1st Racking - Rhone Blend

We started by racking the free run Grenache. Tasted vibrant and I am thinking of making some Rose to drink next summer. Needed to top it off with a 750 Rose 100% Grenache from Tavel. That still left the carboy a little short so we topped it off with the Pressed Grenache/Syrah juice.

Next we racked the remainder of the Pressed Grenache/Syrah juice. Between what we used to top off the free run Grenache and this racking we were short probably about a magnum. Topped this carboy off with the 100% Syrah juice. Steve seems fascinated and off balance by the fresh juice start.

That left racking the 100% Syrah juice. This didn't taste a vibrant as the Grenache but had some nice depth. Rather than top it off, we chose to transfer this to one 3-gallon and one 1-gallon carboy. Hopefully we can get a few bottles of pure Syrah to experiment with.

Pictures from 1st Racking

1st Racking, 2009

(Merlot blend lees on the left, Muscat on the right.  You lose the pop art sense of things when you save to web-safe colors.)

About 5 weeks after pressing, 1st racking.

I started puttering around and getting ready early.  Lori joined me & we started with the Muscat.  (Peter's out at Montauk.)

Muscat lees were pretty firm and the wine clear enough to watch through.  We used the racking wand and a clip on the neck of the carboy to ease things.  Lost very little volume in the process, and were able to top off with a single 750 ml overflow bottle.  But - doh! - we never even tasted the 750 when we opened it, and didn't realize until after we'd poured it in that it was not fresh and had a pretty heavy tingle.  Will taste the combined wine every couple of days for a while to make sure we don't have a problem.  (I knew I smelled something off as we were ending the work - I just didn't react to it.)

Added 3/4 tsp (1.5 g) KSO2 to get to 40 parts per million in the 5 gal. Muscat, and to all the other wines we worked with today.

Moved on to the Merlot blend.  Of the 25 gallons, we lost about 1.5 gal. of volume.  Beautiful, psycho-purple lees.  Some taste variation from carboy to carboy, but generally very happy stuff.  Ended with four 5 gal. carboys, one 3 gal carboys, and a couple of 750's (which need airlocks or will go bad - had no more small bored plugs).

Mike and Pam came over after we had finished with the Merlot.  Hopefully Mike will post about the top-ups to the Grenache.  Pam tasted the Grenache and seemed pretty happy.  End result was one 5 gal. carboy all Grenache, one 5 gal carboy Grenache + a 750 of commercial Grenache rose, and a little topping from the Syrah, one 3 gallon carboy of the Syrah and a one gallon jug of the Syrah.

And somewhere along the way while I was cleaning things today, I broke an empty carboy.  Sad.  It made me wonder how I got into a fourth year of doing this without having already broken one, but still, an ugly waste.