8/19 Topping Report

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Troy and Mike did a quick top-up on Tuesday and added the final dose of meta to prepare for bottling and protect it from oxidation. We added 15ppm SO2 (about 8ppm will get bound to the wine) which is about how much SO2 will get dissipated as we rack the wine out and bottle it.  We didn't add extra Meta to the Malbec as it had earlier additions of meta from the rotten egg smell treatments.  We also broke out a gallon of Merlot into a Platypus for topping, and we sprayed Bob's 15G barrel where it is weeping.

 

We counted up about 185 gallons of wine, which equates to about 15 1/2 cases of wine each. Start washing bottles! :)  Last year when we were bottling Lee suggested using non-shouldered bottles for the Syrah. That would be nice to have this year. So 1 1/2 cases of non-shouldered and 14 cases of shouldered.

 

In looking at the gallons of wine we will have some extra cabernet and malbec.  While topping Mike and I tried a 50/50 blend of malbec w/ the Idaho cab and with the Clone 6 cab. Then we poured the leftovers together to be a blend of the 2 cabs and the malbec. Interestingly we again liked the blended ID Cab and WA clone-6 cab mixed with the malbec the best (just like with the recent Reserve cab blend).  More tasting trials are needed to get others thoughts and try other blends. :)

 

 

 

8/7/08 Topping Report

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The gang met tonight to top-up and talk about the 2008 grape order.  We also got to taste Michele and Tom's Chard and Cab they recently bottled and a bottle of Zerba cab from WA that Ray and Sharon brought.  The chard was nice with a nice oak balance and a buttery texture from the MLF.  Still some tartness--but it wasn't over powering.  A good result with the oak dominoes. The cab had some malbec and merlot. It was the first wine in their new 15G Hungarian barrel and had a strong wood campfire nose to it. The taste was smooth. After a few months of bottle age it should drink nicely. :)  The Zerba cab was nice--but the group liked our cabs better!

 

We spot tasted the wines as we topped. All were sound. Bob's 15G barrel continues to have a slight weep on the bottom front. The wine is sound (merlot 1/2) so we sprayed it down again w/ meta and we will need to seal it after we bottle this fall.  We smelled the empty barrels and burned a sulfur wick in the two 20G french and 8g American as they were getting a slight VA smell. The flame got a bit tall and we blackend the wood a bit. Troy's not as good at it as Lee. (cough cough). We need to start hydrating the little 8G barrel with some water and meta.  We also need to add 15ppm meta to the reds (except the malbec and merlot 1/2 which already got extra meta).

 

We discussed the 2008 grape order and the change in Wood River Vineyard access. We believe we can get grapes from Dennis this year, but we are uncertain about access after that. Most likely the malbec access will be gone, but we may be able to still get merlot.  We need to make contact with the new owner.

We agreed our #1 priority this year was getting some extra Malbec in case we need to hold some over for next year.  Other priorities are to get merlot for Boisique and to try out some grapes from the Prosser source that has Malbec to see how it is and see if we can get some syrah from Roger or Hell's Canyon. Since it's a late start year it will be difficult to get ripe cab, but we would still like to see what clone-6 we can get from Dennis and what clone-2 we can get from Roger, plus we have some clone 6 cab from Walla Walla.  For a white this year we'd like to do some more Viognier.  We'd like to try a super-tuscan again and get some Sangiovese from Prosser. We can blend it with cab or merlot. Since the cab may be green this year we may be better off with Merlot--which is reflected in our order. But we may change last minute to get some Cabernet to blend instead.

 

We would like to contact Hell's Canyon about getting some more of their syrah. Sharon thought she could get us in contact with them through Bob. Mike and Troy will take a bottle of our 06 Syrah over and talk with them and see if we can get some grapes.

 

Here's the grape order we are looking at, followed by the proposed barrel allocations.  Grapes will shift around as we find out what we can get from where.  If we end up getting Syrah from both Roger and Hells' Canyon then we'll have to store some wine in the 15G stainless kegs with oak dominoes.  We're getting a couple different grapes from Prosser to try out. The price is reasonable, but there will be extra cost from the drive over and back for gas.

