The Fine Wine Feline

A New kEYSTONE Blog

by Blackie the Cat
Alumnus, University of California at Davis along with his owner, Dave Salaba.
Alumnus, Purdue University, along with his owner, Dave
Alumnus, Domens Academy for Fermentation Technology, Munich, Germany, along with his owner, Dave.

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the views of Keystone Homebrew Supply, or anyone else for that matter. On the other hand (paw), Blackie the cat’s ability to slip into and out of areas of the winery normally off-limits to guests and employees make for interesting listening, reading and, of course, blogging. And, it is in this arena that our dialog begins…

So, welcome to my first Feline Fermentation blog! Being in my unusual position (mascot) provides me with a unique opportunity to put my specialized traits (stealth, totally black, small size and exceptional hearing/ eyesight, coupled with a exceptional memory) to good use in providing material for my thoughts and blogs.

In the coming weeks/months, from my listening and other good sources, I hope to provide readers with unique perspectives on winemaking, tips and advice that should help to improve our winemaking as well as ways to help novice winemakers benefit from the collective years of experience that our knowledgeable and skilled colleague winemakers are able to provide.

Thus, the purpose of our ongoing blogging is to provide solid, well thought out information, organized and sourced from both credible and reliable sources in an easy reading format.

I am sure that it comes as no surprise to most of you that there are many publications available that deal in winemaking and claim to be the ultimate source authority on the subject. What we usually end up finding and re-reading for the nineteenth time is the same re-hashed, tired information offering little if anything that is really useful for the home winemaker. However, I am getting ahead of myself at this point and promise to come back to this topic later.

I have learned a good deal about Dave during our time together, most of which will become evident as our time blogging together grows. I could risk boring you with a discussion of some of Dave’s accomplishments. For example, in the world of wine competitions, his wines have won over 150 awards, including Best in Show, Best Red Wine, Concordance Gold and Double Gold at one of America’s premier wine competitions, to mention but a few. He has also taught introductory winemaking at a local college as well as conducting ongoing seminars on various winemaking subjects. Perhaps this may seem like excessive bragging but I think that it serves an important point, which is that even after 35 years making wine, Dave is still passionate about the subject, and as the saying goes, ”If you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life”.

In coming blogs, we’ll touch on any and all subjects of interest having to do with winemaking. We’ll discuss both Old and New World winemaking techniques, try to confirm what techniques work as well as those that don’t. Review equipment as well as comments that I have heard in my role as mascot at our winery. We’ll perform an examination of how wine competitions are conducted, as well as any subjects that our readers are interested in learning about.