6/23/08 Racking

Group met Monday and finished racking the reds (Malbec, WA Clone6 Cab, Merlot #1). We started by tasting the chard to make a bottling decision. We made 3 samples

1. Oaked Chard Only

2. Blended Oak and No Oak Chard

3. No Oak Chard Only

The oaked chard definatly had too much oak flavor. Looking back in the blog we added the oak dominos March 21. So they have been in 3 months, which is too long. Our blog tasting notes show that on April 20th the Chard had a good oak flavor that everyone liked--so 1 month is a better duration (although one reason we left the oak in longer this time was to try and cover up the oxidized/spoilage flavors). The No Oak chard was very tart and had grapefruit flavors. The blend of the two was still too oaky (approx 3 parts oaked to 2 parts non-oaked). We tried 3 parts non-oaked to 1 part oaked and the grouped liked that the best and decided to bottle that.

The 2 lessons learned here are:

1. Make sure the bungs are in tight so air can't get to the wine.

2. When using oak additives check the flavor of the wine regularly to avoid over oaking.

We racked the Malbec over copper to continue to treat the HSO2. The smell is gone--but we wanted to be safe plus we need to blow off some of the extra sulfites we added in earlier treatment. The Malbec went back into Lee's 30G barrel. The Clone-6 cab had a tremendous vanilla bean smell as we racked it from Bob's new French oak barrel. We think the barrel is more of a Med Heavy toast as it has really given the wine a strong barrel flavor, which is why we've moved the Clone 6 into Lee's 15G neutral french barrel. The Merlot #1 is tasting very good and was put back into Mike's 30G Hungarian barrel.

Racking went smoothly this time with no spills. :) We stopped racking as soon as we started getting sediment, to help clarity. But we racked the extra wine that wasn't too cloudy into a bucket and then blended the leftovers together into a Bordeaux-like sludge blend and put it into 1G carboys to settle out. We did a pre-blend on Magnafique with about 60% cab, 30% merlot and 10% malbec and it was very good. The Clone 6 cab this year is very strong flavored--plus the extra barrel flavors--but it blended well.

We tried a bottle of 2006 Amencaya, which is 50% malbec 50% Cabernet, and talked about trying to make that blend. The group thought it had potential--although the Amencaya's malbec flavor was a bit too overpowering. We also talked about the possibility of making a "Left Bank" style bordeaux blend that is more merlot. Something like 80% merlot #1, 15% cabernet and 5% malbec. Maybe a dash of Petit Verdot. Sounds like some fun blending trials ahead of us! :P

We put some proxyclean into Bob's 20G french barrel and left it overnight to clean and then Bob and Lee emptied it, did a meta/citric rinse and a fresh water rinse the next day. We need to let it dry a few days and then sulfur it and the other empty barrels.

Our winemaking schedule calls for adding 15ppm SO2 after MLF (now) to all wines except the Malbec because we added extra sulfites to it to treat the rotten egg smell earlier. Here are the amounts we need to add. They should be added here in the next month or so (ideally we would have added the SO2 before racking). How about the next time we top up?

15PPM SO2

- 1/4 tsp meta = 15ppm in 15 gal

- 1/3 tsp meta = 15ppm in 20 gal

- 1/2 tsp meta = 15ppm in 30 gal

Meet Tonight

Hi All,

 

Everyone is set to meet tonight at 6:30pm. We'll blind taste the chard combined and separate and make a decision on bottling.  We'll also continue working on racking the reds.  The wines that still need to be racked are:

 

1. Malbec needs to be racked over copper and goes back into Lee's 30G French barrel.

 

2. WA Clone-6 Cab is racked into Lee's 15G (neutral) French barrel.

 

3. Merlot #1 is racked and goes back into Mike's 30G Hungarian barrel.

 

 

Our winemaking schedule calls for adding 15ppm SO2 after MLF (now).

