In the beginning there was wine
The birth of Atlantic Lakes Winery
by Jeff Sutton
About five years ago; myself, my wife, and my father-in-law began discussing making our own wine. My father-in-law had made wine in the past and talked about how fun and rewarding it was to be drinking your own wine made from scratch. The discussion would come up from time to time over the five years. My wife and I had moved to San Diego and always said that when we moved back to NJ we would make it happen. We moved back 'home' in August of 2009 and were determined to make the dream come true. After about another year of discussing it we finally decided to make it happen. We asked my parents to join in with us and my in-laws. My family is from Atlantic Highlands and my wife's is from Budd Lake, thus creating The Atlantic Lakes Winery.
The Grapes
The grapes were California grown and purchased from Corrados Wine Market in Clifton, NJ. We decided to make the following varietals:
- Carnelian
- Cabernet Sauvignon
- Cabernet/Merlot Blend
- Sangiovese
- Petite Syrah
"If anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot!"- Miles Raymond
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| Jaci, Lin, Bob, Jeff |
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| Jaci, Rick, Deb, Jeff |
Crushing
We used an antique crank crusher to crush the grapes. The crusher was purchased from a garage sale 10+ years ago and it is an oldie. We wanted to do the old fashioned grape stomp with our feet, BUT I am a germ-a-phobe so that wasnt going to happen.
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| Crushing |
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| Crushing! |
...After crushing, we put them in 5 gallon Rubbermaid tubs for two weeks
of fermentation. As the grapes ferment the skins rise to the top. The top layer
of skins is called the “cap.” On a daily basis we had to “punch” the cap which
meant pushing the skins back down into the juices. After this stopped occurring,
we were ready to press the grapes!...
Pressing
Again, my father-in-law had a press from when he had done wine making in the past. We scooped the grapes from the tubs into the press then cranked it down. The juice was flowing. We transferred the juice into 5 gallon glass carboys.
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| Bob scooping into the press |
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| The Juice |
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| Jaci, Lin, Bob filtering into carboys |
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| Carboys full of wine |
...The wine sat in these glass carboys for over a year. Throughout the
year we had to rack to get the sediment out and also did splash racking to rid the
wine of a sulfur smell...
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| Splash Racking |
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| Stirring with a copper pole |
Stirring with the copper pole was recommend to get the sulfur smell out of the wine. It worked!
Bottling
After a full year of staring at this wine in the carboys it was
finally time to bottle. We purchased new bottles, a corker, and a few other necessities
for the bottling process at Corrados again. This process was the quickest and
one of the most rewarding. To see the wine go from grapes to an actual bottle
is fascinating. To be part of the process was awesome.
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| Bottles |
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| Overhead bottling |
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| Jaci Bottling |
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| Bob Corking |
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| The wine- (pre label) |
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| The Label |
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| Finished Product |
Five years after the initial discussion of wine making occurred we have the first vintage of Atlantic Lakes Winery. As my father-in-law said, it is very rewarding to drink wine that you made from scratch.
"Wine is a living thing. I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing; how the sun was shining; if it rained. I like to think about all the people who tended and picked the grapes. And if it's an old wine, how many of them must be dead by now. I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I'd opened it on any other day, because a bottle of wine is actually alive. And it's constantly evolving and gaining complexity. That is, until it peaks, and then it begins its steady, inevitable decline." - Maya
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| The Vinters: Jaci, Jeff, Bob, Lin, Deb, Rick |
