# 2020 Barrel; The best Merlot heavy, Bordeaux blend possible



## NorCal (Aug 14, 2020)

My wine making started in Cab Franc, mostly because I have excellent access to the grapes. Then @4score and I found a nice commercial Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard that would sell us a ton or two of grapes. Last year was the first year I worked with Merlot to create the Cab Franc blend. I kept a separate carboy of Merlot, because I wanted to see how it tastes. The Merlot is definitely softer, more elegant tasting than the Cab Franc or Cab Sauv. Since I have a pretty good collection now of Cab Franc, Cab Sauv individual or blended wine in the cellar (400+ bottles), I want to make something different this year.

I've been caring for some vines in a Merlot vineyard and will be getting all the fruit from the row I've been looking after. I will use these Merlot grapes as the feature grape in this year's barrel. I will also be getting / fermenting local Cab Sauv, Cab Franc and Petit Verdot, so I'll have plenty of options for blending.

I will take everything I learned from last year's Cab Franc blend and apply it to this year's barrel. I will share all the decisions I am making and the steps I am taking to make the wine the best I can possibly make, with the equipment that I have. I appreciate all the input from last year's barrel and would appreciate the feedback and input on this year's barrel as well.


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## Johnd (Aug 15, 2020)

NorCal said:


> My wine making started in Cab Franc, mostly because I have excellent access to the grapes. Then @4score and I found a nice commercial Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard that would sell us a ton or two of grapes. Last year was the first year I worked with Merlot to create the Cab Franc blend. I kept a separate carboy of Merlot, because I wanted to see how it tastes. The Merlot is definitely softer, more elegant tasting than the Cab Franc or Cab Sauv. Since I have a pretty good collection now of Cab Franc, Cab Sauv individual or blended wine in the cellar (400+ bottles), I want to make something different this year.
> 
> I've been caring for some vines in a Merlot vineyard and will be getting all the fruit from the row I've been looking after. I will use these Merlot grapes as the feature grape in this year's barrel. I will also be getting / fermenting local Cab Sauv, Cab Franc and Petit Verdot, so I'll have plenty of options for blending.
> 
> ...


Well, you already know that I’m a huge fan of the Alain Fouquet frenchies, Bordeaux style barrels. You pay for the quality of the wood, and it delivers. They have a distributor in CA, your shipping would be much less than to south Louisiana, if you couldn’t just pick it up. My two cents.


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## ibglowin (Aug 15, 2020)

Your gonna need another wine cabinet soon! Looking forward to reading about your journey.


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## NorCal (Aug 22, 2020)

Kicking the Merlot blend barrel off with Petit Verdot. There is a small PV vineyard on a hill that always ripens before the other PV on the property. These grapes are usually past the point of usability by the time the other grapes are ready, so we never sell them. I’m going to pull 100 pounds to get a carboy of PV to use for this years blend.


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## Boatboy24 (Aug 22, 2020)

NorCal said:


> Kicking the Merlot blend barrel off with Petit Verdot. There is a small PV vineyard on a hill that always ripens before the other PV on the property. These grapes are usually past the point of usability by the time the other grapes are ready, so we never sell them. I’m going to pull 100 pounds to get a carboy of PV to use for this years blend.
> 
> View attachment 65076
> 
> ...



And we're off!


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## crushday (Aug 22, 2020)

Sounds amazing!


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## Chuck E (Aug 22, 2020)

@NorCal The PV fruit looks great. Do the leaves turn brown before the fruit is ready?


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## NorCal (Aug 30, 2020)

Well my plans for a Merlot heavy Bordeaux blend has taken a twist. I was expecting to make 48 gallons of Merlot, but looks like I’ll only yield 20 or so due to deer eating my fruit. I still have Cab Sauv and Cab Franc to go and I’ll have enough for a barrel, but it looks like Merlot will be an equal partner.