 15PPM SO2

    - 1/4 tsp meta = 15ppm in 15 gal

    - 1/3 tsp meta = 15ppm in 20 gal

    - 1/2 tsp meta = 15ppm in 30 gal

We need to clean Bob's 20G French barrel w/ Oxyfresh.

 

We need to sulfur (or re sulfur) empty barrels.

 

See you at 6:30pm,

 

Troy

 

 

Initial Thoughts On 2007 Wine Blends

Blog Entry:

 

Started thinking about the wines we have in the barrels and what wines we might blend this Fall, and how many bottles each we would get (makes a guy thirsty!).  We got lots of merlot and malbec, so we will make a lot of Boisique! Which is good because we *love* our Boisique! We may even consider holding the Merlot #1 over and making a "Boisique Reserve" this year.  We will have some extra Malbec and Idaho cab, so we might try a Cab/Malbec blend. We should start some taste trials to see if we like a cab/malbec blend--and then come up with a fitting name. :)

 

Here's a swag at the blends (this is just an early estimate--blends will be set after we taste).

 

Troy

 

35G of Boisique (~ 3 cases each)

30G Merlot 1&2

5G Malbec

 

Hold 35G of Boisique for an additional 6 mo for our reserve (~3 cases each)

30G Merlot 1

5G Malbec

 

48G Magnifique (~ 4 cases each)

20G WA Clone-6 Cab  42%

10G ID Cab 21%

15G Merlot 31%

2G Malbec 4%

1G Petit Verdot 2%

 

15G Syrah (~1.25 cases each)

 

41G New Blend (~3.5 cases each)

20G ID Cab 49%

20G Malbec 49%

1G Petit Verdot 2%

6/16/08 Racking Report

Blog Update:

 

Lee/Bob/Mike/Troy met on Monday to rack. We managed to combine and rack the ID Cab into Troy's 26G American barrel, combined the merlot 1/2 and merlot 2 into a 30G hungarian and Bob's 15G American Oak barrel (after verifying if we wanted to keep Merlot 1 or 2 separate) , and racked the Syrah out and back into Troy's 15G Hungarian barrel.  We ran some of the merlot 1/2 over copper and stirred it some. We'll have to check it and see if we need to rack it over copper this summer.  We spilled a little more wine than we should have.....something to keep in mind is when racking back into the barrel, always ask yourself if there is more wine than the barrel will hold.  :)

 

Here are the barrels that still need to be racked. We'll also need to sulfur the empty barrels.  How about Monday June 23rd? 6:30pm?

 

1. Malbec

Keep in Lee's 30G French barrel. We'll have several gallons left for topping.

 

2. Merlot #1

Keep separate, as it's the better clone. Keep in the current Hungarian 30G barrel. We'll have to top-up with Merlot 1/2.

 

3. WA Clone 6 Cab

Move from the new French 20G Recoop as it's getting a strong toast flavor. Move it into Lee's 15G older French (neutral) barrel, plus carboys for topping.

 

All the barrels are in the cooler, but we ended up putting 2 of them onto the low dolly carts because the barrel holders failed when moving barrels around.  It will work for now--but it will be difficult to lift them.  We need to re-evaluate the barrel ordering and supports to get them set "right".  One possibility is to modify the barrel cradles with wheels so they will roll into the cooler and still accept the barrel lifter. Bob almost had one figured modified on Monday that fit.

 

 

2006 Riverwoods Reserve Cabernet

The group met on Sunday June 8th to bottle our Reserve Cabernet. We had a 26G barrel of 06 Williamson Cabernet and a 22G barrel of 06 Wood River Clone 6 Cabernet--both of which had 18 months of barrel age. We also had some gallons of Malbec and Petit Verdot held back from last year to blend.

 

The first order of business was to determine the blends.  Should we keep them 100% Cabernet, or blend in some of the Malbec and Petit Verdot we held back. Last fall when we bottled we all liked about 4% Malbec and 1% Petite Verdot--so that was our starting point. We did 3 blends. One of the things we were trying to ascertain was to see if we liked the Petit Verdot, given how overwhelming it was in the 06 Magnafique at 2%.

