We are planning to bottle the syrah soon, and I will also probably bottle the primitivo as well. The merlot and petite sirah in the barrels have not picked up enough oak for our tastes, so we’re going to leave them for another year. I realized I haven’t cleaned out the airlocks on my carboys of wine for a while, so it seemed like a good thing to do today. While rooting through all of the carboys and bottles in the shower, I found yet another small 4-L bottle of merlot with the infamous white layer on top. I poked a pipet in to draw a small sample and also pull out the white gunk (it pretty much sticks to the pipet side). There are no off-odors in the wine, and it tastes fine — really good actually, good fruit and good acid.  Now more waiting!