Peter first-racks his 2008 Cab. S.

Peter came by and first-racked his 2008. We both tasted it - but Peter has a sinus infection and couldn't tell anything. We should taste his & S&L's, or even better, when B & Laura bottle, taste all three. I thught P's wine tasted a little more berryish than ours did a few weeks ago - but really we need to go head to head. Remember, Peter's has a lower alcohol content than S&L's and B&L's.

We topped off the racking with the jug that S&L had in addition to their carboys from their first racking - so at this point there's 2 full cbs of Sclafani wine, and the second one has about 3 liters of mixed topper.

Onward and upward.

First rack

Just a note to say Laura and I racked Tuesday before last, 1.13. There was quite a bit of sediment but it was pretty well behaved. It stayed where it belonged and we were able to siphon off most of the wine. We tasted each of the three cboys, and they were triplets. There's a little fizz at this point, and the the taste is quite deep and dark for a wine so young. Pepper, chocolate? Probably a little of both, and some sour cherry. Hard to say much more at this point--it needs the clarification of oak.

We added a dark roast infusion spiral to each cboy last Friday and we will take it out in a day or two and then bottle. We wanted medium roast, but the people at PIwines told us that leaving the dark roast in for a week or so should have the same effect.

Maraschino - Jan. 2009

I'm not going to cross-post all the stuff from the personal blog, but I'll track our Maraschino effort here, and any other fortified drink we try to make.

The Maraschino was assembled on Jan. 4 - images below.

Two weeks later, after turning the drink now and then, the oils looks like they have integrated, the orange peel is saturated.

S&L 1st racking of 2008 wine

Lori and I racked our 4 carboys today (one of which goes to Peter). A couple of hours with clean-up. Drew everything off very cleanly, maybe could have been a bit more aggressive, but I don't think it would have made too much difference. We filled three 5-gal carboys, one 3-gal carboy, and a jug that's 3 or 3 liters - I'll check. We were shy in that jug and topped it off with a Rhone blend. Given how clean everything looks, I'll be surprised if we use all of the jug to top off at the next racking.

Taste? Yes. Color is very, and I think the nose is already bigger than last year's finished wine - and maybe the finished 2006 wine, too. Taste is still pretty fruity. If I had more energy or brain cells it would probably be good to test the total acid: maybe I can make that happen.

We added K₂S₂O₅ , about 3/4 teaspoon per 5-gal, which I think translates to 45 parts per million, and we were pretty liberal about aerating the wine during the siphoning.

We didn't rack Peter's two CBs - Yo, Peter, you need to give it an hour.

And here are some pics:

Cellar archeology, 001 - cross post

I'm cross-posting this from my personal blog. Might be nice here.
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Hey, kids, we're dedicated to making the cellar more usable / less creepy-scary in 2009. Not exactly a resolution, more like a survival tactic.

So! Cellar Archeology entry 001!
There's a grape carton that a lot of our supplies are in - B's had it since I don't know when and it made it's way over to out cellar on September of 2006. It's got all sorts of stuff in it, some new and useful, some old and useful, some corroded metal implements that are just begging to experiment with your blood, some empty containers and some full but spoiled. I've decided to get rid of some of the older jazz, but am using Cellar Archeology to document them.

1. One half filled 500 cc jar of formerly liquid food grade enamel yellow paint, O'sullivan Paint Co., purchased some time in the past from Presque Isle Wine Cellars. Last year we bought a fresh jar of the same. Still liquid. It's what we paint the iron bottom piece of our press with. The current term of art is Gondola Enamel. Available in black, red, white, and yellow.
2. 4 oz. plastic container of formerly powdered sodium metabisulfate, packaged by Crosby & Baker, and - judging by the $1.75 price sticker - purchased at Party Creations. Who'd a thunk? We haven't used sodium metabisulfite for cleaning these past three years - we use potassium metabisulfite. Probably why this sat around until it solidified.
3. Plastic container, empty, which formerly held 50 Campden tablets. Another form of sodium meta. Price tag says it was purchased at L.J Lapide, Inc., $2.49. Mrs. Lapide is who the group has traditionally bought it's (CA) grapes from - until this past year when we bought LI grapes directly from the grower.
4. Cracked, dirty, empty plastic container. Skanky. 120 cc of nothing you want to put your tongue near.
5. This I like, and if I wasn't dedicated to cleaning out the cellar, I'd keep it, just as it is. 10 oz. Kerr "self sealing" mason jar, once filled with peach butter from Centennial Farms, Augusta, MO 63332 (Send for our catalog), and re-used to hold tartaric acid, with a sticker over the original label and on the lid. Rust on the lid, residue inside the jar. A thing of beauty. Who ate the peach butter?