 

Wood River

- 800lbs Malbec

- 1,000lbs Merlot (sunny side clone)

- 500lbs Clone 6 Cabernet (est. could be more)

 

Williamson

- 500 lbs Viognier

- 500 lbs Clone 2 Cabernet

- 400 lbs Syrah

- 100 lbs Petite Syrah (to blend with the syrah--may need to pick ourselves)

 

RiverRock (WA)

- 400 lbs Clone 6 Cabernet

 

Hells Canyon

- 500 lbs Syrah (hope for--not a sure thing)

 

Prosser

- 250 lbs Malbec

- 700 lbs Sangiovese

 

Barrels:

 

Mike's 30G Hungarian #1: Wood River Merlot

Mike's 30G Hungarian #2: Syrah (+ 25% Petit Syrah if we can get some)

Lee's 30G French: Wood River Clone 6 Cab

Troy's 26G American: Williamson Clone 2 Cab

Ray's 22G French: Wood River Malbec

Bob's 20G French: Wood River Malbec

Ray's 20G French (new): WA Clone 6 Cab

Bob's 15G American: Wood River Merlot

Troy's 15G Hungarian: Prosser Sangiovese

Lee's 15G French: Prosser Malbec

Lee's 8G American: Prosser Sangiovese

Tom&Michel 15G Hungarian: Prosser Sangiovese

Tom&Michele 10G French: Wood River Merlot

July 24 Topping Report

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Troy, Mike and Lee topped up wines tonight.  Tasted the ID Cab, Clone 6 Cab and Malbec. ID cab was the surprise of the night--it continues to get better as it gets more tannins/body from the barrel. The Malbec is smoothing out and the Clone 6 is like a blackberry liquor!  (Note: The WA Clone 6 was 28 brix, which translates to a potential alcohol of 15.5%!)  Other wines were smelled and we decided to try the Merlot 1/2 because the barrel has a small weep and a small amount of film was seen on top. It seems fine--but we sprayed the weeping area plus the wine.

 

Broke down 3G of Id Cab into two 1G carboys + 1G platypus for topping.

 

Broke down 5G of Malbec into a 3G carboy + 1G carboy + 1G platypus for topping.

 

Taped the vent-tube to the A/C again to try and improve air flow. We could use to get the return air fan working to help keep it cool.

 

We briefly discussed  meta additions for barrels. We started with less meta (25%?) on some of the grapes--at least the malbec and merlot #1. Plus our wine schedule calls for 15-20ppm in the summer, which we haven't added yet.  A 20ppm addition across the board would suffice.  We could also use to do a light additional sulfuring on the empty barrels soon.

Chateau Meesha

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Michele and Tom stopped by to borrow the bottling equipment as they get ready to bottle their 07 Wood River Cabernet and Chardonnay.  They have the:

 

- Bottle Washer

- Bottle Filler

- Bottle Tree and Meta Washer

- Corker

- A 1G platypus

 

Their Cabernet has been aged in a 15G Hungarian barrel now for 8-9 months, plus they added some French Oak Dominoes to get some more oak flavors about a month ago.  We still "owed" them another gallon of wine from the 2007 grapes and Lee and I sent them home w/ some Malbec and about 500ml of Petit Verdot to add to their blend.  That will make their blend be roughly:

 

89% Cabernet

5% Merlot

5% Malbec

1% Petit Verdot

 

Sounds yummy! Looking forward to tasting it. :-D

July 11 Topping Report

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Topped and tasted Friday evening. All wines were sound and tasting
good. The malbec is starting to smooth out and the WA C6 cab is
mellowing in the nutral barrel. We didn't find any ID cab in a
platypus or a 1G carboy so we topped with the clone6. We need to
breakdown a 3G carboy next time.

Bob's American oak barrel is showing a small seap leak at the bottom
of the front head. We sprayed it down with meta, but we need to keep
an eye on it.

The cellar was about 68-70 degrees at the far end. We connected the
dryer hose up to the A/C to try and improve circulation. We should
hook up the return air fan too.

We had some friends (Kurt and Stephanie) over to barrel taste, and
they enjoyed the tour.

