Sour cherry liqueur

Lori's started a sour cherry liqueur with about a pound of sour cherries from this Saturday's G.A.P. green market, and 3 cups of Titos.  When the time comes it'll be sweetened with sugar rather than simple syrup, so the only dilution of the alcohol will be what comes from the cherries.  Gonna be closer to 40% than 30%, I'm guessing, but we'll be able to tell from the final volume.

Very long maceration and settling times.  (Maybe we can fill it in here later.)

(Mike's June notes)

Pamela and I had been tasting both our Grenache and Syrah. I like the Grenache but think the Syrah leaves as awkward aftertaste. Pam doesn't like either. The Syrah was made from juice rather than fruit so who knows. We used a medium toast on the Grenache but I decided to use a heavy toast on the Syrah. Nothing like a little makeup! Anyway, we bottled some of the Grenache over Memorial Day weekend so that we might serve some at the June 5th party. Notice the copper color below. Pam hates it but I think it has character.

One guest suggested we give it a slight chill and pass it off as a rose and viola', success! Nothing like a little packaging.

Let's dump the 2008 Cab

Or label it Death Cab.

I have theories.  And I vow to be cleaner.  I vow to test sooner and more often.  But right now I'd like to just get the 2008 as far away from our good wines as possible.  Nu?

We just lost a gallon of the 2009 Merlot, and here's how

I think it was the day after the party last weekend I noticed that the solid rubber cork on one of the 2009 Merlot overflow gallon jugs had popped off.  I don't know how long it had been off - maybe minutes, but maybe up to 12 hours.  I reset it.  The next day it was off again and I replaced the rubber stopper with another.  This morning it was off again, and I'm going to assume the jug is oxidized (and, well, I'll taste it to be sure). 

It's the only 2009 container that had a solid stopper rather than an airlock.  It's possible the neck on the jug id bad (I doubt it) and it's possible the wine is more active than it appears, which was the case with our 2006 Zinfandel.  It's also possible that if the wine was more active, it was just that jug, and not the full batch - we've seen that before, too, particularly with Bernardo's 2008 Cab. 

I'm guessing the wine is active, and probably the whole Merlot lot.  Which is fine - it's all still in bulk - except for whatever might still be remaining of what we bottled for the party.  I'm betting that gets a little frizzante in the bottle over the next few months. 

Of course, unlike in 2006, in 2009 we added bugs to force the completion of the malolactic fermentation, so my theory should be wrong.  (See October 3.)

Will check late summer.

Post-party comment on the wines

This is inventory, not tasting notes.

The Muscat Alexandria was a hit and I'd like to make easily twice as much of it again next year, maybe doing a little of it on the leas an experiment.  Nice to have something that feels complete in its first year.  We used all of it except for three bottles I put away.

Big Dave had us re-market the Savino Grimaldi Grenache as Merlot, and just as he predicted, it started pouring quickly.

The 2007 Barbera was the red backbone of what we offered, and all of what I bottled went.  I had a little bit.  If we have any more it'll just be onsies or twosies from the shelf, where there might also be a couple of bottles of 2007 Sangiovese.  So maybe we have a case or less left of the 2007 production.

During the party I also pulled up some of the 2006 Zin blend.  Don't think I tasted any.  We might have close to a case of it left. 

Maybe I'll update this post with a full inventory, so we'll have it handy for next year.