Ken,
I agree that one's friends are often overly kind in their appraisal of homemade wines. You really can't trust most feedback you get to your face; people just want to please, and they want to be supportive. Some don't even have a clue, but they're still very affirmative of your (our) efforts. They're all nice people. Just look elsewhere for constructive criticism.
I've found two things to identify worthwhile feedback:
One Step No Rinse CleanerBob, I second Joe's advice. Sterility is neither attainable nor necessary in winemaking. Cleanliness, however, is. Wine has been used throughout history to disinfect drinking water...
First, if a person can give you specific, detailed points of like-dislike, and appear somewhat knowledgeable, it might be worth listening to.
Second, I do bottle counts at wine events. Sometimes I'll stand within sight of the bar and keep an eye on which wines go first, or if people return for more. Other times I'll count empty bottles afterwards (if I'm the host), to see how I did against the compebreastion in actual usage. If done discretely, this can yield valuable feedback, or, sometimes a blow to the ego. If a stranger( who doesn't know your connection) makes a face when they taste your wine, say something like " Say, you don't seem to think much of that wine with the yellow label. What's wrong with it?" Chances are you'll hear something useful.
Ya gotta be sly.
fermentingI agree with Darlene. 2 weeks is a bit long. Actually there is a simple way to tell when to move it. Start your fermentation. It will get to going real strong and all...
BTW, at our July Fourth picnic, we had 22 neighbors show up. A fairly sophisticated and experienced bunch of wine drinkers for the most part. Most brought bottles of ( commercially produced ) wine, of the quality that you would want to bring as a gift. The bar was a help-yourself table at the back of the patio. The next day I counted 16 empty bottles, of which 10 were labeled "Mike's Good Wine" , and there were still a dozen commercial bottles. I figure the average person had about 3 glbuttes of my wine. Made me feel pretty pleased, but don't mind me. I'm just crowing a bit. ;-)
Mike MTM, Cokesbury, NJ, USA
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