# Helping a new winemaker - Cab Franc Barrel



## NorCal (Sep 4, 2020)

I was so fortunate to have a neighbor that introduced me to winemaking. I was completely blown away on how good his wine was and was made in his garage. I was hooked and he showed me the ropes.

Fast forward to this year and I get a call from a neighbor that says he has grapes in his backyard and not sure what to do with them. My plan was to be a good neighbor and say hello and say that I’m sorry but your 115 vines of grapes in your backyard were not properly cared for and not viable for a commercial winery.

Instead, I was blown away. The pics say it all. I inquired if he vacuumed his vineyard this morning  It is Cabernet Franc and some incredible fruit.

I asked if he was interested in learning how to make wine and he said yes. The fact that he cared for these vines in this manner convinced me that it was my turn to pay it back. Brix are right at 25 brix and we are harvesting his grapes on Saturday for his first barrel! I’ll keep you posted.


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## stickman (Sep 4, 2020)

Yea, I'd sure like to have that in my backyard.


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## Adam Beck (Sep 4, 2020)

Harvest soon! 25 brix is high!


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## Boatboy24 (Sep 4, 2020)

Wow, those are gorgeous!


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## crushday (Sep 4, 2020)

Someday, hopefully...


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## GR! (Sep 4, 2020)

@NorCal It is awesome you are paying it forward and being a good shepherd for the hobby! I suspect there are a lot of people you have inspired to dive deeper into wine making. I know I’m one of them!


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## Venatorscribe (Sep 5, 2020)

Cab Franc Makes a beautiful smooth wine and as you know it is often blended with with more plentiful grapes such as merlot, to improve the final outcome. However a straight cab franc wine is absolutely stunning. Especially if you let bottle age for 3 to 5 years. You are a lucky fella


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## NorCal (Sep 5, 2020)

we started at 7am and with a team of volunteers, the fruit came off quickly. I was shocked at how much fruit came off those vines, 1,200 pounds total, a whopping 10 ponds per vine! A lot of the not so ripe fruit was included with the ripe fruit, but with 8 volunteer, that’s hard to control. 23 brix / 3.55 pH., no adjustments made. Excellent host with coffee, pastries, quiche and the absolute cutest dog in the world. I’ll get a pic next time.


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## ibglowin (Sep 5, 2020)

OMG. Just blown away by the quality of the fruit. Just amazing.


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## Jay A (Sep 6, 2020)

NorCal, that's fantastic! Please keep us posted.


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## Rocky (Sep 6, 2020)

You are a lucky fella

"Chance (luck) favors the prepared mind."_ Louis Pasteur_


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## Figo (Sep 6, 2020)

Stunning! Looking at the apparent quality of the fruit, you're going to have a fine wine. Good Luck!


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## NorCal (Sep 6, 2020)

The wife of the budding winemaker asked if I could document the overall flow. 

The red wine making steps I use is:
- harvest, destem/crush
- add tartaric acid if required, SO2 25-50 ppm
- wait 24 hrs, inoculate, using GoFerm
- first sign of fermentation, add FermK
- open top, covered with screen or cloth, punch down 3X daily
- 1/3 sugar drop, add FermK
- press at 0 brix
- let pressed wine settle for 24 hours
- rack into barrel/carboy/Spiedel 
- inoculate mlb, with nutrient
- rack when mlf complete
- add SO2 based on pH
- rack 3-4 months later
- measure and add SO2 based on pH
- rack 3-4 months later (if required)
- measure and add SO2 based on pH
- (total time since harvest 11-12 months)
- before bottling rack, measure and add SO2 based on pH
- bottle

Some might argue that it’s a bit heavy handed on the racking and I can’t disagree. If the sediment if fine and not excessive, I’ll skip it. This is easy to see in a carboy, hard to see in a barrel.


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## NorCal (Sep 7, 2020)

Wine was inoculated Sunday, called today to ask if he sees any sign of fermentation. I pre-made 2 packets of fermK to add. He said no, so I thought I’d check it out.


It had dropped 7 brix


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## Venatorscribe (Sep 7, 2020)

Jeez that looks good.


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## VinesnBines (Sep 7, 2020)

Looks like a lot of hand holding. It will be satisfying in the end.


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## Boatboy24 (Sep 7, 2020)

NorCal said:


> Wine was inoculated Sunday, called today to ask if he sees any sign of fermentation. I pre-made 2 packets of fermK to add. He said no, so I thought I’d check it out.
> View attachment 65737
> 
> It had dropped 7 brix




Yep, no signs at all. Time to panic.


