ML Complete

We topped and tasted on Sunday and ML has completed.  All wines are sound and we have some great wines for blending plus enough cabernet to hold a barrel or two over for a reserve wine.

 

- The merlot was the favorite of the night, dark and full flavored followed by the ID Malbec.  The malbec continues to have no green flavors--I think the longer ripening time made a difference.  The merlot & malbec will make some GREAT Boisique this year!

 

- The rotten egg smell is now gone on the WA Malbec. 

 

- The Williamson cabernet continues to be a little harsh from the exposed seed tannins, but more time in the barrel will mellow that.

 

- The WA Clone-6 Cab is unremarkable this year--not sure why. Maybe we took too much must off to co-ferment with the Super Tuscan?  When we rack I'd like to move it into a newer barrel like Bob's 20G French Med+ to help bring up the nose and flavors.

 

- The sangio/cab blend is light but pleasant with no rotten egg smell. It is starting to pick up some wood and get a little drier--showing it's sangio.  Add some Petit Verdot for some back-bone and maybe a little merlot to bring out the cherries and I think it will be a nice Super Tuscan.

 

- We broke down a 5G merlot into 1G carboys plus the platypus and re-filled the sangio and malbec topping (note: each platypus could use to get a pinch of meta to keep down the bugs.)

 

- We are topping both malbecs with ID malbec.

 

- We are topping both cabs with WA cab.

 

7 Barrels are in the main cooler with all carboys and the AC is on.  3 barrels and 2 ss kegs are still out on the garage floor. The group is working on a second stand-alone cooler to go over them.  Now that ML is complete we will be doing a clarification racking of all wines soon. Proposed time is next Sun and Mon.

Super Tuscan Thoughts

If we end up bottling a super tuscan now, for storage reasons, here's what it would look like.

 

For reference, our last super tuscan was a field blend of 56% Sangiovese, 33% Cabernet and 11% Petit Verdot.

 

The current Super Tuscan "base" is about 52G of Sangio and 25G of Cabernet.  That's about 68% Sangio and 32% cab.

 

If we end up bottling early for space, we'll also need to empty a 15G SS keg of Merlot.

 

We have 5G of Petit Verdot.

 

52G Sangio   54%

25G Cabernet  26%

15G Merlot  15%

5G  Petit Verdot 5%

 

For a total of 97 G of Super Tuscan!  That's 8 cases each!  (So we had better like it!)

 

I think that's a reasonable blend, but we'd have to do a taste trial to see what we think.

 

Troy

 

 

 

ML done update

April 30, 2009, Lee, Ray and Mike checked the topping of wines and added ML to:  Super Tuscan; Merlot, Malbec and the Clone 6 Cab.  Used a total of 8 packets of WYEAST laboratories 4007 MALO-LAC 0617105 ; mfg 27 APR 09. We did not add ML to the Williamson Cab. 

 

In the next few days, I will get another packet of ML for the larger Carboys in the cooler we did not treat cuz we ran out of ML.

 

 We tasted all wines and everything seems OK.  There was a slight oilly film on the Idaho Malbec.  Sprayed a bit of Meta on it.  Need to check next topping.  Opinion of the above 3 tasters is that the Super Tuscan needs some wood.  Bottling early, as talked/planned for in June, is maybe slipping.  Need to look at summer storage for the extra bbls this year if we don't bottle the SuperT.  Merlot and Willys Cab is REALLY tasting great.  This Cab should make a great Reserve.

 

Ray thought he and Bob could slap together a breakdown cooler in a couple of weeks.  I'm available to help as needed.     Mike

 

 

Margaret Dimmick

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