Big Day

Lee and Ray picked up 2 bins from Dennis at Wood River Vineyards this morning. A big bin of his Cabernet (est 800-900 lbs) and a microbin of Merlot (est 550-600lbs). Crushed/destemmed and put meta on the must (4.5tsp merlot and 6.5 tsp on cab). Covered and waiting 48h to innoculate.

Estimate 50-55G of cabernet. 18G of the cab will go to Michele's new barrel plus carboys to top, leaving us 35-37G, about perfect for a 30G barrel.

OPTIONS:
1. Could put into Ray's 22G and Lee's8G if we bottle the 2006 Wood River Clone-6.
2. Could get a new barrel.
3. Could hold cab in SS for a few months and then bottle the 06 Clone-6.
4. Might be nice to snag 5-10G after 12-24 maceration and make a blush.

We'll wait until I get back from Walla Walla tomorrow and see how many pounds of RiverRock Clone-6 cabernet I bring back.

The Numbers:
Merlot(2) 25.5 Brix, 3.3 PH. Not quite as ripe flavors as the first bin of Merlot we got last week. Cabernet 26.5 Brix, 3.5 ph. Great numbers.

Pressed the WoodRiver Malbec, which was down to 0.996 SG, into Lee's 30G French plus 12G in carboys. Put fermemtation locks on.

The RiverRock syrah has been lingering and we finally pressed it. It was at 0.992 (almost dry). Filled Troy's 15G Hungarian plus 2 1G carboys. Will be tight after racking and topping. Dana thinks he can float us a little Mourvedre, which would be great. It would lower the ph, give us extra volume, and make a mighty tasty blend. Fingers are crossed. :)

Merlot1 was down to about 2.5 brix. Expect to press it in 4 days or so, depending on temps.