I ended having more Petit Verdot than I thought, so I decided to take the free run juice only. I will be getting plenty of structure from the Cab Franc and Cab Sauv.

i took 3 gallons of juice out of the Merlot grapes and will be making a case of Rose. Watered back to 20 brix, aciduated to 3.4 pH.

@Chuck E, the canopy in this vineyard does tend to fall apart prematurely.


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## winemaker81 (Aug 31, 2020)

Wow, those look beautiful!


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## Rob Kneeland (Sep 2, 2020)

Love your crusher/destemmer, and is that a Tiger in the garage?


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## sour_grapes (Sep 2, 2020)

Rob Kneeland said:


> and is that a Tiger in the garage?



Close, _verrrry _close!


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## NorCal (Sep 3, 2020)

Rob Kneeland said:


> Love your crusher/destemmer, and is that a Tiger in the garage?


Fellow car guy as is @sour_grapes! It’s actually an Alpine that had a Ford V6 dropped in it in the 70’s. It sat for 15 years before I picked it up. Now running, driving, fun little car. I bought a 289 with the thought of doing a V8 swap, but there is a bunch more to it, due to the extra size. We shall see.


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## NorCal (Sep 4, 2020)

I‘m trying my hardest to reduce the amount of wine I make. This has created logistics problems when trying to do a single barrel with 4 grape varieties, that come in at different times. I begged @4score to lend me a container for a few weeks to hold my Cab Franc until the Cab Sauv comes in. He had an extra, but I know the rental won’t be cheap.

A pic of when two hobbies compete for space.


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## NorCal (Sep 4, 2020)

I pressed the Merlot this morning. I got 25% more than I expected. Either the vineyard owner’s scale is off or she purposely under charged me.

Two of the 4 varieties are now completed.
- 6.5 gallon Petit Verdot - all free run, won’t use all of it
- 28 gallon Merlot - 22.5 free run 5.5 gallon pressed (also pulled 3 gallons out for a Saignee Rose)

I used my Wineasy to ferment, then press the Merlot. Pretty easy to do solo without too much clean-up


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## ibglowin (Sep 4, 2020)

Just in time for this weekends round of extreme HEAT in both NOCAL and SOCAL......


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## NorCal (Sep 18, 2020)

Picked up 500 pounds of Cab Franc today. I wasn’t thrilled with the fruit. I was shocked that the brix came in at 27 1/2. Very little raisining, but not very juicy. The pH came it at 3.6, which is abnormally low for this brix and question the measurement. I pulled out 3 1/2 gallons for a Saignee rose (watered back and acidulated). I’m considering watering back a little, but since the Merlot and Petit Verdot were such low brix, I’m not feeling compelled to water back too much.


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## Kraffty (Sep 18, 2020)

I get your thinking but what yeast would you use if you didn't water back a bit. Thats a pretty high ABV to manage.


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## NorCal (Sep 18, 2020)

In our little wine making collective we have nicknamed Avante (which I’m using) the Beast Yeast.
I think it will plow through the 17% abv without even blinking an eye.


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## CDrew (Sep 18, 2020)

Yep. Avante for the win. There is no down side. No problems with MLF, no problems with stuck fermentations, no problems with high temps, no problems with H2S. Hard to use anything else. I have 500 gm of D21 ready to go, but the Avante keeps being excellent.


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## NorCal (Sep 20, 2020)

I talked to another winemaker that got the same fruit. His pH was 4.0, which is what I suspected. I remeasured brix the next morning and it had come down, coupled with my acidulated water add, we are at a 26 brix starting point with pH hovering around 3.7 after my tartaric add. This cab franc will be blended with other lower brix, lower pH wine, so I didn’t feel I needed to be too aggressive on the adjustment.


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## NorCal (Oct 4, 2020)

I’m down to the last ferment! Here are the bits and pieces that I have that will go in the barrel.