6/23/08 Racking

Group met Monday and finished racking the reds (Malbec, WA Clone6 Cab, Merlot #1). We started by tasting the chard to make a bottling decision. We made 3 samples

1. Oaked Chard Only

2. Blended Oak and No Oak Chard

3. No Oak Chard Only

The oaked chard definatly had too much oak flavor. Looking back in the blog we added the oak dominos March 21. So they have been in 3 months, which is too long. Our blog tasting notes show that on April 20th the Chard had a good oak flavor that everyone liked--so 1 month is a better duration (although one reason we left the oak in longer this time was to try and cover up the oxidized/spoilage flavors). The No Oak chard was very tart and had grapefruit flavors. The blend of the two was still too oaky (approx 3 parts oaked to 2 parts non-oaked). We tried 3 parts non-oaked to 1 part oaked and the grouped liked that the best and decided to bottle that.

The 2 lessons learned here are:

1. Make sure the bungs are in tight so air can't get to the wine.

2. When using oak additives check the flavor of the wine regularly to avoid over oaking.

We racked the Malbec over copper to continue to treat the HSO2. The smell is gone--but we wanted to be safe plus we need to blow off some of the extra sulfites we added in earlier treatment. The Malbec went back into Lee's 30G barrel. The Clone-6 cab had a tremendous vanilla bean smell as we racked it from Bob's new French oak barrel. We think the barrel is more of a Med Heavy toast as it has really given the wine a strong barrel flavor, which is why we've moved the Clone 6 into Lee's 15G neutral french barrel. The Merlot #1 is tasting very good and was put back into Mike's 30G Hungarian barrel.

Racking went smoothly this time with no spills. :) We stopped racking as soon as we started getting sediment, to help clarity. But we racked the extra wine that wasn't too cloudy into a bucket and then blended the leftovers together into a Bordeaux-like sludge blend and put it into 1G carboys to settle out. We did a pre-blend on Magnafique with about 60% cab, 30% merlot and 10% malbec and it was very good. The Clone 6 cab this year is very strong flavored--plus the extra barrel flavors--but it blended well.

We tried a bottle of 2006 Amencaya, which is 50% malbec 50% Cabernet, and talked about trying to make that blend. The group thought it had potential--although the Amencaya's malbec flavor was a bit too overpowering. We also talked about the possibility of making a "Left Bank" style bordeaux blend that is more merlot. Something like 80% merlot #1, 15% cabernet and 5% malbec. Maybe a dash of Petit Verdot. Sounds like some fun blending trials ahead of us! :P

We put some proxyclean into Bob's 20G french barrel and left it overnight to clean and then Bob and Lee emptied it, did a meta/citric rinse and a fresh water rinse the next day. We need to let it dry a few days and then sulfur it and the other empty barrels.

Our winemaking schedule calls for adding 15ppm SO2 after MLF (now) to all wines except the Malbec because we added extra sulfites to it to treat the rotten egg smell earlier. Here are the amounts we need to add. They should be added here in the next month or so (ideally we would have added the SO2 before racking). How about the next time we top up?

15PPM SO2

- 1/4 tsp meta = 15ppm in 15 gal

- 1/3 tsp meta = 15ppm in 20 gal

- 1/2 tsp meta = 15ppm in 30 gal

Meet Tonight

Hi All,

 

Everyone is set to meet tonight at 6:30pm. We'll blind taste the chard combined and separate and make a decision on bottling.  We'll also continue working on racking the reds.  The wines that still need to be racked are:

 

1. Malbec needs to be racked over copper and goes back into Lee's 30G French barrel.

 

2. WA Clone-6 Cab is racked into Lee's 15G (neutral) French barrel.

 

3. Merlot #1 is racked and goes back into Mike's 30G Hungarian barrel.

 

 

Our winemaking schedule calls for adding 15ppm SO2 after MLF (now).

 15PPM SO2

    - 1/4 tsp meta = 15ppm in 15 gal

    - 1/3 tsp meta = 15ppm in 20 gal

    - 1/2 tsp meta = 15ppm in 30 gal

We need to clean Bob's 20G French barrel w/ Oxyfresh.

 

We need to sulfur (or re sulfur) empty barrels.

