We bottled our 2008 Cabernet today after 18 months in oak. We tried blending all the ID & WA cab together but the heavy ID cab covered up too much of the Cabernet fruit. We increased the ratio of WA cab and liked it much better, especially after adding the Malbec. The reserve blend ended up being:
60% WA Clone 6 Cabernet
33% ID Clone 2 Cabernet
07% Malbec
We also bottled a 100% ID Cabernet. The ID cab got quite a bit of oak from Ray's newer barrel and will take a little bit of time in the bottle to settle down. In the future we may want to rotate the reserve wines into less strong barrels to keep the extra 6 months. Everyone also got a bottle marked with a D on top, which is the dregs of the 2 barrels. They're extra chewy!
Mike had gotten a new mixing barrel that had a spigot on it, which made bottling easier because we didn't have to mess with a siphon. Bob had picked up some magnum bottles and we bottled some of the reserve Cabernet in them. We'll have to get all the winemakers to sign a few of them. They should peak in 6-8 years and be a delightful memory when opened.
The 2 empty barrels have been cleaned and rinsed with meta. We will have to assess what wines go into which barrels for the cooler when we rack off the fine lees at the end of the month.
Photos have been uploaded to our 2010 Picasa Online Album.
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