It is finally time to bottle the oak trials today! I am also bottling the 2009 Petite Sirah that I did egg white fining on, so I can compare it to the unfined wine side-by-side. The chardonnays all cleared out really nicely, which is great so I can bottle directly from the individual jugs — [...]
Tag archive: grapes
I realized I haven’t really done a head-to-head tasting of my 2008 Merlot lots A and B yet. After being so disappointed with the barrel batch of merlot from that vintage, I’ve been holding out to wait 2 years to pop the smaller batch of lot A. Happily, the time has come! Tasting notes: Merlot [...]
We went to visit Live Oak Vineyard today to see how the syrah is coming along this year. Veraison is already starting in the syrah, so harvest might be a little early this year! Here is the second year growth of the Deaver clone Zinfandel, not yet starting veraison. Check out the giant clusters: And, [...]
We finally set a date and bottled the 2009 Merlot and Petite Sirah from Van Alyea Ranch in Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. 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. [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
We drove up to Fallbrook yesterday to meet up with Paul and a bunch of his neighbors to bottle his 2009 Merlot and Petite Sirah from Lambert Bridge Vineyard in Sonoma (the same grapes we made wine from that need to be bottled soon). It was a very nice day, sunny and warm but not [...]
I’m mostly disappointed with this wine. But, perhaps there is some hope. After pouring through a Vinturi aerator, the flaws of this wine really mellowed out. Aromas like vanilla ice cream with edge of lemon. Still very sweet on the tongue, but not so sharp. Oak is becoming prominent. I might as well give it [...]
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 [...]
We visited Fallbrook Winery yesterday with some of our friends. It has been unusually cold and dreary around San Diego, but the sun eventually came out later in our tour. We were greeted by Vernon Kindred, one of the winemakers at Fallbrook. He walked us through some of the vineyards while describing the growing season [...]