 

See you at 6:30pm,

 

Troy

 

 

Initial Thoughts On 2007 Wine Blends

Blog Entry:

 

Started thinking about the wines we have in the barrels and what wines we might blend this Fall, and how many bottles each we would get (makes a guy thirsty!).  We got lots of merlot and malbec, so we will make a lot of Boisique! Which is good because we *love* our Boisique! We may even consider holding the Merlot #1 over and making a "Boisique Reserve" this year.  We will have some extra Malbec and Idaho cab, so we might try a Cab/Malbec blend. We should start some taste trials to see if we like a cab/malbec blend--and then come up with a fitting name. :)

 

Here's a swag at the blends (this is just an early estimate--blends will be set after we taste).

 

Troy

 

35G of Boisique (~ 3 cases each)

30G Merlot 1&2

5G Malbec

 

Hold 35G of Boisique for an additional 6 mo for our reserve (~3 cases each)

30G Merlot 1

5G Malbec

 

48G Magnifique (~ 4 cases each)

20G WA Clone-6 Cab  42%

10G ID Cab 21%

15G Merlot 31%

2G Malbec 4%

1G Petit Verdot 2%

 

15G Syrah (~1.25 cases each)

 

41G New Blend (~3.5 cases each)

20G ID Cab 49%

20G Malbec 49%

1G Petit Verdot 2%

6/16/08 Racking Report

Blog Update:

 

Lee/Bob/Mike/Troy met on Monday to rack. We managed to combine and rack the ID Cab into Troy's 26G American barrel, combined the merlot 1/2 and merlot 2 into a 30G hungarian and Bob's 15G American Oak barrel (after verifying if we wanted to keep Merlot 1 or 2 separate) , and racked the Syrah out and back into Troy's 15G Hungarian barrel.  We ran some of the merlot 1/2 over copper and stirred it some. We'll have to check it and see if we need to rack it over copper this summer.  We spilled a little more wine than we should have.....something to keep in mind is when racking back into the barrel, always ask yourself if there is more wine than the barrel will hold.  :)

 

Here are the barrels that still need to be racked. We'll also need to sulfur the empty barrels.  How about Monday June 23rd? 6:30pm?

 

1. Malbec

Keep in Lee's 30G French barrel. We'll have several gallons left for topping.

 

2. Merlot #1

Keep separate, as it's the better clone. Keep in the current Hungarian 30G barrel. We'll have to top-up with Merlot 1/2.

 

3. WA Clone 6 Cab

Move from the new French 20G Recoop as it's getting a strong toast flavor. Move it into Lee's 15G older French (neutral) barrel, plus carboys for topping.

 

All the barrels are in the cooler, but we ended up putting 2 of them onto the low dolly carts because the barrel holders failed when moving barrels around.  It will work for now--but it will be difficult to lift them.  We need to re-evaluate the barrel ordering and supports to get them set "right".  One possibility is to modify the barrel cradles with wheels so they will roll into the cooler and still accept the barrel lifter. Bob almost had one figured modified on Monday that fit.

 

 

2006 Riverwoods Reserve Cabernet

The group met on Sunday June 8th to bottle our Reserve Cabernet. We had a 26G barrel of 06 Williamson Cabernet and a 22G barrel of 06 Wood River Clone 6 Cabernet--both of which had 18 months of barrel age. We also had some gallons of Malbec and Petit Verdot held back from last year to blend.

 

The first order of business was to determine the blends.  Should we keep them 100% Cabernet, or blend in some of the Malbec and Petit Verdot we held back. Last fall when we bottled we all liked about 4% Malbec and 1% Petite Verdot--so that was our starting point. We did 3 blends. One of the things we were trying to ascertain was to see if we liked the Petit Verdot, given how overwhelming it was in the 06 Magnafique at 2%.

 

THE TRIAL BLENDS

1. 95% Cab, 4% Malbec, 1% Petit Verdot

2. 95% Cab, 5% Malbec

3. 100% Cab

 

We made up carafes of the different blends for both the Williamson and the Wood River Clone 6 Cabernet and began tasting them.  The wines were all very different. The Petit Verdot definitely added to the finish of the wine, and the Malbec added red fruit. The Williamson cab was more dry and the Wood River cab had more dark fruit.  All the blends were good, but we needed to vote on which we wanted to bottle.  To our surprise, we had a split vote on which was more popular.  In general, half liked #1 blend and half liked #3, no blend.  What to do?