25 gallon Merlot, Saignee 
3 gallons Petit Verdot, free run only
16 gallon Cab Franc, Saignee, free run only
16 gallons Cab Sauv, free run only (in-process)

All the “left overs” will be blended together.
3 gallon Petit Verdot
9 gallon Cab Franc
10 gallon Cab Sauv (expected)

A month or so before bottling I’ll taste the barrel by itself, the leftovers by itself and then a proportionate blend of the two. I’ll then decide to blend all of it or keep it as two separate wines.

Cab Sauv in the rear view mirror


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## NorCal (Oct 11, 2020)

The Cab Sauv ended up being 28-29 brix. Had to add gallons of water and over a half a pound of tartaric to get it in the ballpark. It fermented dry in 7 days and pressed it out today. I separated out the free run from the pressed wine. 

I’m staying true to the goal of making the best Merlot heavy Bordeaux blend possible, but I cannot say I’m real happy with any of the wines going in.

Merlot 25 gallon, Saignee, low brix fruit, needed more hang time.
Petit Verdot 3 gallon, free run only, low brix, not all ripe fruit.
Cab Franc 16 gallon, Saignee, high brix, not the best fruit, struggled ferment.
Cab Sauv 16 gallon, free run only, watered back C+ fruit

The only thing I am hoping for on the eve of putting the wine in the barrel is that the sum is greater than the individual components.


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## mainshipfred (Oct 11, 2020)

The way I see it is you're not blending bad wine with good which to me is a no no. If you blend wines you are not happy with I can only imagine the sum of the whole will be an improvement. Although I would wager they are better than you indicate.


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## crushday (Oct 11, 2020)

@NorCal - I look forward to the tasting report on the blend. You’ve clearly had a busy season. I’ll be moving my wine to barrel storage on Monday: 225L barrel of the “100pt blend” and 112L barrel of Cab Franc (27.4 gallons) and Petit Verdot (2 gallons).

A couple questions about your picture in post #22:

1. What are those stoppers covering the PETs?
2. The line in the foreground looks to be filled with white wine and connected on the right to your pump and dropped in to the bucket on the left. Additionally, there’s a braided hose presumably coming off the pump and presumably into the same bucket. Curious about that.


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## Boatboy24 (Oct 11, 2020)

NorCal said:


> The only thing I am hoping for on the eve of putting the wine in the barrel is that the sum is greater than the individual components.



I'm certain it will be.


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## Booty Juice (Oct 11, 2020)

NorCal said:


> Merlot 25 gallon, Saignee, low brix fruit, needed more hang time.
> Petit Verdot 3 gallon, free run only, low brix, not all ripe fruit.
> Cab Franc 16 gallon, Saignee, high brix, not the best fruit, struggled ferment.
> Cab Sauv 16 gallon, free run only, watered back C+ fruit
> ...



In my very short experience:

1.) You can't make great wine from sh*tty grapes.
2.) Blending helps a lot.
3.) Time helps even more.

Apologies stating the painfully obvious - been there done that!


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## NorCal (Oct 11, 2020)

mainshipfred said:


> The way I see it is you're not blending bad wine with good which to me is a no no. If you blend wines you are not happy with I can only imagine the sum of the whole will be an improvement. Although I would wager they are better than you indicate.


I think this is true; I’ve tasted each wine individually and they are sound. I’m sure they would be drinkable individually. Based on the fruit and the process, I’m projecting what I would expect the resulting wine to be. In the past years I would have 150-200 gallons of wine and I’d age them all separately and blend at the end. Since I only have 80 or so total gallons, I can only tweak things a little bit. However, I’ve made wine from each of these grapes, from these vineyards a few times, so I knew upfront what I wanted the blend to look like, although I don’t have as much Merlot to work with as I wanted.


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## NorCal (Oct 11, 2020)

1. What are those stoppers covering the PETs
I have a dozen of these, love them because they work on the big mouth and small mouth carboys. Link. 
.
2. The line in the foreground looks to be filled with white wine and connected on the right to your pump and dropped in to the bucket on the left. 
The input line (yellow, just the color of the hose)) has a racking cane on it with a 10 foot line, so I can rack everything without disturbing it. It is sitting in a bucket of Star-San waiting for me to sanitize everything.
.
3. Additionally, there’s a braided hose presumably coming off the pump and presumably into the same bucket. Curious about that.
This is just a reinforced hose (nylon braid in the plastic) that will be going in to the barrel.
.
Good luck with your blend!


