Quick Grape Report

Lee and I went out to Williamsons on Sat and then stopped by and saw Dennis. Wanted to pass along a couple notes from our discussions.

 

Roger indicated we could have up to 2,000lbs of Cab.  Syrah is unlikely as Koenig wants all he can get. Roger did say we could go in and pick after the mechanical pickers, though. It is worth a try to see what we can get.  Same with the Viognier, we will likely have to "gleen" after the regular picking.  Roger only has a little petite syrah and he doesn't know what they are going to do with it. So they may have some for us.  Roger did comment that the grapes were coming along nicely.

 

Dennis indicated that 1,000 lbs of merlot was easy to do, as is 300-500lbs of Chard.  We could also likely get some cab, but we told him no as we are getting lots of cab from Roger this year.  The malbec is more difficult because the new owners want all the malbec. Dennis may be able to get us a bin of malbec--but doesn't know for sure. And if we get a bin, we likely will get a 1,000lb full bin and not the smaller bins.  On the microbins, I think we'll be able to get 1-3 of the "smaller" microbins from Dennis, with the expectation that we keep them (price yet to be determined...). 

 

So here is how the 2008 order is rounding out. If we don't get any Malbec from Dennis,we have enough coming from Prosser to make Boisique and Maganfique. But we won't be able to do a cab/malbec or syrah/malbec blend.  Since the 500# of Syrah from Roger is unknown and we didn't get the 500# of Clone-6 from Dennis we have extra capacity for more of Roger's cabernet so we should do 1,000 pounds and could do 1,500 pounds. 

 

Wood River

- 300-500lbs Chard

- 1,000lbs Merlot

- 0 - 1,000lbs Malbec

 

Williamson

- 500lbs Viognier (gleen picking)

- 1,000-2,000lbs Clone 2 Cabernet

- 500 lbs Syrah (gleen picking--not sure how much we can expect)

- 100 lbs Petite Syrah (gleen picking? -- not sure if we can, and how much we can expect)

 

RiverRock (WA)

- 400 lbs Clone 6 Cabernet

 

Prosser

- 250 lbs Malbec

- 700 lbs Sangiovese

 

 

 

07 Boisique Bottling

We bottled 20 cases of Boisique last night, with the bottle washing being done the day before. Everyone got 4 cases of pure vino excitement!  Boy the Boisique sure tastes good out of a barrel! :-D

We had a double bottling line setup for awhile, which works great, but the second bottler kept failing to keep a siphon. Ray has ordered a nifty 3-bottle filler that will be more sturdy and really speed up bottling. Check it out at: http://www.eckraus.com/RK760.html . We will wait for our next bottling until it arrives. We'll have to work around the arrival of the Chard grapes (expected 9/25) followed by the Viognier grapes, ETA Oct 1.  We have a big run of Magnafique to do. It will be close to 30 cases!

Photos from my phone-camera are uploaded to the RiverWoods 2008 photo album, linked to our web page.

http://picasaweb.google.com/riverwoodswinery/Wine2008

 

Trial Blending #2

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Trial Blending #2

The group met and tried lots of blends. After much discussion (and some purple tongues) we decided on the following. Number of bottled cases of each wine is an estimate. We need to validate how many gallons we have in carboys.

1. Magnafique

We increased the merlot by 5 percent over the last tasting trials and added 1% petit verdot. We tried it both with "blended" cabs and the just the idaho cab. No clear favorite. The blended cab was a stronger flavor, for sure. We increased the merlot another 10%, and blended it with just the Idaho cab and liked this blend the best. So this year we have a "Left Bank" style Bordeaux blend. Tasty!

 

Est 70G (29+ Cases)

40% Idaho Cab (28G)

50% Wood River Merlot (35G) ** Need to hold back 35G of Merlot from the Boisique blending.

9% Wood River Malbec (6.3G)

1% Petit Verdot (0.7G)

 

2. Cab Blends

We kept the WA clone-6 separate. It's very strong this year--over ripe from hanging a long time (28 brix). Plus it picked up strong flavors from the MH toast French recoop barrel. We Tried blending it with Syrah and Malbec. We all liked the 60/40 Cab Syrah (better than the straight syrah) and the 60/40 Cab Malbec blend, but liked the Cab/Malbec blend the best. So we have a new blend that needs to be named.

