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July 2016 WINES&VINES 63 WINE EAST WINEMAKING brandy in New York state—and it might prove to be a historic product from the Finger Lakes. Rock Stream Vineyards Rock Stream, N.Y. Mark Karasz is the owner, winemaker and dis- tiller of Rock Stream Vineyards, a small winery a few miles north of Watkins Glen, N.Y. Origi- nally from Long Island, Karasz knew land in the Finger Lakes would be less expensive than down state, so he purchased 150 acres on the west side of Seneca Lake. It came planted with some 40 acres of grapes (Concord, Niagara, Elvira and Aurora), which he currently sells, and Cayuga White, which he uses. He has added several acres of Vignoles and Trami- nette. The winery was founded in 2004. Karasz has an 80-gallon Alembic-style, cop- per pot still made in Portugal to produce two products: a grape brandy from wine and grappa from white wine skins (including Riesling, Ca- yuga White and Vignoles skins). His current grappa is from Vignoles, which he thinks offers the most aromatic characteristics. Each batch of brandy will consist of 55-60 gallons of Pinot Noir made from purchased grapes, with little free SO 2 . He heats the wine with a 150,000 BTU propane "lobster cooker," as he calls it. It takes about two hours for the still to start producing spirits, and he will remove the first 3 to 5 liters of spirits, "the heads" that contain methanol and other impurities. He said that acetone and simi- lar chemicals start to develop at 40°-50° C, and methanol at 60°-70° C. When the distillate reaches 80°-95° C, Karasz begins collecting the hearts. Once that happens, he places cold, wet cloths around the lintel, or the "hat" of the condenser. He does this every 10 minutes to moderate the tem- perature during production of the hearts. One batch will generally provide about 6 gallons of hearts. As the distillation continues, the tem- perature increases, and Karasz begins to notice some cloudiness in the spirits, signifying the presence of fusel alcohols, known as "the tails." At this point he stops the distillation run. He distills one time per batch and uses only the hearts, which yields an average of 6 gallons of distillate at 120 proof. He then lowers the al- cohol level of the spirits to 80 proof by adding 3 gallons of distilled water to the 6 gallons of distil- late, about 1 gallon at a time. After each addition and mixing in the water, he uses a hydrometer to measure the results. The dilution process usu- ally takes two to three hours to complete. Karasz uses ēvOak oak chips from the Oak Solutions Group for his brandy. He places a pound of their medium-toast French oak chips in a mesh bag into small, 100-liter floating-lid tanks (purchased from Criveller) and lets it steep for 24 hours. He removes the chips and lets the distillate settle for a few days before filtering through a 0.6-micron absolute car- tridge from Aftek. He then fills each bottle DISTILLED WINES AT THREE FINGER LAKES WINERIES Grapes Number of Cases, Bottle Sizes Price per Bottle Swedish Hill Vineyard (62,000 cases per year; 65 acres of vineyard) 2014 Eaux de Vie 52% Catawba, 36% Isabella, 12% Valvin Muscat 100 12-bottle cases, 375ml bottles $29 Raspberry Infusion 3,500 pounds of raspberries + 60 gallons 140-proof brandy 150 12-bottle cases, 375ml bottles $25 Cynthia Marie Port (est. for 2017 production) Various 400 12-bottle cases, 750ml bottles $23 Goose Watch Winery (sister winery of Swedish Hill Vineyard) Classic Cream Sherry (est. for 2016 production) Various 500 12-bottle cases, 375ml bottles $16 Finale White Port (est. for 2017 production) Various 250 12-bottle cases, 375ml bottles $18 Rock Stream Vineyards (1,500 cases per year; 40 acres of vineyard) Brandy Pinot Noir 375ml bottles $35 Grappa Vignoles 375ml bottles $35 Six Mile Creek Vineyard (5,000 cases per year; 6 acres of vineyard) Gin Seyval ≈ 85 cases, 375ml bottles $25 Vodka Seyval ≈ 50 cases, 375ml bottles $25 Grappa Estate-grown red grape skins ≈ 25 cases; 375ml bottles $30 Limoncella Lemon extract 375ml bottles $25 Orangecello Orange extract 375ml bottles $25 Amore Almond extract 375ml bottles $25