The rewards and frustrations of home winemaking

Tag archive: barrels

Bottling 2009 Vintage Barrel Wines

We finally set a date and bottled the 2009 Merlot and Petite Sirah from Van Alyea Ranch in Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma.ย  The wines are tasting great, and we could have bottled before now but I realized I didn’t have a spigot to attach a hose to clean out the barrels after they were empty. […]

Racking Barrels and Setting Up Shop

The barrels needed a new home, so we decided it was a good time to rack out the wine and clean out the barrels.ย  Both the merlot and petite sirah need more oak, so we’re going to leave them in the barrels for another year with some extra oak cubes added in.ย  We pumped the […]