clennell on sat 21 apr 01
In my effort to fight Ron and John every inch of the way on stable glazes I
decided to fire the train with a big load of Chardonnay grapevines from the
Tom Koscis vineyard. I wanted the pots pissed as pirates, so I would pour
the wine to them.In my usual firing fashion I loaded up the firebox with
grapevine at 3 hour intervals for 18 hours- hoovering at 1000F. I then went
to the hobs for a real firing with some sassafras and old lilac to give the
wine a good nose. This would not get the kiln to temperature, so I decided
to age/soak the kiln with some oak/elm. the firing turned out to be a bit of
a battle royale because of this old ball wood selection but the vintage has
a lovely bouquet, a nice nose, olive green colour, good tannins, and is very
palatable with fish, seafood and pasta.
My bottles soaked up a little too much Chardonnay and toppled over (not
stable at all- yeah!!!!!!) I had to buy a hacksaw with silican carbide
particles on it to saw the pots apart, but hot damn they are lovely. So
there is a scar! If you're going to protest, you're going to wear a scar.
The bottles I have for the shino show may not be recognized as shino. They
are though- honestly. Chardonnay Shino!
Cheers,
tony
Potter/Vintner
P.S Sheila had a t-pot set in shino that you couldn't get any other way.
Trapped carbon just on the edges of the shape of the paper resist leaves she
used when she dunked it in copper slip. Yummy. I'll drink to that.
chardonnay for breaky
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