We’re just hours away from bottling our 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon we crafted at Vint Hill Craft Winery in Virginia. This day feels like a graduation, however, it is just one more step in the process of making wine. Although the wine has aged in a French oak barrel, Ana Sélection for almost 21 months, the wine will continue to age and change over the years. I am just putting the finishing touches to a wine room that will age the wine as well as the other wines Kathy and I have made.
So even though this is just another step in the process of wine making, there seems to be finality to it. We have traveled the 70 miles to Vint Hill Craft Winery for the past three years. From our first meeting with the winemaking staff where we tasted different Cabs and discussed what we wanted to achieve, to sorting table work, fermentation, racking to barrel, adding tartaric acid and Laffort products and tastings from the barrel, bottling seems like a conclusion.
Fortunately, we have other wines that we have made and bottled since the Cab at Vint Hill. So there won’t be a rush to drink a barrel over the next year. We can leave the wine take its time and perhaps drink a little each year and see how it continues to evolve. When we first started making wine, there was a tendency to drink it after bottling it, provided we liked it. No we have the luxury of time. Last month I bottled a 2010 Petite Sirah and Kathy bottled a 2010 Muscat. Both were made at home with juice from Lodi. We just opened a bottle of Muscat last night a month after bottling. We haven’t touched the Petite Sirah yet, however there is a Petite Sirah sorbet recipe that I’d like to make today so we may be opening a bottle.
So even though the cases of Cab can rest and age in a new environment, as it changes over time, today still seem like graduation.
Cheers,
Terry
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