 

The suggestion was made to blend both the Cabernets together. We took and combined the "leftover" wine from several carafes and proceeded to taste. This time it was unanimous that everyone liked the blended cabs better! The only question was, what blend did we end up with???  We figured that in the combined blend we probably reduced the petit verdot and malbec percentages by 25%-50% and given the amounts of cabernet and malbec we had available, here is the blend we got.

 

55% Williamson Clone 2 Cabernet
42% Wood River Clone 6 Cabernet
2.5% Malbec
0.5% Petit Verdot

 

And thus the 2006 Riverwoods Reserve Cabernet was born!

 

Mike coordinated getting 23 cases of bottles washed the previous day so we had all the clean bottles we needed and in a few hours we each walked home proudly carrying 4+ cases of Riverwoods Reserve Cabernet. Yum Yum!  It certainly *deserves* some bottle time--but who knows if it will see any! ;)   In the interim, an hour of decanting will help bring out the flavors.

 

Next week we will rack wines to clarify them and then put them into the cooler for their summer nap.  As we rack we need to rotate barrels to balance the volumes, and adjust some for flavors. Here is the proposed racking and barrels. Note: We need to verify which barrel of Merllot (#1 or #2) we want to manage speratly. The below list is keeping #1 out.

 

 

1. Malbec

Keep in Lee's 30G French barrel. We'll have several gallons left for topping.

 

2. Syrah

Keep in Troy's 15G Hungarian. We'll have just enough to rack and top.

 

3. Idaho Cab

Combine the 15G American & 15G French into Troy's 26G American. That will give us enough for topping.

 

4. Merlot #2 + Merlot #1/2

Combine the 30G of Merlot#2 and the 22G of Merlot 1/2 that is in Stainless and Carboys. Put them back into a 30G Hungarian plus Bob's 15G American (that had ID cab in it).

 

5. Merlot #1

Keep separate, as it's the better clone. Keep in the current Hungarian 30G barrel. We'll have to top-up with Merlot 1/2, though.

 

6. WA Clone 6 Cab

Move from the new French 20G Recoop as it's getting a strong toast flavor. Move it into Lee's 15G older French (neutral) barrel, plus carboys for topping.

 

That leaves the following barrels empty:

- Ray's 22G French

- Bob's 20G French

- Lee's 8G American (currently empty, and sulfured)

- Lee's 60G French (currently empty, and sulfured)

 

After racking, we will need to clean both Ray's 22G French and Bob's 20G French w/ Oxy-clean, dry them for a couple days and then burn a sulfur wick in them. We also need to burn another sulfur wick in Lee's 60G French and his 8G French.

 

Topping June 5th, 2008

Topped the red wine barrels. All wines smelled good. We tasted the malbec and merlot 1/2 and they both are fine, although they could each use to be racked over copper again.  There was some evidence of MLF--but not much.

 

- We are out of ID cab, so we topped it with Malbec.

 

- We thought the Merlot 1/2 was fine (no defects), so we resumed topping the merlot with it.

 

- We cleaned a 1G platypus for Syrah topping.

 

When we rack we'll move wines around into different barrels to better fit the volumes and balance flavors.

 

 

Auto Blog Email

Hi Gang,

 

I've set the Main Riverwoods blog up to send an email to all of us when a new entry is added. Below is the latest blog entry that Mike and Margaret added after topping up this week.

 

Troy

 

--Blog Entry from May 20th, titled Topping on 5/19/08

 

Hopefully, this works.

Margaret, Lee, Ray and Mike tasted and topped on May 19th and around 6:30 pm.

Chard in the SS keg. This wine has not changed much. It is still off, with a petrolium odor and taste. After a while, the petro smell/taste dissapates. We should probably watch it for a while and make a decision on go/no go later.

Did not smell/taste the Chard in the Glass.

