While the Cabs are aging in barrels I am experimenting with a carboy of Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon at home. For an oak alternative, I decided to experiment with oak infusion spirals. I bought French heavy toasted and French light toasted spirals. One heavy toasted oak spiral was added to the carboy. I’ll test the wine every weekend since oak infusion spirals work quickly and I do not want to over oak the Cab. My game plan is to use the heavy toast for a few weeks and then switch to the light toast.
After one week of heavy toast one can taste the oak influence. The wine had a dark fruit aroma and taste. Also on the taste there were oak neuances. There were tannins on the finish.
Kathy and I contrasted this wine with the first wine we made from a wine kit. That wine has been in a bottle since August 2008. Although fruity, it had a slight geranium taste and aroma. There were almost no tannins on the finish. As of this moment, I prefer the wine in the carboy.
What does this mean for the future? I believe I’ll make wine from grapes rather than wine kits. The kits are nice from the point of view you can make wine in a couple of months at any time of the year. However, the aroma and taste are more iteresting from wine made from grapes. I wonder how much a lug of Malbec from South America will cost in the Spring?
Making wine from grapes rather than kits is really the best way to go, especially since you can get many kinds of grapes from all over without actually having to go there. For example, wines that say “California” on the label take their grapes from multiple counties, which is a great way to make an everyday, affordable wine but it doesn’t necessarily give one the flavor of a particular region (which is the main draw with Napa and Sonoma wines…the territory’s character is embedded in the grapes). Some of the most interesting labels are also blending the same varietal grapes from specific counties to produce textured flavors – we do this at Ghost Pines and get our grapes from all over. Napa and Sonoma form the core, of course, but the North Coast, Central Coast, Monterey, Lodi and San Joaquin are all represented, too.