So this is the latest activity in which I got involved, Wine making ! While I have a very strong wine culture in the family, having my grandmother producing her own wine in Julienas, I though I would be interesting to start some local production with friends. The company helping us in this adventure is California WineWorks.

The concept is very simple:

1. Wineworks tells us what kind of grapes are available for the year.

2. We decide about what we want to do, namely grape quality level (Napa or Sonoma), blends, Meritage, single grape (Cab, Merlot, Pinot, etc… – based on availability), barrel (American or French Oak).

3. Wineworks makes all the necessary arrangements and indicates a date of delivery once the grapes are harvested.

4. We set up a date for the crushing (October), pressing (November) and bottling (August). Depending on the grapes, the aging in the barrel takes us all the way to August when the bottling is done. (we bottled our 2015 Meritage a month ago).

We wend for mixed cases which there will be a selection of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot at the Napa level (which is the highest).

Today was the crushing, next Sunday will be the pressing. Can’t wait to try the first production next year !

 

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Some pics from the crushing today !

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