Cab 2010

Well, needless to say but I'll say it anyway, It's been a while since my last posting.  I want to bring you up to date on my cab for 2010.

We harvested in mid November.  What we harvested was the second crop of Cabernet from the family's small vineyard just outside of St. Helena.  This was the third year for me producing wine.  The first year was a Zin, again the second crop, and it was from the same St. Helena property.  My second year was a cab from the same vineyard that gave me my current production.  I use production losely here since I produced just over ten gallons in 2010.

In my second year I created a wine lable 'Mis Ninos'.  I still have a few bottles of the 2009 production but was able to give my pickers (my grandsons) several bottles to put away and hopefully open when they turn twentyone.  The 2009 is a decent cab although it has an almost carbonated quality to it.  If I let it sit awhile this carbonated quality goes away.  I'm not sure how this came about or what caused it.  Nevertheless, the wine has good deep ruby color and strong black berry nose.

My 2010 cab hasn't been bottled yet and I will keep it in the glass 10 gallon container for at least another two months.  After harvest I let the pulp sit with the juice for nearly a month.  After the fermentation process was complete, I pressed the pulp off and placed the wine into the 10 gallon container.  I put the additional wine in small jars.  After a month, I racked the wine and placed it back into the 10 gallon container.  Currently there is about 1/8 inch sediment at the bottom.  As a comparison, the first racking had about 3/4 inch of sediment at the bottom.  My intent is to rack the wine again at the end of February and then again at the end of March and at that time I will bottle my wine.

This 2010 cab has a deeper color than 2009 because I left the skins on for a longer period.  I think that for this reason the fruity nose is more pronounced.  At this time there is no aspect of carbonation.  I had my brother, the family wine maker, take a look and taste of the 2010 in January.    He was impressed witht the color, nose and ripe berry flavors.  His comments gave me a proud smile that I still have today.

Till next time.