8/19 Topping Report

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Troy and Mike did a quick top-up on Tuesday and added the final dose of meta to prepare for bottling and protect it from oxidation. We added 15ppm SO2 (about 8ppm will get bound to the wine) which is about how much SO2 will get dissipated as we rack the wine out and bottle it.  We didn't add extra Meta to the Malbec as it had earlier additions of meta from the rotten egg smell treatments.  We also broke out a gallon of Merlot into a Platypus for topping, and we sprayed Bob's 15G barrel where it is weeping.

 

We counted up about 185 gallons of wine, which equates to about 15 1/2 cases of wine each. Start washing bottles! :)  Last year when we were bottling Lee suggested using non-shouldered bottles for the Syrah. That would be nice to have this year. So 1 1/2 cases of non-shouldered and 14 cases of shouldered.

 

In looking at the gallons of wine we will have some extra cabernet and malbec.  While topping Mike and I tried a 50/50 blend of malbec w/ the Idaho cab and with the Clone 6 cab. Then we poured the leftovers together to be a blend of the 2 cabs and the malbec. Interestingly we again liked the blended ID Cab and WA clone-6 cab mixed with the malbec the best (just like with the recent Reserve cab blend).  More tasting trials are needed to get others thoughts and try other blends. :)

 

 

 

8/7/08 Topping Report

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The gang met tonight to top-up and talk about the 2008 grape order.  We also got to taste Michele and Tom's Chard and Cab they recently bottled and a bottle of Zerba cab from WA that Ray and Sharon brought.  The chard was nice with a nice oak balance and a buttery texture from the MLF.  Still some tartness--but it wasn't over powering.  A good result with the oak dominoes. The cab had some malbec and merlot. It was the first wine in their new 15G Hungarian barrel and had a strong wood campfire nose to it. The taste was smooth. After a few months of bottle age it should drink nicely. :)  The Zerba cab was nice--but the group liked our cabs better!

 

We spot tasted the wines as we topped. All were sound. Bob's 15G barrel continues to have a slight weep on the bottom front. The wine is sound (merlot 1/2) so we sprayed it down again w/ meta and we will need to seal it after we bottle this fall.  We smelled the empty barrels and burned a sulfur wick in the two 20G french and 8g American as they were getting a slight VA smell. The flame got a bit tall and we blackend the wood a bit. Troy's not as good at it as Lee. (cough cough). We need to start hydrating the little 8G barrel with some water and meta.  We also need to add 15ppm meta to the reds (except the malbec and merlot 1/2 which already got extra meta).

 

We discussed the 2008 grape order and the change in Wood River Vineyard access. We believe we can get grapes from Dennis this year, but we are uncertain about access after that. Most likely the malbec access will be gone, but we may be able to still get merlot.  We need to make contact with the new owner.

We agreed our #1 priority this year was getting some extra Malbec in case we need to hold some over for next year.  Other priorities are to get merlot for Boisique and to try out some grapes from the Prosser source that has Malbec to see how it is and see if we can get some syrah from Roger or Hell's Canyon. Since it's a late start year it will be difficult to get ripe cab, but we would still like to see what clone-6 we can get from Dennis and what clone-2 we can get from Roger, plus we have some clone 6 cab from Walla Walla.  For a white this year we'd like to do some more Viognier.  We'd like to try a super-tuscan again and get some Sangiovese from Prosser. We can blend it with cab or merlot. Since the cab may be green this year we may be better off with Merlot--which is reflected in our order. But we may change last minute to get some Cabernet to blend instead.

 

We would like to contact Hell's Canyon about getting some more of their syrah. Sharon thought she could get us in contact with them through Bob. Mike and Troy will take a bottle of our 06 Syrah over and talk with them and see if we can get some grapes.

 

Here's the grape order we are looking at, followed by the proposed barrel allocations.  Grapes will shift around as we find out what we can get from where.  If we end up getting Syrah from both Roger and Hells' Canyon then we'll have to store some wine in the 15G stainless kegs with oak dominoes.  We're getting a couple different grapes from Prosser to try out. The price is reasonable, but there will be extra cost from the drive over and back for gas.

 

Wood River

- 800lbs Malbec

- 1,000lbs Merlot (sunny side clone)

- 500lbs Clone 6 Cabernet (est. could be more)

 

Williamson

- 500 lbs Viognier

- 500 lbs Clone 2 Cabernet

- 400 lbs Syrah

- 100 lbs Petite Syrah (to blend with the syrah--may need to pick ourselves)

 

RiverRock (WA)

- 400 lbs Clone 6 Cabernet

 

Hells Canyon

- 500 lbs Syrah (hope for--not a sure thing)

 

Prosser

- 250 lbs Malbec

- 700 lbs Sangiovese

 

Barrels:

 

Mike's 30G Hungarian #1: Wood River Merlot

Mike's 30G Hungarian #2: Syrah (+ 25% Petit Syrah if we can get some)

Lee's 30G French: Wood River Clone 6 Cab

Troy's 26G American: Williamson Clone 2 Cab

Ray's 22G French: Wood River Malbec

Bob's 20G French: Wood River Malbec

Ray's 20G French (new): WA Clone 6 Cab

Bob's 15G American: Wood River Merlot

Troy's 15G Hungarian: Prosser Sangiovese

Lee's 15G French: Prosser Malbec

Lee's 8G American: Prosser Sangiovese

Tom&Michel 15G Hungarian: Prosser Sangiovese

Tom&Michele 10G French: Wood River Merlot