Merlot 1/2 in the SS keg that came out of Ray's bbl is still a bit off in smell and taste. No scum; some foam (Mal/ferm?)

Merlot 1 in the new Hung bbl. Smells/tastes ok. Still a bit green. no scum

Merlot 2 in Lee's bbl. smell/tastes good. Softer than the Hung. bbl.
NOTE: We have some confusion with topping wine for the Merlot. We have a bag with "topping 1/2 only" for the SS keg, and also some other Merlot 1/2. Need to clarify what we can use to top what with. This will help those of us who have missed a session or can't determine for sure which to use from the label on the topping wine container.

Syrah had a slight oil film. smelled good. tasted ok.

All clone cabs smelled and tasted good. Topped with Cl 6.

Reserves smelled and tasted good. Moved the Willys into the cooler. Broke down the 3 gal carboy into 3/1 gal containers for topping.

Turned the cooler on due to the warm weather. Should probably move the topping containers into the back of the cooler if the warm weather holds.

Noted date and smell/taste/appearance/topping wine used on the bbl data sheets.




Margaret Dimmick
dimmicks@earthlink.net

Topping on 5/19/08

Hopefully, this works.

Margaret, Lee, Ray and Mike tasted and topped on May 19th and around 6:30 pm.

Chard in the SS keg. This wine has not changed much. It is still off, with a petrolium odor and taste. After a while, the petro smell/taste dissapates. We should probably watch it for a while and make a decision on go/no go later.

Did not smell/taste the Chard in the Glass.

Merlot 1/2 in the SS keg that came out of Ray's bbl is still a bit off in smell and taste. No scum; some foam (Mal/ferm?)

Merlot 1 in the new Hung bbl. Smells/tastes ok. Still a bit green. no scum

Merlot 2 in Lee's bbl. smell/tastes good. Softer than the Hung. bbl.
NOTE: We have some confusion with topping wine for the Merlot. We have a bag with "topping 1/2 only" for the SS keg, and also some other Merlot 1/2. Need to clarify what we can use to top what with. This will help those of us who have missed a session or can't determine for sure which to use from the label on the topping wine container.

Syrah had a slight oil film. smelled good. tasted ok.

All clone cabs smelled and tasted good. Topped with Cl 6.

Reserves smelled and tasted good. Moved the Willys into the cooler. Broke down the 3 gal carboy into 3/1 gal containers for topping.

Turned the cooler on due to the warm weather. Should probably move the topping containers into the back of the cooler if the warm weather holds.

Noted date and smell/taste/appearance/topping wine used on the bbl data sheets.




Margaret Dimmick
dimmicks@earthlink.net

Spring Schedule

The group met today to talk about the Spring schedule, the upcoming season and top/taste the wines. We blind tasted the 05 Hells Canyon Syrah against our 06 Syrah. Both were very good! At first we were split 50/50 on which was ours. After a second tasting we were more like 70/30. It's tough to identify your own wine!

Topped and tasted wines. All were sound. Merlot in stainless is OK. Should rack over copper to be sure. Need to re-rack malbec over copper as well. The rest of the reds just need a racking after MLF.

The 06 Wood River Clone 6 has a slight sharpness to the nose--not sure if it's gotten low on SO2--it looks like a while since we have added any. We should consider adding a minimum amount--15ppm would be good before we bottle.

The WW C6 Cab continues to have a strong toast flavor. When we rack out of that barrel we need to clean it good and rotate in another wine--maybe the merlot that is in SS now.

The favorite by far was the Williamson reserve. It is superb. We have to talk Roger out of 1,000lbs of grapes next year (or more) so we have more to hold over for reserve wines.

The bung on the chard in the 15G SS barrel wasn't very tight and some air got in. Unsure of the amount of spoilage. We sprayed with some meta and will check in another week. :( We're still waiting for it to go through MLF before bottling.

Winery Spring Schedule:
1. Clean Bottles: First week of June. We need approx 25 cases of reds and 3C of whites.Everyone check to see how many de-labeled bottles you have.

2. Bottle Reserves & Whites: Sun June 8th at 1pm. Blend reserve cabs with the held-back 06 malbec and petit verdot. Start w/ 95% cab, 4% malbec and 1% petit verdot.

