The group met tonight to discuss the 2010 grapes and bottling of the 2009 wines.
The wine season is coming together, although we haven't been able to close the deal with Wood River for Merlot and Malbec--so we're starting to be concerned that those grapes might fall through. As an alternative we will see if we can get some (#500?) Malbec or Merlot from Larry Kornze. It will be fewer pounds than we had planned, so we'll try and get some Tempranillo from Larry too--Ray thought he would have about 600# available.
Lee talked with Roger about some Syrah or Cabernet, and thought some would be available. With the late growing year we're going to go with earlier riping grapes and ask for 1,000-1,500# of Williamson Syrah and no Williamson Cabernet . That will give us some extra gallons for others who are trying winemaking with us (Tomlinson and OLeary).
Lee is going to take a bottle of our Petite Sirah Port out to Steve and Leslee at Robertson's and see if we might be able to glean some late Syrah for a port this year. Our fingers are crossed for 300-400#. If we can get it, we'll have to start looking for more fortifying spirits.
We're unsure about a white wine this year. Roger said he has some young Vioginer, which we think would be worth trying. We're going to try for 500-1,000#. Michele is interested in some Viognier. Kirk indicated he is interested in trying his hand, and some Viognier would be a good place to start. It would be fun to go out and pick it ourselves, if we can.
We tasted the Merlot, which has been coming along but is still very bitter. A trial blend of 75% Merlot and 25% Malbec was promising--if we can just take the edge off of the Merlot. We discussed fining the Merlot to reduce the astringency bitter tannins. We think we'll try some egg whites, which is a proven gentle method, to help smooth out the Merlot. We are meeting Monday morning at 11am to confirm how much to add and do the fining. We'll let the merlot sit for a couple weeks after adding the egg whites while we bottle the Cousins. We tasted the 50/50 Cousins, which is good. Adding a bit more Petite Sirah punches up the fruit. We need to settle on a final blend. Blending trials is always something to look forward to!
Here is the count of gallons from the last racking. We'll be bottling everything but the WA Cab and a barrel of the ID Cab--which we'll hold over for a Reserve Cabernet. That's about 250G - 60G = 190G of wine. That's about 16 cases of bottles each. (Note: we've already bottled the port). Time to start cleaning bottles! We should try and get some bottling done in September, while we have the manpower around.
From early trial blending I'm guessing we'll have
1. A "Left Bank" Cabernet style Bordeaux. Blend TBD, starting with 70% Cab, 20% Franc, 10% Merlot
2. Boisique. 75/25% blend?
3. Cousins (around 70% PS 30%S)
4. Encore Syrah/Malbec ( Something like 75% Syrah, 25% Malbec--depending on other blends)
5. 60G Cab Reserves...to be bottled in the Spring.
Rough 2010 Wine Gallons
Willy's Cab 55 gal
WA Cab 35 gal
Cab Franc 5gal
Merlot 35gal
Malbec 25 gal
Syrah 30gal
P.Syrah 25gal
Cab Franc 5gal
Merlot 35gal
Malbec 25 gal
Syrah 30gal
P.Syrah 25gal
Cousins 15gal
Port 17gal
Port 17gal
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