W Estates 2009 Castello Supertuscan di Siena

The last few months have been busy for Denise and me. We’ve been busy with work, busy with some light travel, busy dealing with various preparations for winter, busy attending to daughters (and now a son-in-law and two grand-dogs) in three time zones, busy with friends, busy anticipating the Christmas season to be savored with each of our daughters returning home - busy.

I’ve also been busy transforming grapes into future headaches. And at the risk of transforming the character of this blog into some sort of full-fledged bloviation of wine snobbery, I’ve decided to write about winemaking as a second consecutive blog entry.

My second dive into winemaking was a bit more challenging than the first – although still rather simple. I made an Italian Supertuscan, a blend of Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot all from vineyards near Siena, Tuscany, Italy. I started with an imported juice and for extra depth mixed some crushed grape skins into the fermentation. Then I added a wee bit of English oak and toasted French oak that I then strained out during one of several post-fermentation rackings. The oak was in the form of small shavings and was intended to emulate the complexity of flavors gained from aging in barrels.

At bottling, the wine exhibited a light taste consistent with Italian table wines and a relatively low alcohol content of around 12.5%. The color was good and the clarity was fine. My yield was thirty bottles at 175ml. I will cellar this new wine for at least a year. And hopefully next Christmas it will be ready for consumption...or maybe the Christmas after. All in all I’m quite pleased with the turnout but am hoping in future winemaking endeavors to improve upon the boldness and gain better control over the fermentation. [Click here for a few pictures of the process.]