The rewards and frustrations of home winemaking

Tag archive: cabernet sauvignon

Blending Trials for Three Pelicans Blend

I’ve been planning to make a blend similar to Duckhorn’s “Paraduxx” for a while; their blend is a combination of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot.  I was planning to substitute my 2009 Primitivo for the zinfandel, but in a previous blending trial the primitivo just overwhelmed all of the other varietals and any blend was […]

Dumping Yucky Cabernet

I don’t like to give up easily on a wine, but the nasty Cabernet Sauvignon from Paul was beyond any help. When I first tried it, I thought maybe some racking and Kmeta would help it. Today I went to splash rack it, and it was just gross. There is no help for this wine. […]

Unhappy Cabernet Sauvignon

At the bottling party, I was talking with Paul about getting some of his Cabernet Sauvignon (also from Lambert Bridge Vineyard in Sonoma) to make a Paraduxx-like blend with my merlot and primitivo.  He mentioned he had several gallons of cabernet that seemed to have a VA problem.  I hate to dump wine without trying […]

“Fiesta Island” Cabernet Sauvignon 1 1/2 Year Tasting

It seems to be time to catch up on wines I haven’t visited for a while. Tonight I opened our Lambert Bridge Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, which I bottled as 83% cab sauv and 17% of a Lambert Bridge Vineyard merlot that I fermented as a small batch. In lieu of decanting, I aerated with Vinturi […]

Best of Class Award and Silver Medal at SD County Fair!

I entered two wines into the San Diego County Fair Homemade wine competition: ‘Bahia Belle’ Bordeaux Blend, a 50/50 blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot made from fresh grapes, and ‘Sail Bay Sundown’ RJ Spagnols Argentinian Trio Limited Release white blend.  One of my fellow winemakers also entered the same cabernet sauvignon and merlot as […]

Visit to Milagro Farm

Our May SDAWS meeting was held at Milagro Farm today.  Jim Hart hosted us and gave us a tour of the vineyards and told us about his recent wine releases.  He is winemaker for Milagro Farm Vineyard & Winery and also at Hart Winery in Temecula.  Milagro Farm Vineyard & Winery is in the Ramona […]

Turkey Day Tasting of Fiesta Island Cab Sauv

After picking on one of my fellow winemakers endlessly about drinking his wine too early, I’m opening a “Cabernet Nouveau” for Thanksgiving.  It is too early to be opening it, but my husband’s parents are here, so it seemed to call for a very special wine.  I opened the wine and decanted it about 2 […]

Bahia Belle Blend Tasting Note

Although this blend is still very young — only about 2 months in the bottle! — I really wanted to try it out.  Decanted very briefly. Very sharp, acidic nose. Hint of raspberry and blackberry with spice. Very clear, garnet-purple in color. Very vegetal flavors of green pepper, raspberry, plum, and oak. After about an […]

Oi That’s a LOT of Wine!

My goal was to fill all of these bottles today.  It turned out I filled over half, but decided to wait to fill the rest next weekend.  Why do today what you can do a week from now, eh? I did at least put together all of the blends.  ‘Fiesta Islad Cab’ will be mainly […]

Tasting/Blending Party

I had some friends over last night to taste the cabernet sauvignon and 3 merlots made from fresh grapes.  We first by tasted each individually, starting with the cab and then the barrel merlot, merlot A, and merlot B.  It was very interesting how much all of the wines have changed even since my last […]