3. Rack the reds the week after bottling and clean barrels. The malbec should go over copper again, as should the Merlot that is in Stainless. We'll rotate wine in barrels with the C6+malbec going into Troy's barrel and the Merlot from the SS to Bob's 20G french recoop (after cleaning it well). A couple days after the empty barrels dry we should sulfur them plus sulfur the other empty barrels (8G & 60G)

4. Troy will post a topping schedule for topping every other week, and a topping checklist.

That should do us until August when we rack again and then bottle in early September, unless something changes.


EXPANSION:
We talked about expanding capacity, with the highest priority being getting more reserves. This means getting more Williamson cab and Wood River Clone 6 cab so we can hold it over. To store them we would need more barrels and expand the cooler around the corner w/ another cooling unit. An easier approach may be to use the SS tanks Mike got and wood dominoes and make a more fruit forward merlot.

2008 Grapes
Troy and Mike will try and talk with Steve from Hells Canyon about getting some syrah this year. Troy will see what we can expect from Walla Walla. There have been several conversations with Roger about getting grapes this year and he seems receptive--we just need to continue to follow up. It would also be good to walk the Wood River Clone 6 row to see what we can expect there. Dennis stopped by earlier this year and we hope to continue to get more of his Malbec and Merlot.

Michele's Wine

Stopped by Michele and Tom's place and we measured the PH and SO2 on her Chard. The PH was 3.2, 0.1 higher than ours--from going through MLF. It still had a tart squirt flavor though and she wants to add some of the oak dominoes to try and balance it. The SO2 was high because she had just added some meta (est 1/2tsp in 5G).

Moved Merlot

The Merlot Batch 1/2 in Ray's older 22G french recoop barrel showed a surface scum again. We racked it out into stainless and glass carboys. Ray thinks it's time to retire the barrel. :( It's a recoop he got in 2004, we think. We'll need to keep an eye/nose on the wine for a few weeks to see if the surface scum follows the wine to the stainless/carboys. After we bottle the reserves maybe we'll move it into 1 of those barrels.We ran out of merlot for topping that isn't from the barrel that had the surface scum. We'll have to decide if it's OK to use that wine for topping the other barrels in a couple weeks. In the meantime we topped the Merlot barrels with a little malbec.

We tasted the chard and the stainless barrel w/ the oak dominoes is tasting very nice. The oak is balancing out the tartness well. It is more balanced/complex than chard in the carboys that doesn't have the oak dominoes. We measured the PH and it was still at 3.1, so ML probably hasn't started (it's been a very cool spring). We measured SO2 and it it was about 20ppm, which is lower than last year at this time (30ppm). But then again we added about 25% less meta this year because we thought we would bottle the chard in the Fall and not do MLF (but the lower PH changed our minds). We added 1/2tsp meta to 15G, which should increase it by 30ppm ttl (15ppm free--we should check again in a few weeks). We added ML cultures last month so we need to get the chard through MLF before we can bottle it--it just needs to warm up or be moved inside. I will try and measure the PH and SO2 on Michele's chard to compare, since she put it through MLF last Fall.

The Clone6 cab continues to have a very strong flavor, probably from the new barrel and the higher alcohol levels--or still in the gasoline stage. We will need to pull the wine out and clean the barrel with some oxyfresh to knock down the new oak some (the barrel is a M+ toast orhigher). Maybe we'll rotate the merlot out of the stainless into that barrel and the Clone6 into Ray's 2nd (more neutral) recoop once we bottle the reserves.

We checked on the cab rose and it is coming along nicely. We racked a 1G carboy off and tried it, as well as the topping wine and the wine in the cornelius keg which was quite bubbly! Ray and Lee couldn't be more pleased. :) It's a nice color and dry--maybe we'll try back sweeting it.

We topped up the wines and looked for signs of MLF. It's hard to say because of the breathable bungs, but with the cooler spring we don't think it has started. Last year MLF started in late March and went through April.

The 2 reserve cabs can be bottled anytime. We should do another trial blending to determine the final blend. Last fall we liked about 95% cab, 4% malbec and 1% petit verdot (which is what we held back for blending).

