Lemberger Tasting

In class last night, we talked about wine making and the supplies needed for wine making. These include:

tanks, fermenters, carboys, barrels, airlocks, bottles, corks, siphon, hydrometer and thermometer. Fermentation supplies include yeast, a source of SO2 (usually potassium metabisulfite is used), yeast nutrients (DAP, diammonium phosphate), and malolactic bacteria (Oenococcus) if malolactic fermentation is desired. A good source of information is the book "From Vines to Wines" by Jeff Cox.

Tasting:
Last night we tasted 6 UNR Lemberger wines and 2 commercial Lemberger wines from Washington State. The UNR wines were 2006, 2008, and 2009 wines. The 2006 wines were not popular and clearly had gone bad. The drought-stressed 2009 Lemberger was the favorite of the UNR wines. It was very aromatic and fruity, with a deep dark ruby color and good balance. It was comparable to the commercial wines (Kiona and Fairwinds wineries) which were very popular. This wine was oaked as were the commerical wines. The other 2008 and 2009 UNR wines had scores similar to the commercial wines. One of the complaints of the Lemberger wines from UNR is the acidity. Perhaps lower crop loads or warmer nights will reduce the acidity more quickly. We shall have to test this in the future. At the end of the tasting, everyone agreed that this was a good grape for Nevada.