mostly wine stuff

[JCF]

Wine is agriculture + manufacturing. Two very dangerous activities. Around here there are signs everywhere reminding people not to work in a tank w/o a buddy outside the tank. But, just like skiing trees alone, knowing better doesn't always lead to good choices. Which doesn't make it any less tragic.

Apparently even with a buddy or more outside the tank.
Very tragic.

 

[pete]

Wine is agriculture + manufacturing. Two very dangerous activities. Around here there are signs everywhere reminding people not to work in a tank w/o a buddy outside the tank. But, just like skiing trees alone, knowing better doesn't always lead to good choices. Which doesn't make it any less tragic.

Agriculture I believe is number 1 or 2 for serious injury ... US wise.

 

[skibob]

Apparently even with a buddy or more outside the tank.
Very tragic.

Yeah and it sounds like he drowned. The most common danger is cleaning out tanks after fermentation. Because yeast fill the air with carbon monoxide, which displaces all the oxygen (and other atmospheric gases). But you don't detect anything wrong because it has no smell and you can breathe it just like any other gas.

 

[Paul Lutes]

Do you mean carbon dioxide? What you say about CO's traits is true, but I never associated it with fermentation, wine or otherwise.
I had a very scary experience leaning way over into a tall dry ice container to get the last flake as a grad student. Came very close to toppling over and getting stuck upside down as I started to get faint. Had to fight to get the department to get rid of that container (apparently it had sentimental value ), and I was thereafter known as the CO2 crusader. Carried over to having a healthy paranoia about sump tanks too.

 

[cantunamunch]

What you say about CO's traits is true, but I never associated it with fermentation, wine or otherwise.

And it's lighter than oxygen, so don't see how that would work in an open vat

 

[skibob]

Do you mean carbon dioxide? What you say about CO's traits is true, but I never associated it with fermentation, wine or otherwise.
I had a very scary experience leaning way over into a tall dry ice container to get the last flake as a grad student. Came very close to toppling over and getting stuck upside down as I started to get faint. Had to fight to get the department to get rid of that container (apparently it had sentimental value ), and I was thereafter known as the CO2 crusader. Carried over to having a healthy paranoia about sump tanks too.

LOL. Yes, dioxide. My "method" would change champagne forever . . .

 

[skibob]

And it's lighter than oxygen, so don't see how that would work in an open vat

yeah, so it disperses very quickly. But the majority of fermentation still takes place in a closed tank. It takes a very specific sequence of mistakes for this to be a problem, but never tempt statistical outliers from finding you.

 

[mdf]

AND then there's this in Portugal, via npr.

 

[cantunamunch]

AND then there's this in Portugal, via npr.

Just when we think wine doesn't need a Hjulstrom diagram

600000 gallons - even if they splash out to add pectin or xanthan gum and electrolytes, that's like US$60-70 million in isotonic energy gels.

 

[JCF]

I think we often forget, and on many levels up to fatalities, that some of the things we enjoy as "luxuries" come at the cost of lives.
Whenever I buy a deep water fish like tuna or swordfish , I think of that Walter Scott quote "It's no fish we're buying, it's mens lives."
Now I will have to take a moment before drinking a glass of wine as well.

 

[SuzSkis]

Four Gatos Locos. One wine, four labels. I wasn't sure whether to post this here or in the "Cat in a Box" thread.

Discovered at a tasting this weekend. A nice Argentinian Malbec.

 

[cantunamunch]

Discovered at a tasting this weekend.

Care to say where?

 

[SuzSkis]

It was at a small independent wine shop in Reston, VA. The Wine Cabinet.

 

[cantunamunch]

cool, pass by there on the bike quite often, never gone in

 

[SuzSkis]

cool, pass by there on the bike quite often, never gone in

It didn't register w/me that you are local, @cantunamunch . It is worth a visit. Very nice folks and they have "Open Bottle" every Thursday afternoon and tastings on many weekends.

 

[Paul Lutes]

We were given a bottle of Immortal Impassable Mountain Cab (2017) by a friend (wealthy, horse owning, experienced wine drinker) of my wife's for vet services rendered, and thought we were in for a treat. However ...... un-met expectations ensued. In fact, it was one of the more un-pleasant cabs we've had - the fruit was overwhelming. I thought fruit bombs were no longer a thing?? It was even worse after 24 hours - ended up pouring it down the drain. Did we get a mistreated bottle?

 

[Tony S]

We were given a bottle of Immortal Impassable Mountain Cab (2017) by a friend (wealthy, horse owning, experienced wine drinker) of my wife's for vet services rendered, and thought we were in for a treat. However ...... un-met expectations ensued. In fact, it was one of the more un-pleasant cabs we've had - the fruit was overwhelming. I thought fruit bombs were no longer a thing?? It was even worse after 24 hours - ended up pouring it down the drain. Did we get a mistreated bottle?

I have no personal familiarity with that wine or its reputation. The cynic in me (90% by volume) can't resist observing that with a pretentious name like that it can hardly help but be overblown crap. [Ducks rotten tomatoes.]

Also, IME, being a wealthy, horse owning, experienced wine drinker is no guarantee that you actually know anything. On the contrary, it's all to easy to just spend a lot of money on well-known labels and just assume that what you're drinking is totally awesome. In order to know anything, you have to have real context in your background. I.e., you have to have tasted a lot of low-priced, medium-priced, and high-priced wine. You have to have tasted from different famous and not-famous denominations (Bordeaux and Burgundy, for example, as well as Sardinia and Long Island) and across different grapes and regional styles. Money doesn't buy you that without concerted effort and open-mindedness over a significant period of time. Skibob has described this better on multiple occasions. [Ducks yet more rotten tomatoes.]

All that said, yes, of course, it's totally possible that you got a mistreated or otherwise defective bottle.

 

[skibob]

We were given a bottle of Immortal Impassable Mountain Cab (2017) by a friend (wealthy, horse owning, experienced wine drinker) of my wife's for vet services rendered, and thought we were in for a treat. However ...... un-met expectations ensued. In fact, it was one of the more un-pleasant cabs we've had - the fruit was overwhelming. I thought fruit bombs were no longer a thing?? It was even worse after 24 hours - ended up pouring it down the drain. Did we get a mistreated bottle?

I had never heard of this before and had to look it up. The Mayacamas range (my backyard practically) is a great place to grow grapes like these. But the website and marketing materials certainly have a buzzy and pretentious feel to them. That doesn't necessarily mean bad wine (see Eagle, Screaming, for example) but there is a lot of "aspirational" and/or "vanity" wine that comes out of this area alongside the truly good stuff.

EDIT: LOL, @Tony S and I saying essentially the same thing at the same time.

 

[cantunamunch]

<- is wondering whether making these bottles sit for another 3 years would help matters out at all.

 

[skibob]

<- is wondering whether making these bottles sit for another 3 years would help matters out at all.

I mean, bad wine is bad wine. I am not saying that wine is. Haven't tasted it. A good wine that needs to age still tastes good when it is young. You just can see that it will be even better at some point in the future.

Also, 2017 is the year that 9,000 homes burned to the ground on October 8/9 and, like I said, that is my back yard. So, although Paul's description didn't hint at it, I wonder about smoke taint.