From Vine to Wine
Part 5: As the Hobby Grows
By
Steve Trabun
Over the last few months, we followed the home wine making journey
of Club members Steve and Dana Trabun. Here’s an update on the
fruits of their labor, and a look at their increasing involvement in
the enticing world of wine making.
Home Winemaking, Part 5
As the Hobby Grows
During spring and summer of this year, while our wine was aging, we
found ways to create events and social gatherings around our new
hobby. In early summer we gathered to sample some of the wines we
had blended with fellow Spokane Club member Jed Morris earlier in
the year. Our objective was to determine which of the blended
concoctions would be the best to mix for bottling later in the
summer. One of our blends was a combination of Merlot, Cabernet
Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Carignane which we named
“Schoolhouse Jed” after LeCole’s “Schoolhouse Red” (we used roughly
the same proportions as their awesome wine). Since I supplied the
Merlot and Jed supplied the other wine varieties, it only made sense
that we include his name in our branding (besides “Schoolhouse
Steve” really doesn’t sound that elegant).
This led to another gathering in July when we bottled our
Schoolhouse Jed and divided it up between us. My wife Dana and I
also bottled all of our red wines in July and found a cool place in
our basement to store the bottles of wine for continued aging. We
were pleased with our results, and now struggle with allowing the
wine to actually age, rather than consuming it. As new wine makers,
we have enjoyed letting our friends sample our results and they have
all been very honest with their feedback. We’ve received accolades
on our Merlot and Schoolhouse Jed, but one of our friends had the
gall to put ice cubes in his glass of our Sangiovese (obviously not
a wine connoisseur).
In the meantime, we had begun our preparations for this year’s
grape crush. With a successful year under our belt, we decided to
increase our production for 2003. I purchased a stainless steel
storage container (150 liter) for the storage of our primary wine
variety. I also needed some large containers for fermenting the
grapes, so we purchased two 55 gallon plastic vinegar barrels from
Snyder’s Bakery. During our annual spring barrel tasting trip to
Walla Walla we determined that Washington’s Syrah grapes were one of
our favorite varieties, thus the decision to make Syrah this year as
our primary wine production.
With a lot of interest in our wine, and a gnawing urge to make
our hobby a legitimate business, Dana and I took the plunge and
created a sole proprietorship for TreVino Cellars. Along with the
business license comes a great deal of paperwork, interviews and
inspections with both the Federal BATFE and Washington State Liquor
Control Board to obtain the necessary alcohol licensing to become a
“real” winery. We are seriously considering pursuing this process so
that everything could be in place for our 2004 production, thus
allowing us to sell our wine. Until then, however, all of the wine
we produce will be for personal consumption (not a bad deal for us
and our friends).
Once again we made our trek to Pleasant Vineyards in Prosser for
the 2003 grape crush. We were greeted by many of the same wine
makers from last year, plus about 1,000 bees that love grape juice
as much as Dana and I. We crushed our 800 pounds of grapes and
didn’t realize how heavy those 55 gallon plastic containers weighed
when they are full. In fact, it literally took a fork lift to get
them into our truck. Four grown men and a n
hour of grunting and groaning later we were able to muscle the
crushed Syrah into our laundry room for the fermenting process.
After last year’s mess, I taped plastic sheeting from wall-to-wall
in the laundry room to ensure that Dana’s new paint job wouldn’t be
compromised. We introduced malolactic fermentation to the fermenting
process as means of converting malic acid into lactic acid. This
makes the wine flavor softer and smoother, adds buttery
characteristics and gives it more complexity.
With our 2003 wine production well under way, our sights are
already on next year and whether TreVino Cellars will be a
successful winery business or continue as a growing hobby. It’s a
serious consideration, and we will pursue it cautiously. It’s
amazing how much passion and energy we have for this hobby thus far,
and the thought of making it a legitimate winery has tremendous
allure. But it is also a capital and labor intensive proposition.
They say, “all good wines come to those who wait” (or something like
that). Perhaps this will become our new mantra. For now, we’ll focus
on becoming good vintners and making the finest wine possible that
we can enjoy with our family and friends.
Cheers and TreVino!
Part 1
| Part 2 | Part 3
| Part 4
| Part 5
Several of Spokane’s small, successful commercial wineries
were started by home winemakers like the Trabuns, including Mountain
Dome, Townshend Cellars and Barrister Winery.
Click here to send any comments or questions to Steve.
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