FRENCH OAK BARRELS
WWOOFER JOSH RUNS FORK LIFT
HIGH ON THE TANNINS, AND A FUNKY
RUSTY TASTE ON THAT ONE BARREL
OF CABERNET SAUVIGNON
Yesterday and today, the rains continue to fall. It is unusual for the winter rains to continue this late into the spring in Northern California. Rumor has it, weather tends to be dry for the middle part of the year, starting in mid April and staying that way into November. Unfortunately that is not the case this year, as weather continues to plague us on our trip.
With poor weather conditions, working in the vineyard proves impossible. If we were to prune or sucker during this wet spell, susceptibility for disease would surely rise, specifically Eutypa Dieback, commonly known as Dead-Arm. This happens when pruning creates open wounds, and then water and cold leech into the vine. If your vines get Eutypa, you must prune off most of the cordon, if not all of it, thereby significantly diminishing your harvest potential in the fall. It would be a devastating mistake to prune in the rain. This is a common problem in Northern California and other foggy costal regions.
When making wine, you either work in the vineyard, or in the barrel room. So with less than ideal conditions outside, we headed into the barrel room. Sometimes vintners store wine in caves, but Le Vin stores wine in a warehouse kept at cool temperatures. We tasted some wine in four barrels to see how they were aging. They were all from 2005, three of which were cabernet sauvignon, and one was cabernet franc. We were suspecting it is highly unusual to keep wine in a barrel so many years, but we may be wrong in this assumption. We also took out 24 cases of empty bottles back to the ranch for we intend to bottle here Friday.
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