ML Time

It's SPRING! Time for Maloactic Fermentation. We added ML cultures to barrels today. About 50-75% rate for new barrels and a booster for older barrels.

Added ML to the 15G chard in SS plus the 2 5G carboys. Also put in some small oak dominoes. (Natalie French M+ toast). The hope is to mellow out the acid of the Chard and give it some more body. We'll check it in a few weeks and see how it tastes.

The Malbec is better from racking, but still has a little off nose. One more racking over copper in another month is anticipated. The WW C6 cab is good--still a strong barrel vanilla nose, but not as sharp or bity. We need to watch it closely and either move into another barrel at some point or clean the barrel again.

Tasted an award winning Zerba Syrah from WA while we worked, brought back from the Newport Wine Fest by Ray and Sharon (Thanks!). Pretty good. Nice balenced tasted. Not as dry mineral as some, and not as fruity.

Got more breathable bungs and installed them in the remaining barrels in prep for MLF. They are working well. We may need to loosen the ones in 1G carboys to let them release.

Tasted the 06 Reserve cabs. Williamson C2 cab was the favorite. WE NEED TO GET MORE WILLIAMSON GRAPES! THEY ARE THE VERY VERY BEST!! :) The Wood River C6 was very smooth and rich. Need to review initial blending with some malbec and petit verdot for bottling this Spring.

Clone 6 racked and barrel cleaned

The last few weeks we've noticed the RiverRock Clone-6 cab was getting a sharp nose and flavor from the barrel. Very intense french vanilla like nose compared to a carboy that had seen no oak time. We racked the wine out, cleaned the barrel lightly with some oxyfresh and then a meta/citric rinse. We'll monitor the wine to see how it changes.

We smelled and tasted the Malbecs looking for any rotten egg--they are good. Maybe a tich in the barrel but it is slight if there at all. We agree we want to rack once more over copper to be safe--plus to blow off the extra SO2 that was added.

Topped and tasted the rest of the wines. The Merlot #1 had a little off nose--but nothing bad. The Syrah was the least favorite right now with a harsh aftertaste.

We shared a bottle of 2005 Pend'Oreille Malbec that came to us from Dennis. We all liked it very much. A little lighter color and flavor, but very nice fruit expression w/o any green flavors. A delightful Malbec that we aspire to make. :)

The 06 reserves continue to impress us and we have to hold back from bottling them for a few more months. We would love to get Roger in to taste what we've done with his grapes and hope to get more in 2008.

Racked Over Copper

Last weekend and monday (12/10) Cleaned barrels well with ProxyClean, rinsed, drained and then racked the wine over copper back in. Lost some volume to racking sediment so we didn't refill the 8G barrel. Burned a sulfur strip instead. NOTE: The 5G carboy of Malbec did not get re-racked over copper. (Just racked out of the barrel over copper). No sign of rotten egg smell. :)

Tasted wines with friends of the Dimmicks, Dick and Fay. The Clone-6 cab continues to have a strong sharp flavor. Most likely from the new MH toast barrel. We plan to rack the wine and clean the barrel to make sure the flavor doesn't overpower the wine.

More Wine Info

Info on additional wines for barrel tags.

600lbs WoodRiver ChardPicked 9/20/07Brix 25.25, 3.85PH (old PH meter)Added 12oz of Tartaric to reduce PHPH after fermentation was 3.1, using new PH meter.9TBSP of Bentonite in 6C of boiling water, stirred then used a blender. Added 3C to Chard juice before fermentationFermented in oak and stainless.Racked off lees on 9/27 into Bob's 30G barrel plus Stainless for 2 weeks.

500lb Wood River Clone-6 Cab
Picked 10/14/0626+ brix, 3.21 phPressed around 10/26/06 -- 12 days on the skinsRacked Off Gross Lees 12/03/06.
HSO2 Present. Added Sulfites and racked over copper on 12/03/06, 12/22/06, 6/10/07

600lbs Williamson Clone-2 Cabernet
Picked 10/19/06
Brix 28.5, ph 3.53
Pressed on 11/06/06 -- 18 days on the skinsRacked Off Gross Lees 12/03/06