Now that harvest is over, we can get ready for the busy holiday season, fine-tune our wines and prepare for next year's bottling. This week we will start malolactic fermentation (ML) in our newly barreled red wines. This secondary fermentation converts harsh malic acid in the wine to the softer lactic acid. This takes from one to three months. Once that's complete, we can top off the barrels and let them rest for awhile.
Bottling will be in February or March, but corks, screwcaps and bottles need to be ordered in the next few weeks. The red wines need to be blended, so we are doing more blending trials this weekend. Soon after, we will create the blends and let them rest in barrels until bottling.
Finally, we are working on some great holiday specials so watch your email and our website for details later this month