After almost 21 months in barrel, it was time to bottle our Atlas Peak AVA, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. We received the grapes from Stagecoach Vineyards on October 20th, 2012. After destemming and placing the grapes in a fermentation bin, we selected a yeast to add to the grapes. During the week of fermentation we also added malolactic bacteria. We decided to extract more color and flavor with a post fermentation maceration. We pressed and racked to a Taransaud barrel on November 12th. Other than a racking off the gross lees, the wine has been in our new French oak barrel for almost 21 months. It was time to bottle.
Dave Zuchero had the bottling line set up at Tin Lizzie Wineworks in Clarksville, Maryland. We arrived early on Sunday morning. Dave already racked the wine from our barrel to a stainless steel tank. He then cleaned and sulfured the barrel; we will use the barrel again this fall for another wine. Tin Lizzie has a four prong bottler. You simply slip a bottle under a prong and it automatically shuts off when filled. I took this station, filled the bottles and passed them of to the corkers. Kathy was at one of the two corking stations and corked half of the bottles. The corkers were heavy duty corkers, the heavy duty type that can be operated with one hand a just a little force. We have one of these at home that I use to cork the wine we make at home while Kathy fills the bottles. We reversed rolls at Tin Lizzie.
Another winery worker placed the capsules on the bottles and heated them. As was the case three years ago when we bottled our 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot at Tin Lizzie, the weather was too humid for the bottle labels to easily affix to the bottles. This will be an at home task. With help from the winery staff, we were able to pack 24 cases into our car for the ride home. We are now in the process of affixing the labels and storing the wine in our wine room.
Many people would find the bottling process exciting. The thrill of the event has worn off for us though. We have bottled wine at a winery in Virginia, Maryland, the country Georgia and bottled wine at home. It now isn’t that exciting, just another task in the entire winemaking process. It does signify a timeline point for the wine that will continue to age until opened. We expect the wine to age a number of years, two to seven, before it reaches its “Wow! This is really good” point. We learned from our 2009 Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon to be patient. That wine changed monthly in the bottle for the first year. It continues to change and has reached it “This is really good” point. We will open a bottle of our 2012 Cab once every four to six months just to see how it is doing. Fortunately, we have the patience for the wine to bottle age for a number of years.
To read more about our wine check out the wine’s webpage.
Cheers,
Terry
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