perjantai 20. marraskuuta 2009

Tasting Beaujolais Villages Nouveau Honoré Lavigne

Yesterday was the release day of Beaujolais wines. I grabbed one with me at my way home: The Beaujolais was Villages Nouveau Honoré Lavigne. The last two yers have been quite dissapointments because Alko´s (goverment store monopoly) had selected Beaujolais that where quite yeasti.

This time selection has been better. Atleast on this label. The taste was light as
Beaujolais usually is but it reminded me from Chianti with I tasted few years ago. Beaujolais has clear acids and quite fruity taste. This cuold be nice on hot day because it is supposed to serve chilled 12-14 degrees. The weather in Finland is unfortunately barely on plus degrees and it is raining. I fooled myself with fresh baguette, grilled sweet pepper, melted haloumi and olive oil. I have to say that it was best side dish with wine for long time.

I say this
Beaujolais is worth of tasting. Even my wife, who has quite accurate taste and skeptical opinion about beaujolais, had a glass of this.

torstai 19. marraskuuta 2009

Boujelais Nouveau Day!

What a happy surprise. I had totally forgot that it is the third thursday of november the Boujelais release day.

Four years ago the Boujelais Nouveau was very nice and since that I have tasted them at this special day. This year I´m going to get some extras with the Boujelais. Maybe some baguette with grilled sweet pepper and some Haloumi cheese.

I have to remember to get some riper wine for my wife too. Few times I have been so excited about Boujelais that I have forgot that its taste ain´t for everybody.

salud or terveydeksi (for health) as we say in Finland.

tiistai 27. lokakuuta 2009

Vines hibernation

The autumn has reached southern Finland. Actually it came fast. At the end of september came some snow and there where few nights when temperature went under zero.

My vines had still quite green leafes before cold night and after that they went brown in few days. So they probably froze. I hope plants have enough power now to survive winter time.

I put my vines to hibernation last week. I rolled some frost gauze on them and poured sawdust around the plants so they should be ok. There has been some very mild winters for few years in Helsinki area so if it stays the same I´m fine with it.

I´m already waiting for spring. It was so nice to see how vines started to grow. Next summer I might get some grapes so my actual meaning of growing vines might get to the next stage.

keskiviikko 22. heinäkuuta 2009

3 months past

The real good June was almoust a dream start for beginner wine grower. July has been much more finnish style. Weather has changed a lot and day temperature has rised barely to 20 celcius degrees.

My vine sprouts have grown quite nicely. In Finland august is usually the best summer month. Days and nights are warm. Some thunder stroms and rains happens but basicly weather is great is you compere it to other months. If I get any harvest next year august weather is crucial to get grapes ripe.

Siegerrebe has been growing fast. The tallest one reached about 160 cm high. Some plants have made a bush out of them selves and some are just growing high. Solaris has been more careful than Siegerrebe. I think Solaris plants are making its root strong first. For next year I hope that both are strong and ready because I need both to pollinate each other.

keskiviikko 15. heinäkuuta 2009

One of my favourites

It is long wainting for a farmer. Good news is that all my plants are alive. The two Solaris I was about to change for Madeleine Angwine has come alive and sprouts are coming out.

Here is a nice story about one of my favourites white ones. It is actually first wine I have tasted.That time it was winegar in my opinion (age 13) but today I feel it has the good basics of cheap wine: Smooth taste with clear amount of acids. Flowering taste, not too light. I wuold mix this Italian girl with good greeg salade and fresh sword fish. Lots of wine, garlic and Feta cheese.

The story of Est! Est!! Est!!!

" In the 1111 the Bavarian (back in the Bavaria area again) Bishop Johannes Defuc was travelling to Rome under the instructions of the emperor Henry V. Being a coinnaisseur of wine, sent his servant, Martin, ahead to find lodgings where the wine was of a sufficiently high quality to please his palate. His instructions were to mark the word est! ("it is") at the entrance of every inn where wine was suitable or even est! est!! if the wine was of a particularly high quality. In Montefiascone his servant found the wine so good that he felt obliged to write the word est three times."

tiistai 23. kesäkuuta 2009

1 month after planting

I feels like ages, but my vines have been on ground only four and half weeks. There has been great progress (I think) and 13 of 15 plants are growing. I´m still hopefull for the two but if they are not giving any signs of living in few weeks I´ll change them to Madeleine Angwine plants that I did not get on june. There is some pictures on the side of the new growing Solaris and Siegerrebe. Solaris is the one with sharp shape leafs and Siegerrebe has a bit like oak leafs.

My risk paid off even there was few subzero nights on Finland at the end of june. This might be a problem in following springs, but I´ll prapere for it. Bigger problem might be rabbits. My yards is on open field so fresh sprouts may interest them. Good thing is that there are more than three hundred other garden yards that are open for animals so few rabbits ain´t crusial problem yet.

Last days have been very hot 23-26 dergees. I have given some water to the plants even vines normally don´t ned any spacial watering. New sprout have quite small root and open ground with 19 hours daylight can be very drying. They water vines also in Chile.

maanantai 11. toukokuuta 2009

It has literally started

I planted my vines last week. May has been so warm and days has been full of light so I cuoldn´t stop my eagerness anymore. I hope that my choise wasn´t wrong but every farmer has to make decisions by reading the weather. If weather stays as good as it has been last month my wines will get excelent start. next two months are best growing season for vine because sun is up almoust 19 hours a day. (I´m not kidding). Vine is a light plant so it will be interesting to see how does it grow. The "wild vine" which is grown in Finland as a decoration plant can grow 5-6metres on summer time.

When I planted my vines I used some chicken and horse manure and some ash to fertilize. Actually ash it to get other fertilizers abrosbe to the ground. The ph was before manuring 6,8 which was very good for the grapes I chose.

You can see from the picture that some sprouts are already coming out of the Solaris vine. I´ll have spring time opening this week with some Est Est Est to celebrate the real beginning of my experiment.