Finished Bottling 07 Wines

Bottled the last 2 wines for the year. A Cab/Malbec blend and a Syrah/Malbec blend. About 22 cases total.  We expect 1,000lbs of Wood River Merlot on Friday in it's own bin, plus an extra bin for fermenting Roger's cab.  We can borrow buy the extra bin from Dennis.  The cab from Roger is expected some time next week, weather depending.

 

We did some other winery work while we bottled.

1. Racked the 08 WA Malbec from SS and glass into Lee's 15G barrel plus some carboys.

 

2. Transferred about 10G of Clone-6 Cab into the Sangiovase to help offset the low Sangio sugar levels and add some cab skins for co-fermentation flavor.  Lee had inoculated both earlier in the day: The cab with 5 of the Pastur Red yeast (to handle the higher alcohol) and the Sangio with 5 of the Lavin 212 yeast.  The ID Malbec is now fermenting strongly in the 2 plastic barrels w/ liners. Mike moved them on top of some foam to get them off the garage floor and keep them warmer for fermentation as it is getting cooler outside.

 

3. Got started cleaning barrels, starting with the ones that are needed first. Any barrel that had a sulphur wick burnt in it or had any off smells will get a 24hr soak with Proxy Clean followed by a meta/citric rinse. Otherwise they just got a meta/citric rinse and are upside down. Here are the ones that have been treated so far. The proxy soaked ones need to get emptied and meta/citric rinsed tonight.

 

• Lee's 15G French got a meta/citric rinse and now has the WA Malbec in it.
• Troy's 15G Hungarian got a meta/citric rinse and is upside down drying.
• Troy's 26G American got a meta/citric rinse and is upside down drying.
• Bob's 15G American is in a proxy soak because of the seep on the lower front head. We need to rub some wax into it or use some epoxy (we have another container) to try and seal it up.
• Lee's 30G French is in a proxy soak.
• Michele's 15G hungarian is leaking so it will be hydrated and then proxy soaked.

 

2008 Barrel Plan

• WA Malbec into Lee's 15G French barrel
• WA C6 Cab into Troy's 26G American barrel
• Sangio into Troy's 15G Hungarian barrel plus Michele's 15G Hungarian barrel
• ID Malbec into Lee's 30G French barrel
• Merlot into Mike's 2 30G Hungarian barrels
• Roger's cab into
  - Ray's new 30G French
  - Bob's 20G French
  - Ray's 22G French
  - Bob's 15G American
  - Michele's 13G French