2023 Cabernet Franc
October 2023
This fall’s plan for the barrel wines is to make 3 batches: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. The CS and CF will be barrel aged, and next fall we’ll make 2 blends. The current thought, that will be adjusted by bench testing in a year, are:
- Cabernet Sauvignon 60%, Cabernet Franc 30%, Merlot 10%
- Cabernet Franc 60%, Cabernet Sauvignon 30%, Merlot 10%
This will make two distinctly different wines.
Any leftover Merlot will probably be blended with the Chambourcin (French-American hybrid) that I purchased from Glade Spring Vineyards in Virginia.
Update, October 2024
The planned blends did not work out.
- CS heavy blend: the CF vastly overshadowed the CS
- CF heavy blend: the CS was a distraction
So we bottled the Cabernet Franc as a varietal, using some to blend into the Cabernet Sauvignon.
The name was a tribute to the McGregor Winery wine that we love, and the decision was to keep the name even though the wine is a varietal.
Ingredients
| Fruit | 8 lugs Lodi Central Valley Cabernet Franc |
| Maceration Enzyme | 8 ml ScottZyme Color Pro |
| Nutrient | 10 tsp Fermax 6 tsp YAN |
| Acid | — |
| Fermentation Oak | 4 cups American oak chips |
| Sulfite | as needed |
| Yeast/Starter | 3 tsp Renaissance Avante, 1/2 tsp Fermax, 3 Tbsp sugar 3 tsp Renaissance Bravo, 1/2 tsp Fermax, 3 Tbsp sugar |
| Glycerin | 16 oz |
Method
| Crushed 8 lugs (288 lbs) of grapes, which will be fermented in two batches of 4 lugs each.
Batch #1 will be fermented with Bravo and Batch #2 with Avante. Made starter for each yeast with 1 cup water (~95 F), 3 tsp yeast, 1/2 tsp Fermax, 3 Tbsp sugar. |
10/28/2023 SG — |
| Checked the SG and pH on both batches prior to inoculation. The SG on both is good, although the pH is high on both (#1: 3.77, #2: 3.75). Since both are below 3.80, I will not adjust them at this time.
Added 5 tsp Fermax to each fermenter, then the starters. |
10/29/2023 #1 SG 1.096 #2 SG 1.094 |
| Fermentation took off, as expected. I realized I did not add Color Pro or oak, so I added 4 ml Color Pro and 2 cups oak chips to each fermenter. | 10/30/2023 SG — |
| Added 3 tsp YAN to each fermenter at the morning punch down. I have not checked SG as it probably has not dropped enough to matter. | 10/31/2023 SG — |
| Yesterday I checked SG — 0.995 and 0.996. Both are in good shape, better than the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot
We pressed 9 gallons from each 4 lug batch. The overall SG was 1.004, which is fine. Not optimal, but fine. |
11/05/2023 SG 0.995 |
| Racked the wine. Checked SG and pH on each carboy before racking:
#1 Bravo – SG 0.996, pH 3.37 The average SG is 0.99425, so I logged it as 0.994. We’ll see if the SG drops, which indicates the Bravo wasn’t quite done. Filled the new barrel, which appears to have a capacity above the nominal 56 liters I was told it is. I have only 1.5 gallons of topup. |
11/12/2023 SG 0.994 |
| Added 3/4 tsp K-meta. Topped with 1.2 liters of wine. | 02/03/2024 SG 0.994 |
| Topped with 750 ml wine. | 03/05/2024 SG 0.994 |
| Added 3/4 tsp K-meta, stirred for the final time. Topped with 2.25 liters of wine. I lost track of time and went too long between topups.
Note: This is in the newest barrel, which was 2 years old at the start, but had been used for roughly 13 months. I was concerned about over-oaking, but there is no evidence of such. |
06/04/2024 SG 0.994 |
| Topped up with 2 liters, added 3/4 tsp K-meta. | 07/04/2024 SG 0.994 |
| Topped up with 750 ml. | 08/20/2024 SG 0.994 |
| Racked. Added 1 tsp K-meta + 16 oz glycerin. Used 1.5 gallons in 2024 Cabernet Sauvignon, remainder bottled as varietal. | 10/20/2024 SG 0.994 |
Notes
| Yield | 63 bottles |
| Alcohol | 13.1% ABV |
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