Opening Burdell Cellars

Kierston, Forrest, and I are all chemical engineers. We toured France together about five years ago and all ended up moving to northern Calfornia for grad school, two of the winiest places in the world. So it was only a matter of time before we started up a winery of our own. Thus was born Burdell Cellars, a tip of the hat to the Georgia Tech legend of the same name. We're all new to the amateur winemaking scene, though we're all enthusiastic to get more into it and would appreciate any advice or experiences that the rest of the community could share.

Our plans for production year 2012 include

• a "warm-up" batch from Cabernet Sauvignon concentrate, in fermentation now, and expected to be ready by September (30 bottles)
• our first "real grape" effort--right now, leaning toward a Central Valley Syrah (30 bottles)
• various meads and fruit wines, in smaller batches (1 gallon or so)

We'll be posting all about the production of our wines, from purchasing the equipment through fermentation and finally to tasting, as well as other wine-related experiences (and even the occasional review!). We hope we can combine knowledge of science and engineering with a burgeoning passion for wine into something exciting and delicious!