ML Kicker Added

The group met and added ML cultures to the 2009 red wines, except the Petite Sirah and Petite Sirah Port.  We think the wines were starting ML from the residual cultures in the wood barrels, but we wanted to give it a kick to make sure it completes before the barrels move into the cooler.  We added about 2+ bags to the large barrels, 1+ bag to the smaller barrels and a little to all the carboys. Everything has a breathable bung or a bubbler.

 

We also tasted the 2 barrels of 2008 reserve cabs and decided that it is time to bottle because they have as much oak as we want.  The WA Clone6 cab from RiverRock vineyard has been in a 4 year old American Oak barrel. It is a smooth, lighter bodied cab with finer wood tannis--quite elegant. The ID Clone2 cab from Williamson vineyard has been in Ray's 1 year old French barrel. It has heavy french barrel flavor/aroma with vanilla toast and fruit and a very high alcohol level--a real BIG cab.  We liked them blended together the best and the current thought is we will blend them both into a single reserve along with 5% malbec and maybe a half a % petit verdot (both are held back from previous years for reserve cab blending).

 

We'll do a final trial blending tasting in the next few weeks with the entire group to make a decision on the 2008 Reserve Cabernet blend, followed by bottling. We'll need 27 cases of clean bottles, so start scrubbin! The great news is that means we all get over 5 cases of reserve cabernet (yum :).  I'll do a cork count to see if we need to order more.