The 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon was bottled on December 10, 2008. We bottled 11 cases of 750ml bottles and 7 cases of magnum bottles.
The grapes came in at 25 Brix. After 5 months in a new American oak barrel, the wine was racked to an "almost neutral" French oak barrel. The barrel is considered a "2 1/2", meaning that it did not have wine in it for very long during the third use. The resulting wine is excellent, with good varietal characteristics, dark color, and pleasing complexity. The wine continues to develop in the bottle. It won silver medals in the 2008 and 2009 Lum Eisenman Wine Contest. There are only 3 cases left and several magnums.
The 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon was once again harvested from Adobe Vineyard. The berries were ripe, with an average Brix of 25, but did not produce as much juice as in 2007. The result was a concentrated wine. It was aged in new American oak 8 months, then racked into a neutral barrel where it continues to age. French oak chips were added and then removed after 2 weeks. Petite sirah from the Briggs/Childress Vineyard and produced at Pamo Valley Winery has been used exclusively to top, adding some color and texture to the cab. We produced 90 gallons.
The 2008 Estate Syrah was our first from our own vineyards. Since this fruit came from our initial small vineyard of about a quarter acre, and was from the second leaf, there was not much wine - only about 6 gallons! The Brix were at 25, with a TA at .80. We put it in a small oak cask, and aged it there for about 5 months. The color is inky and the taste intense. Half of this syrah was used to blend with some cabernet sauvignon, merlot and viognier, that John made over at Pamo Valley Winery. Both the blend and the straight syrah are settling down into some very good wine. (How does he do it??)
The 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon was harvested in mid-September. The fruit was the best ever this year, but once again there did not seem to be as much juice as we expected. As a result we took a second harvest a week after the first. The first batch (1100 pounds), came in at 25 Brix, with a TA of .57. The second batch (around 300 pounds) came in at 27.5 Brix. Tartaric acid will be added to bring up the acid level. After pressing and settling, the wine will be racked to a new American oak barrel for initial aging.
The 2009 Estate Syrah was the first harvest of the year on September 7. The Brix measured 25. We only picked from the small "Paula's Vineyard" again this year. The rest of the vineyards are only in their 2nd leaf. The fruit in Paula's Vineyard looked very good - ripe and juicy. We got 400 pounds out of the 100 plants, and made 22 gallons of wine. 15 of those gallons are now aging in a new 15 gallon American oak barrel (courtesy of Peter and Denise Clarke - a gift for making their wine at Altipiano Vineyard). The wine is dark and very fruity, and is expected to evolve very nicely.
The 2009 Hellanblanc is a new addition to the winery portfolio. It is a blend of 50% viognier and 50% chenin blanc from a tiny backyard vineyard in Ramona, called "Stick"! John made wine from this vineyard last year, but used most of it for blending. The vineyard yielded around 250 pounds of grapes, ending up with 13 gallons of new wine. The wine was fermented at cellar temperatures and finished at .6 percent residual sugar. It will be settled, fined and cold settled, and when clarified will be filtered into 750 ml bottles.
2009 "Special Projects". John is colaborating with Joey Hollacher, president of the San Diego Amatuer Winemakers Society, on a special project that involves petite sirah from the Chinook vineyard. The plan was to produce 30 gallons so that we could use a barrel of that size. Unfortunately, we were only able to produce about 23 gallons (less after settling). We subsequently decided to make merlot from a small Ramona vineyard owned by Vince Balesteri. This effort also produced a relatively small batch of around 18 gallons. The PS is "big" and fairly acidic (TA of 1.18). The merlot is "soft" and light, with a TA of .63. Is there a blending in the future? Stay tuned.