 

(12.5 Cases)

60% RiverRock Clone-6 Cabernet (18G)
50% Wood River Malbec (12G)

3. Encore

Last year we made an Encore blend of syrah rose, malbec and a heavy dose of petit verdot. This year we liked the blend better without the petit verdot. It is amazing how well Syrah and Malbec blend together! Our blend this year is:

 

25G (10.4 Cases)

73% RiverRock Syrah (18.25G)

27% Wood River Malbec (6.75G)

 

4. Boisique

We decided on 80/20 at our last tasting.

(21 Cases)

80% Wood River Merlot (40G)

20% Wood River Malbec (10G)

First trial blending results.

The group met to try some different blends for the 2007 wines.

Bosique: Everyone liked the 80/20 merlot/malbec blend the best. The
difference between it and the 75/25 blend was amazing.

We tried 2 different Magnafique blends with no favorite. We will try
dialing up the merlot a bit to 50/40/10 cab/merlot/malbec. We may
also try just blending with the ID cab as the clone6 has a strong
menthol cherry smell (the initial blends were 50/50 cabs).

We will meet again on Monday at 730pm to try more blends, including
some encore blends to use up our extra cab and malbec. Here are some
potential blends.

- 50/50 cab syrah
- 60/40 cab malbec
- 33/33/33 cab syrah malbec
- 50/40/10 syrah malbec p verdot
- 95/4/1 cab malbec p verdot
- 100% syrah

Tasting Trials

Time to do some trial blending! Get your taste buds ready. :)

First trial is Wed at 7:30pm with the second the following Mon or Tue.

We will decide on our Magnafique, and Boisique Blends plus try some
options for our "Encore" blend.

Troy

Fall Schedule

Here are the dates we've gotten grapes the last couple years. We expect everything is a week or two later this year. But it's hard to say.  The cab will likely need to hang as long as possible to ripen--until frost is eminent.

 

Lee has mentioned several times that he would like to get some Chard in addition to the Viognier. I don't see any reason not to do it. It doesn't take a barrel and we have the capacity in Stainless. Anyone object?  The bonus of doing 30G of the Chard is it will come in a 500# microbin, which we can use for fermenting and possibly on our 2 runs to Washington for grapes this Fall.  Please reply-all with your thoughts. If we're going to do it we need to contact Dennis with the request ASAP.

 

Everyone should be getting bottles ready. 15 cases each, including 1.5 cases of non-shouldered for the syrah.  If you can, pre-rinse them with some straight-a to get out the stains to help make the bottle washing go faster.  I expect we'll want to do some wash-days before our bottle days.  We've got a lot of wine to bottle this Fall, and it will take 2 or 3 bottlings.  What are people's schedules between Sept 21 - October 5th so we can start to coordinate bottling?

 

We need to do some blending trials as well for this year's Boisique and Magafique. Plus we need to decide how we want to handle the syrah and the extra cabernet and malbec.  Here are a couple options to think about--we need to taste them and vote on what we like. (These are only a few options to start the discussion).

 

1. Keep Varietals Separate

Bottle 100% syrah. Bottle 95% cab + 5% malbec. Bottle 100% Malbec.

 

2. Separate Syrah and a Cab/Malbec Blend

Bottle 100% syrah. Bottle cab and malbec together at a 60%cab 40% malbec ratio.  Like the Amencya blend we tasted a few weeks ago.

 

3. Encore blend of Cab/Malbec/Syrah

Combine the syrah cab and malbec together. It would be similar to our "Encore" blend last fall. We found that Syrah and Malbec blended well, and I've seen several wines on the market that do this blend.  We need to taste it and see what we like!

 

Troy

 

PS: Ray--have you decided on your new barrel? You might consider holding off ordering it until we have confirmation that we'll get all the grapes we want. We have stainless and carboy storage where we can hold the wine for a few weeks if needed.

 

 

Chard

- Sept 16 2006

- Sept 20 2007

 

Viognier

- ~ Oct 1 2006 (we picked a little later than everyone else. grapes were ready a week before)

 

Merlot

- ~Oct 1 2006

- Oct 5 2007

- Oct 14 2007 (Wood River

 

Malbec

- Oct 14 2006

- Oct 5 2007

 

Syrah

- Oct 6 2006 (hells canyon)

- Oct 27 2007 (River rock)

 

Cab

- Oct 14 2006 (Wood River Clone 6)

- Oct 19 2006 (Williamson)

- Oct 23 2006 (River Rock clone 8)

- Oct 14 2007 (Wood River Clone 8)

- Oct 15 2007 (Riverrock Clone 6)

 

 

 

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

July 24 Topping Report

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Troy, Mike and Lee topped up wines tonight.  Tasted the ID Cab, Clone 6 Cab and Malbec. ID cab was the surprise of the night--it continues to get better as it gets more tannins/body from the barrel. The Malbec is smoothing out and the Clone 6 is like a blackberry liquor!  (Note: The WA Clone 6 was 28 brix, which translates to a potential alcohol of 15.5%!)  Other wines were smelled and we decided to try the Merlot 1/2 because the barrel has a small weep and a small amount of film was seen on top. It seems fine--but we sprayed the weeping area plus the wine.

