Prairie Creek Vineyards
PRAIRIE CREEK VINEYARDSMARCH 2015
purple-grape-bunch.jpg

In the last news letter I mentioned that we are in the process of making a sparkling wine.  I have had numerous questions about it so I thought I would take the slow month of March and talk a little about sparkling wine.  

First of all, there are three methods to make sparkling wine.  1) traditional method.  2) Charmat process.  3) carbonation.  

The carbonation method is used in the less expensive sparkling wines.  Most of you will know this is method used to get carbonation into your soda pop.  If you have taken the tour of Stone Hill Winery in Branson, this is the method they use to make the sparkling wine there (this is to the best of my memory.  If I need to be corrected please let me know.  Its been a long time since I took the tour).  So the CO2 is injected into a stainless tank that can withhold pressure.  The wine is then bottled immediately with a counter pressure filler.  This is the most boring method used to make sparkling wine.  
The Charmat process is a little more fun.  As in the traditional method, you first ferment your base wine.  After that is complete, you transfer your base wine to a pressure withstanding tank.  The base wine is inoculated with fresh yeast and sugar to produce a secondary fermentation.  After fermentation is complete, it is filtered and ready to be bottled with the counter pressure filler.  

The third process is the traditional method.  This is the method that we are using to make our sparkling wine.  Like in the Charmat process we start with the fermentation of the base wine.  After that is complete we add the fresh yeast and sugar to the base wine and bottle the wine.  The secondary fermentation is completed in the bottle.  Instead of a cork we use a crown cap like on the top of a beer bottle (this little detail really threw off our 9 yr old.  "Why does this wine have a beer cap on it?").  During the secondary fermentation the process of yeast converting sugar into alcohol produces carbon dioxide.  The carbon dioxide is the little bubbles.  Since that crown cap is on the bottle it does not let the bubbles escape, the result is a little "bomb".  After 12 months (it'll be a while) of sitting on the lees in the bottle we do a process call riddling.  This essentially is gradually, over a few weeks, twisting shaking and turning the bottle upside down resulting in the dead yeast cells concentrating in the neck of the bottle.  Once riddling is done we freeze the neck of the bottle and "disgorge" it.  We pop the crown cap off and the frozen chunk of yeast cells pops out from the pressure.  We then in turn "dosage" the bottle with some fresh wine/sugar to achieve desired sweetness and immediately cork the wine.  And Voila!!!!!  Festive wine!!!!

If I have not killed you with boredom I will give you a few sparkling wine facts I robbed from our buddy Wikipedia.  

1) The average bottle of sparkling wine can produce approximately 49 million bubbles.  Awesome.

2)  A study conducted by the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom found that sparkling wine gets alcohol into your blood faster than still wine.  They attribute this to the CO2.  Thus, you get drunker faster.  How could this get better?!?!?

3)  The initial burst of effervescence is due to "nucleation"  When the sparkling wine is poured into a dry glass the glass imperfections help facilitate the nucleation.  The nucleation is needed to produce the bubbles that rise out of the glass.  A poured glass of sparkling wine will loose its bubbly-ness much faster that a bottle opened and left alone.  How fun is science?!?!?!

4)  One last fact not robbed from Wikipedia is Champagne and Sparkling wine are the same thing.  If you live in Europe, the only sparkling wine that can be labeled as "Champagne" has to be produced in the Champagne region of France.  All other sparkling wines must be labeled as "sparkling wine".  In America we can call it either one.  I believe the French tried to tell us we couldn't do that but we kind of gave them the finger.  Regardless... I will respect the Champagne region and call ours a sparkling wine.  
That is it.  Please ask me more questions.  This makes writing my notes much easier.  I tried to keep it as short as possible.  

Nick
March Menus: 
ribs

March 6:  Smoked Salmon & Pork Loin
Come on out to the winery tonight to enjoy some fabulous smoked salmon and pork loin.  Generous side dishes will round out the meal. 

March 7th:  Smoked Beef Tri-tip & Turkey Breast
If you're only going to have one meal today, please make it this one!  You won't regret it.  Dan will be serving Smoked Beef Tri-Tip and Turkey Breast with amazing homemade side dishes.

March 13th:  Ponzu Chicken or Tilapia
Fayne will be serving Ponzu Chicken or Tilapia over angel hair pasta with mixed greens salad, bread & dessert.  Mmmmmmmm... 

March 14:  Beef Short Ribs
Fayne will be serving Boneless Beef Short Ribs with baked sweet potatoes, mixed green salad, bread & dessert.  This will not be served buffet style- we're getting fancy and plating it for you. =)

March 20:  Rib Night!

March 21st:  Smoked Beef Brisket & Pork Loin & MUSIC!
Bring a bus load of your friends out tonight to enjoy some great BBQ.  Dan will be featuring his Smoked Beef Brisket and Pork Loin alongside sides (that sounds funny) and Linda's homemade desserts.

March 27th:  Italian Night!
Get ready for Roasted Bay Scallops in a white wine sauce over linguine along with sausage lasagna, mixed green salad & dessert.

March 28th:  Pork Tenderloin with Tarragon Mustard Sauce
 Pork Tenderloin, Confetti Rice Pilaf, Mixed Green Salad, Bread, & Dessert

 

Thank You!  See you next month!
In This Issue

 

We would love for you to like us:



Adam Lee is back!
Join us on March 21st for what we're affectionately calling "Phil's Night!"  This will be a fabulous night of Dan's BBQ and live music featuring Adam Lee.  Bring all of your friends out for a night to remember.



Nick's Birthday is March 28th!!!

Along with his wine, he also gets better with age ;)