Last October we left off with my neighbor Mike and me making our own wines.Sunday we reconvened to do the first ‘racking’. We chose to do it in my driveway. It was a beautiful sunny day in the low 50s so we both agreed there was no better time.
We have not done anything to these since except refill the vodka in the air chamber and taste the wine. We recently have been pretty happy with the results.
The first barrel out was the Cabernet. We poured it off through three strainers. The color was amazing. Seep dark purple with some pretty purple tinged edges. We got to about 85% of it and decided to filter the balance with cheese cloth. We put that aside.
Tasting the wine we were both amazed at the quality. It had a vibrant mouth feel with some primary dark fruits. Some chewyness and glossiness on the back of the toque. We were surely smiling. We rinsed the barrel with some cab from the glass 5 gallon jar and poured the main wine back in. We then topped off the barrel with some from the middle of the 5 gallon jug. It had a similar profile, but maybe a bit more primary. Corked it and away it went. Next we did the same with the Petite Sirah. It was redder and dense without the clarity the cab had. On the palate we got some real nice PS profiled fruits with some soft tannins and plushness. Again we cleaned the barrel and refilled it. This time when we tasted the 5 gallon jar of the PS we both sensed some rotten eggs on the nose and finish. Maybe a dirty jar? We decided not to use it in our main petite Sirah, so we topped it with about 10% cabernet sauvignon/petite sirah blend we had in a 1 gallon jug. This was from the second pressing of all the skins and pips. It’s dark and deep with some nice cabernet fruits with the color of the PS. We cleaned up and opened a bottle of something to celebrate.
We have agreed to bottle this in 1 month. I want to capture the freshness and vibrancy while it’s still fruity and joyous. I will update then.