 

Broke down 3G of Id Cab into two 1G carboys + 1G platypus for topping.

 

Broke down 5G of Malbec into a 3G carboy + 1G carboy + 1G platypus for topping.

 

Taped the vent-tube to the A/C again to try and improve air flow. We could use to get the return air fan working to help keep it cool.

 

We briefly discussed  meta additions for barrels. We started with less meta (25%?) on some of the grapes--at least the malbec and merlot #1. Plus our wine schedule calls for 15-20ppm in the summer, which we haven't added yet.  A 20ppm addition across the board would suffice.  We could also use to do a light additional sulfuring on the empty barrels soon.

Chateau Meesha

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Michele and Tom stopped by to borrow the bottling equipment as they get ready to bottle their 07 Wood River Cabernet and Chardonnay.  They have the:

 

- Bottle Washer

- Bottle Filler

- Bottle Tree and Meta Washer

- Corker

- A 1G platypus

 

Their Cabernet has been aged in a 15G Hungarian barrel now for 8-9 months, plus they added some French Oak Dominoes to get some more oak flavors about a month ago.  We still "owed" them another gallon of wine from the 2007 grapes and Lee and I sent them home w/ some Malbec and about 500ml of Petit Verdot to add to their blend.  That will make their blend be roughly:

 

89% Cabernet

5% Merlot

5% Malbec

1% Petit Verdot

 

Sounds yummy! Looking forward to tasting it. :-D

July 11 Topping Report

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Topped and tasted Friday evening. All wines were sound and tasting
good. The malbec is starting to smooth out and the WA C6 cab is
mellowing in the nutral barrel. We didn't find any ID cab in a
platypus or a 1G carboy so we topped with the clone6. We need to
breakdown a 3G carboy next time.

Bob's American oak barrel is showing a small seap leak at the bottom
of the front head. We sprayed it down with meta, but we need to keep
an eye on it.

The cellar was about 68-70 degrees at the far end. We connected the
dryer hose up to the A/C to try and improve circulation. We should
hook up the return air fan too.

We had some friends (Kurt and Stephanie) over to barrel taste, and
they enjoyed the tour.

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.

 

 

Auto Blog Email

Hi Gang,

 

I've set the Main Riverwoods blog up to send an email to all of us when a new entry is added. Below is the latest blog entry that Mike and Margaret added after topping up this week.

 

Troy

 

--Blog Entry from May 20th, titled Topping on 5/19/08

 

Hopefully, this works.

Margaret, Lee, Ray and Mike tasted and topped on May 19th and around 6:30 pm.

Chard in the SS keg. This wine has not changed much. It is still off, with a petrolium odor and taste. After a while, the petro smell/taste dissapates. We should probably watch it for a while and make a decision on go/no go later.

Did not smell/taste the Chard in the Glass.

Merlot 1/2 in the SS keg that came out of Ray's bbl is still a bit off in smell and taste. No scum; some foam (Mal/ferm?)

Merlot 1 in the new Hung bbl. Smells/tastes ok. Still a bit green. no scum

Merlot 2 in Lee's bbl. smell/tastes good. Softer than the Hung. bbl.
NOTE: We have some confusion with topping wine for the Merlot. We have a bag with "topping 1/2 only" for the SS keg, and also some other Merlot 1/2. Need to clarify what we can use to top what with. This will help those of us who have missed a session or can't determine for sure which to use from the label on the topping wine container.

Syrah had a slight oil film. smelled good. tasted ok.

All clone cabs smelled and tasted good. Topped with Cl 6.

Reserves smelled and tasted good. Moved the Willys into the cooler. Broke down the 3 gal carboy into 3/1 gal containers for topping.

Turned the cooler on due to the warm weather. Should probably move the topping containers into the back of the cooler if the warm weather holds.

Noted date and smell/taste/appearance/topping wine used on the bbl data sheets.




