I finally meet you! It has been with sweet anticipation I have been waiting for this day. Ever since I walked the denHoed Vineyard and saw his "extreme" trellising and listened to Bill tell me all about Biodynamics, I've been waiting to follow this grape to wine. On Halloween, C delivered over 2.5 tons of the smallest cab sauv berries I've seen. They looked like little blueberries. Tasting the grape, the flavor was intense and concentrated. Already, I know this will be a good ride. We crushed them on Wednesday and tonight we threw the yeast. K and I gave them a little cheer as we always do. "Be good, make great wine..." The color extraction over the last 24 hours was not as intense as I expected. But K did tell me this is normal. The smell was clean with no off whiffs. In the next few days, the aromas will intensify and so will the color. This is what I experienced with the cab franc and then the merlot. The first punchdown was easy with a white foam, then as the cap thickens, the punchdown will become harder to breakthrough and the foam will become a rich reddish pink with intensely dark red juice. The juice tastes slightly different every day as you follow the grape into wine. My flavor is 22Brix. Oh how I wish I could bottle that juice. So perfect, so effervescent, so sublime....then as the sugars turn to alcohol the flavor changes from sweet to wine. And the CO2 dances on your tongue.
The Cabernet Sauvignon is one of Washington State's two major grape plantings. The other being Merlot. As evidenced today as we crushed another late batch of Cab Sauv in the wet, cold, freezing rain, the grape's late ripening makes waiting this long for the crush/harvest season to be over somewhat intolerant for a California girl like me. But I waited and I'm glad I waited. This will be my last crush for the season before I say goodbye to this beautiful and fertile place.
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