Its finally here. The moment you've all been waiting for. The review of the 2009 South Wedge Seyval produced by your very own Miller Homestead!
You may have noticed the title said sparkling Seyval. Observant readers may also notice the bubbles in the above picture. Interestingly enough, this was not a sparkling wine 2 months ago.
A few days ago, I went down into the wine cellar to get a bottle of the Seyval and noticed that the floor looked wet in one area. I assumed that was because of the recent heavy rains. After all, the basement does have a history of efflorescence. Upon closer inspection, Jaime noticed a drip coming from one of the wine racks, and then we noticed a cork sitting on the floor at the base of the furnace, which is directly in line with the wine bottles. Yup. One of the bottles had shot a cork across the room. Uh oh. Better start drinking fast....
This wine was completely different 2 months ago. There was a very minor bite to the wine, which I guessed at the time to be a very small amount of carbonation. It was a very good tasting wine, though. Delicious fruity grape flavor with moderately high sweetness that was balanced by the moderately strong acidity. Recall that I had to add chemicals to reduce the acidity because the growing season was so bad last year. Even with doing so, it is still pretty acidic. The sweetness works well with it, though. It was actually a good wine not just for homemade wine, it was good in general. I would have paid money for it. If I remember correctly, I probably would have rated it a 7. Other people seemed to like it, too. Its a shame I didn't do a review then because I could have had two completely different reviews. Oh well, I'll just review what I can now.
The wine actually has a very minor pinkish hue. No idea where that came from. I didn't notice it when I bottled it, but I did notice it in the first bottle I opened (several months ago). Its not not obvious, nor is it unpleasant, more of a curiosity. There is an annoyance in that there is some sediment in the bottle. This is likely because of the problems I had with filtering and bottling last year. No effect on the wine once its in your glass, you just can't quite use all the wine in the bottle without stirring up the sediment.
I taste apricot, grapefruit, and smokey flavors. The acidity is quite obvious. There seems to be less sugar than there was a couple months ago (goodbye sugar, hello CO2). I would say that the acid/sugar balance is no longer optimal, but its not so bad that its a major negative. In fact, I'd say many of the Champagnes that I've drank are rather sour (especially the dry ones). I'd call this a semi-dry sparkling wine. A pleasant amount of carbonation, just about right I'd say. Ignoring the sediment in the bottle, I'd say this is an above average sparkling white wine. I'd call it Champagne, but I'm not legally allowed to do that since it was not produced in the Champagne region of France.
Jaime says this is very much like a semi-dry champagne. She says she's not a big fan of champagnes, though. She notes a hint of apple flavor. Its not too sweet.
Peter gives this wine a 6 out of 10. I would purchase this.
Jaime gives this wine a 6 out of 10 on her Champagne scale.
I think the moderately high remaining sugar and warming spring temperatures must have combined to restart the yeast that wasn't properly filtered out before bottling. I think I need more practice at this before I go pro.
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