significance of these components. Enjoy!
http://www.vimeo.com/6561721Sugar: After he juices the fresh grapes, you see him put some of the juice on the lens of a small instrument called a refractometer. This measures the brix or sugar (degrees brix = percentage of sugar). When he holds it up to the light it measures the speed at which light passes through the liquid: The denser the liquid, the slower the light will travel through it, and the higher the reading will be (90% of the soluble solids are sugars). If he harvested the grapes the same day, with the 25 degrees brix reading, the wine would be around 13.5% alcohol.
Acid: Next, you see him titrating to measure the acidity. He’s determining the concentration of the acid in the juice by adding a carefully measured reagent until he sees the appropriate color change.
1. He mixes a pH indicator, with the juice.
2. Then, he adds the titration solution, ½ cc at a time, shaking as he goes, until the solution turns pink. Each cc of solution represents 0.1% total acidity. So, if 6-6/7 cc of solution was used and he knows the total acidity is 6.67%.
pH: The pH meter is really a volt meter that’s been calibrated to measure the pH and the first thing you see is a couple of buffer solutions to help calibrate. Then, he just puts the electrode in the sample and the reading appears on the display (3.22 in this case – fairly tart for a red).
Upshot? He decided to wait. pH was a little lower than ideal and flavors weren’t quite there.
Goosecross Winemaker on Pre-harvest Grape Sampling
In this 2-minute video our winemaker, Geoff Gorsuch, shows us how he gathers samples for tasting and analysis to determine when to harvest the section of grapes. This was filmed on Howell Mountain and on our Yountville estate, both in Napa Valley. Enjoy!
Goosecross Winemaker on Pre-harvest Leaf Thinning
Geoff Gorsuch, our Winemaker, will tell us about his strategy for thinning leaves as the grapes ripen. This was filmed at our estate vineyard in Yountville, Napa Valley. Enjoy!
http://www.vimeo.com/6238320Goosecross: Pre-harvest Cluster Thinning
Geoff does a show and tell on how and why clusters are often thinned as harvest approaches. Enjoy!
http://www.vimeo.com/6235421