 

THE TRIAL BLENDS

1. 95% Cab, 4% Malbec, 1% Petit Verdot

2. 95% Cab, 5% Malbec

3. 100% Cab

 

We made up carafes of the different blends for both the Williamson and the Wood River Clone 6 Cabernet and began tasting them.  The wines were all very different. The Petit Verdot definitely added to the finish of the wine, and the Malbec added red fruit. The Williamson cab was more dry and the Wood River cab had more dark fruit.  All the blends were good, but we needed to vote on which we wanted to bottle.  To our surprise, we had a split vote on which was more popular.  In general, half liked #1 blend and half liked #3, no blend.  What to do?

 

The suggestion was made to blend both the Cabernets together. We took and combined the "leftover" wine from several carafes and proceeded to taste. This time it was unanimous that everyone liked the blended cabs better! The only question was, what blend did we end up with???  We figured that in the combined blend we probably reduced the petit verdot and malbec percentages by 25%-50% and given the amounts of cabernet and malbec we had available, here is the blend we got.

 

55% Williamson Clone 2 Cabernet
42% Wood River Clone 6 Cabernet
2.5% Malbec
0.5% Petit Verdot

 

And thus the 2006 Riverwoods Reserve Cabernet was born!

 

Mike coordinated getting 23 cases of bottles washed the previous day so we had all the clean bottles we needed and in a few hours we each walked home proudly carrying 4+ cases of Riverwoods Reserve Cabernet. Yum Yum!  It certainly *deserves* some bottle time--but who knows if it will see any! ;)   In the interim, an hour of decanting will help bring out the flavors.

 

Next week we will rack wines to clarify them and then put them into the cooler for their summer nap.  As we rack we need to rotate barrels to balance the volumes, and adjust some for flavors. Here is the proposed racking and barrels. Note: We need to verify which barrel of Merllot (#1 or #2) we want to manage speratly. The below list is keeping #1 out.

 

 

1. Malbec

Keep in Lee's 30G French barrel. We'll have several gallons left for topping.

 

2. Syrah

Keep in Troy's 15G Hungarian. We'll have just enough to rack and top.

 

3. Idaho Cab

Combine the 15G American & 15G French into Troy's 26G American. That will give us enough for topping.

 

4. Merlot #2 + Merlot #1/2

Combine the 30G of Merlot#2 and the 22G of Merlot 1/2 that is in Stainless and Carboys. Put them back into a 30G Hungarian plus Bob's 15G American (that had ID cab in it).

 

5. Merlot #1

Keep separate, as it's the better clone. Keep in the current Hungarian 30G barrel. We'll have to top-up with Merlot 1/2, though.

 

6. WA Clone 6 Cab

Move from the new French 20G Recoop as it's getting a strong toast flavor. Move it into Lee's 15G older French (neutral) barrel, plus carboys for topping.

 

That leaves the following barrels empty:

- Ray's 22G French

- Bob's 20G French

- Lee's 8G American (currently empty, and sulfured)

- Lee's 60G French (currently empty, and sulfured)

 

After racking, we will need to clean both Ray's 22G French and Bob's 20G French w/ Oxy-clean, dry them for a couple days and then burn a sulfur wick in them. We also need to burn another sulfur wick in Lee's 60G French and his 8G French.

 

Topping June 5th, 2008

Topped the red wine barrels. All wines smelled good. We tasted the malbec and merlot 1/2 and they both are fine, although they could each use to be racked over copper again.  There was some evidence of MLF--but not much.

 

- We are out of ID cab, so we topped it with Malbec.

 

- We thought the Merlot 1/2 was fine (no defects), so we resumed topping the merlot with it.

 

- We cleaned a 1G platypus for Syrah topping.

 

When we rack we'll move wines around into different barrels to better fit the volumes and balance flavors.