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## NorCal (Nov 22, 2020)

Post mlf racking today. Happy with the fruit forward, depth of flavor and color. Added 2/3 new barrel equivalent of French oak spirals, medium toast. Time will tell!


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## Boatboy24 (Nov 23, 2020)

That's looking really pretty!


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## ibglowin (Nov 23, 2020)




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## NorCal (May 9, 2021)

I decided against a spring racking this time around. I’ve been staying up on the SO2 and of course tasting it with each topping. The wine is definitely the fruit forward, soft and smooth wine I was shooting for. The free run and saignee help bring those characteristics out. I think it also makes the wine an early and easy drinker. 
It will be interesting to taste it side by side the Cab Franc blend from the previous year, made in the same manner, with the same grapes from the same vineyard, but in different proportions.


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## NorCal (Aug 23, 2021)

The Merlot blend is in the bottle, 29 cases total with the left overs bottled separately. 

My impressions are the it is very similar to the Cab Franc blend that I made a year ago; fruit forward, smooth and approachable at a very young age, which I attribute to the % of free run. It is defintely my style of wine that I enjoy making and drinking. I hope others will agree. 
It was also the first time making wine in the new barn, which having enough space was a welcomed change. I'll be swapping some wine with @crushday, so I can get some honest feedback to share.


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## Rocktop (Aug 24, 2021)

Hi NorCal can you tell me a little more about the transfer pump you have. I see shurflo, but can you tell me the model #.
Is it self priming?

Thanks.
RT


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## NorCal (Aug 24, 2021)

Rocktop said:


> Hi NorCal can you tell me a little more about the transfer pump you have. I see shurflo, but can you tell me the model #.
> Is it self priming?
> 
> Thanks.
> RT



Sureflo 2088-594-154. Self priming, 9 foot lift, 3 gallon per minute. It has been a real work horse, especially for $68. I built my own caddy to power it and carry it around. Be sure to get the filter (255-313) for the inlet and screw on barbs.




If making things is not your thing, basically the same pump is available as a standalone, with on/off switch built in for $100 more at morewinemaking.com.


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## Rocktop (Aug 25, 2021)

Thank you NorCal, and just to check that is a positive displacement pump so gentle enough for wine?
On Amazon as we speak
RT


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## ibglowin (Aug 25, 2021)

I have this exact same setup. Works great and can do the job of moving wine quickly and efficiently. It is a diaphragm pump which is a (+) displacement pump. Just make sure to get the prefilter as instructed.



Rocktop said:


> Thank you NorCal, and just to check that is a positive displacement pump so gentle enough for wine?
> On Amazon as we speak
> RT


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## Rocktop (Aug 25, 2021)

Thanks gents. If the lift is about 9' what is the lift above the pump? I need to pump from my basement to the garage so about 13' total when you include into the top of a barrel or demijohn.
Sorry to hijack the thread...

Thank you,
RT


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## stickman (Aug 26, 2021)

@Rocktop In practice it is best to keep the pump as near as possible to the starting vessel. The maximum pump discharge pressure is 50psi however the pressure switch is factory set at 45psi. At 45psi discharge, the pump can deliver your wine at 1.75gpm to approximately 100 feet above the liquid level in the starting vessel. At 13 feet discharge (5.6psi) the pump will deliver the wine at around 3gpm.


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## Rocktop (Aug 26, 2021)

That’s perfect. I cored a hole from my attached garage down to my wine room in my basement and lined it with an abs pipe I slip siphon hoses through. It is nice to crush and press and bottle in the garage but bulk age etc downstairs in the nice cool climate controlled space. This pump will work perfect to move the finished wine back up.
Txs all.

RT
Thank you NorCal for letting me take the thread off course.


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