whine, wine, wine.............

With the summer quickly ending, we begin to re-focus our attention to the wine-making process. For the most part, after the active fermentation is over, it is wait, wait, wait....and hope, hope, hope. Hope that we have made a good choice in timing, aging, oaking. We have a nice blend on the oak barrel now and will be switching it out and loading that barrel back up with syrah. In our first round, we made cab and zin, then ordered the chilean grapes cabernet, syrah and malbec. We plan to do some blending, but first will age separately to allow the grapes to manifest their true flavors independent of one another. It is very exciting to taste at this point because one can begin to see what is to come. While we wait, we are figuring out what grapes from California to buy. Doing so many varietals last Feb gave us our share of challenges, so I think we might focus soley on cabernet. It will allow us more latitude. It is exciting and will be a busy fall once the grapes come in.....but that smell of fermenting grapes is truly amazing!!!!