The 5000 Club

Just wanted to say thanks to all of you who have visited the site.  We got hit number 5000 today sometime as I was sanitizing bungs– now I know this is nothing like google, or lonelygirl8, or a britney spears video on youtube (yes, i know you watch them) but it is exciting nonetheless.  So, my respects!

The wines are coming along fine, starting to chug through malolactic.  I racked Lorenzo (mystery vineyard heirloom wine) for the first time in order to get a good read on ml.  I was a little concerned because the wine is in a tough microbial spot.  It is at 3.77 pH with a TA around 7 and with a couple grams of residual sugar in it, so I would like to get it sulfured sooner rather than later in fear of lactobacillus and a jump in VA (it is currently around .07 and one starts to smell it at about .09).  I am keeping the tank warm, and there is only .34 grapes of malic left to convert so I am pretty sure things are going to be alright.  There could be the added bonus of the last couple grams of RS fermenting out with nudge of heat as well.

Rebecca’s Vnyd Pinot is through with ML and got topped and sulfured last Friday.  Though still in shock from the sulfur I am immensely pleased with the wine– I think the pinotblogger will be proud.

Next on the agenda is putting together the Bedrock Heirloom Wine blend.  As I mentioned before, the Zinfandel is good but has an annoyingly high pH so I am going to blend in the Carignane, Barbera, and Syrah sooner rather than later to drop the pH and keep the wine clean.  It will also be nice to spread out the oak.  I am really loving the Rousseau Bertranges barrel that the Bedrock Syrah is in– it is adding lovely pure vanilla and cream pastry notes to the wine.  The Marsannay Troncois bbl is acting like the tight grain barrel it is, I can barely taste its influence so far on the Carignane.  This will change with time but it certainly is not behaving like other forests.  The Cadus I got from Josh is also nice, contributing to the perfume end of the wine rather than the body and structure side– so far it is not a barrel that I would rely exclusively on but is a nice component barrel.

And speaking of barrels, the Nadalie Nevers M+ barrel that the Lorenzo is in (it is seeing 25% new oak) is ending up quite the slut, so that 25% new oak is probably going to be just right given the intensity of flavor release into the wine.  It is seriously putting out.

I will do a complete barrel review at the end of this production cycle, but the differences are quite apparent already.