Margaret Dimmick
dimmicks@earthlink.net

Topping on 5/19/08

Hopefully, this works.

Margaret, Lee, Ray and Mike tasted and topped on May 19th and around 6:30 pm.

Chard in the SS keg. This wine has not changed much. It is still off, with a petrolium odor and taste. After a while, the petro smell/taste dissapates. We should probably watch it for a while and make a decision on go/no go later.

Did not smell/taste the Chard in the Glass.

Merlot 1/2 in the SS keg that came out of Ray's bbl is still a bit off in smell and taste. No scum; some foam (Mal/ferm?)

Merlot 1 in the new Hung bbl. Smells/tastes ok. Still a bit green. no scum

Merlot 2 in Lee's bbl. smell/tastes good. Softer than the Hung. bbl.
NOTE: We have some confusion with topping wine for the Merlot. We have a bag with "topping 1/2 only" for the SS keg, and also some other Merlot 1/2. Need to clarify what we can use to top what with. This will help those of us who have missed a session or can't determine for sure which to use from the label on the topping wine container.

Syrah had a slight oil film. smelled good. tasted ok.

All clone cabs smelled and tasted good. Topped with Cl 6.

Reserves smelled and tasted good. Moved the Willys into the cooler. Broke down the 3 gal carboy into 3/1 gal containers for topping.

Turned the cooler on due to the warm weather. Should probably move the topping containers into the back of the cooler if the warm weather holds.

Noted date and smell/taste/appearance/topping wine used on the bbl data sheets.




Margaret Dimmick
dimmicks@earthlink.net

Spring Schedule

The group met today to talk about the Spring schedule, the upcoming season and top/taste the wines. We blind tasted the 05 Hells Canyon Syrah against our 06 Syrah. Both were very good! At first we were split 50/50 on which was ours. After a second tasting we were more like 70/30. It's tough to identify your own wine!

Topped and tasted wines. All were sound. Merlot in stainless is OK. Should rack over copper to be sure. Need to re-rack malbec over copper as well. The rest of the reds just need a racking after MLF.

The 06 Wood River Clone 6 has a slight sharpness to the nose--not sure if it's gotten low on SO2--it looks like a while since we have added any. We should consider adding a minimum amount--15ppm would be good before we bottle.

The WW C6 Cab continues to have a strong toast flavor. When we rack out of that barrel we need to clean it good and rotate in another wine--maybe the merlot that is in SS now.

The favorite by far was the Williamson reserve. It is superb. We have to talk Roger out of 1,000lbs of grapes next year (or more) so we have more to hold over for reserve wines.

The bung on the chard in the 15G SS barrel wasn't very tight and some air got in. Unsure of the amount of spoilage. We sprayed with some meta and will check in another week. :( We're still waiting for it to go through MLF before bottling.

Winery Spring Schedule:
1. Clean Bottles: First week of June. We need approx 25 cases of reds and 3C of whites.Everyone check to see how many de-labeled bottles you have.

2. Bottle Reserves & Whites: Sun June 8th at 1pm. Blend reserve cabs with the held-back 06 malbec and petit verdot. Start w/ 95% cab, 4% malbec and 1% petit verdot.

3. Rack the reds the week after bottling and clean barrels. The malbec should go over copper again, as should the Merlot that is in Stainless. We'll rotate wine in barrels with the C6+malbec going into Troy's barrel and the Merlot from the SS to Bob's 20G french recoop (after cleaning it well). A couple days after the empty barrels dry we should sulfur them plus sulfur the other empty barrels (8G & 60G)

4. Troy will post a topping schedule for topping every other week, and a topping checklist.

That should do us until August when we rack again and then bottle in early September, unless something changes.


EXPANSION:
We talked about expanding capacity, with the highest priority being getting more reserves. This means getting more Williamson cab and Wood River Clone 6 cab so we can hold it over. To store them we would need more barrels and expand the cooler around the corner w/ another cooling unit. An easier approach may be to use the SS tanks Mike got and wood dominoes and make a more fruit forward merlot.

2008 Grapes
Troy and Mike will try and talk with Steve from Hells Canyon about getting some syrah this year. Troy will see what we can expect from Walla Walla. There have been several conversations with Roger about getting grapes this year and he seems receptive--we just need to continue to follow up. It would also be good to walk the Wood River Clone 6 row to see what we can expect there. Dennis stopped by earlier this year and we hope to continue to get more of his Malbec and Merlot.