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 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.
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