We topped and tasted all the barrels last night. All wines are sound with no trace of rotten egg smell. Wines were down quite a bit--a full bottle or more in some cases. We need to stay on top of keeping them filled up.
Lee said he had seen some film on top of the malbec carboys which he blasted with some meta spray. We tasted those carboys and didn't find any problems, but we need to keep an eye on them. We may need to rack the Malbec one more time. We replaced the remaining carboy bubblers with solid stoppers and taped them down, leaving breathable bungs on the port in case it's still fermenting a little.
The cabernets were by far the favorites with the other wines being in a bit of a winter sleep. No problems, just muted flavors and aromas--partly from the colder temps we think. The 09 Williamson cabernet was amazing for being this young--it's going to be great this year. :-D
Both 08 reserve cabs are tasting excellent with the Clone 6 being more elegant and the Williamson cabernet being a real power-house that had a lot of new oak in it that gave the wine real complexity. The blend of the two together will be a great Reserve Cabernet!
We paid special attention to the petite sirah port which appears to be stratifying with more alcohol in the top layer. We need to rack it back out and mix it well to try and get the fortification to integrate better. We also need to decide on meta levels in the port--expecting to keep them a little higher than usual because of the residual sugar. Troy is going to take some wine samples to the testing center in Garden City to get a reading on meta ppm.
We expect we will filter and bottle the Chard in February and the Reserve Cabernet in May. There will be about 20-25G of Chardonnay and 60+G of Reserve Cabernet (GOODIE!).
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