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## NorCal (Sep 11, 2020)

Pressing day. Yield was spot on at 80 gallons. Good looking, tasting wine. Used my Wineasy to press the must, took two loads. Pic of the cutest dog in the world.


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## crushday (Sep 12, 2020)

Looks great!


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## NorCal (Sep 15, 2020)

We let the wine settle for about 36 hours and racked into the barrel. He bought a 3rd year barrel from a local commercial winery (had the highest rated Syrah in the nation a few years ago), where I’ve gotten a few barrels from. $70 for a well cared for barrel, is a good deal.

I made the assumption that the barrel was only recently taken out of the rotation, but it looks like it had been months. We had pumped 6 or so gallons in before the leaks started. We pumped the wine back out and made 5 gallons of very hot water. We wet the whole barrel on the inside, but focused on the ends. 30 minutes later we were filling it with wine again, without leaks.


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## NorCal (Nov 7, 2020)

MLF is done, racked the barrel, and a few carboys. Wine tastes excellent and was as clean a racking as I’ve ever seen due to how good the grapes were. We bottled a case of wine for them to use as topping, with the cutest dog in the world supervising.


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## NorCal (May 19, 2021)

I've been visiting my neighbor and tasted the wine the other week. It's tasting nice. He has stayed up on the topping and additions. He doesn't have anything to blend with, so I think it is going to be a standalone, unless I want to donate some of my bottled Petit Verdot / Petite Sirah. I've been encouraging him to get his equipment, so he will be independent of my gear, so I have been giving him links to the items I would get. I created the below drawing to give him an idea on how I go about bottling a barrel. He will have around 375 bottles to do, so it makes sense to set up a little production line. I like to have 6-7 people. The bottle carriers are wooden crates I made to pass the bottles between stations. It serves two purposes; makes sure one person doesn't get way ahead of the next station and when someone gets up and knocks the table, we don't tip over bottles.


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## Kraffty (May 19, 2021)

Like a good neighbor....norcal is there.....


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## 4score (May 20, 2021)

What a great neighbor!


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## NorCal (Jun 25, 2021)

Went over to the neighbor to see how he did on converting the shed into a wine area and give the barrel a taste. I wish I took some pictures (I’ll do it next time I go over there). It is awesome. It’s one of those, if $ were no object and you picture what you would want the space to look like, this is what it would be.

The barrel, which is 100% low brix Cab Franc from the yard, tasted excellent. He used medium toast French oak spirals, which complements the cranberry notes from the Cab Franc. He then talked about blending it, although he has nothing made that could be blended with it. I know he would like a bigger, darker wine. I’m trying to convince him to leave it alone. He will probably never make a single varietal Cab Franc again and to use this wine as a baseline wine. I guess the barrel could be split and add some commercial PV to part of it.


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## ibglowin (Jun 25, 2021)

Thats just it. Cab Franc is not supposed to be a monster wine. Its more about finesse and restraint and not muscle or brawn or in your face tannin.....

Would love to see pics of the space!


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## Venatorscribe (Jun 25, 2021)

Keep encouraging him to maintain it as a single varietal Cab Franc. Cab Franc's is such smooth, beautiful wine. It will just keep improving with age and it will become that style he wants.


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## NorCal (Jun 25, 2021)

I sent him a follow-up text on what a great job he did on the space and he responded with liking the idea to keep this year a single varietal wine. Wait to you see this place, pretty awesome.


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## crushday (Jun 25, 2021)

@NorCal This whole string in an example of your incredible influence. Good job!

Looking forward to any images available to visualize the new space of your friend!

See you soon…


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## NorCal (Jul 16, 2021)

We picked a date to bottle, near the end of August. If I don’t get over before then, I’ll be sure to take pictures of his set-up, as well as bottling. 

I gave him a list of stuff and links to purchase stuff needed; bottles, corks, caps, labels. All-in-one, bottle washer, bottle tree, corker, label aligner, hot plate, folding tables and chairs. Anything he doesn’t acquire, I’ll bring over. We will be doing 350 bottles and should be able to average 2 bottles a minute, once everyone learns their station.


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## crushday (Jul 16, 2021)

NorCal said:


> label aligner,


Can you post a link to the label aligner? Or is this the one of your own design? If the latter, I’d like to commission @NorCal to build me one. PM me the price if you’d accept.


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## sour_grapes (Jul 16, 2021)

crushday said:


> Can you post a link to the label aligner? Or is this the one of your own design? If the latter, I’d like to commission @NorCal to build me one. PM me the price if you’d accept.



Don't forget @joeswine 's miter box idea: when good wines gone bad


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## NorCal (Jul 16, 2021)

crushday said:


> Can you post a link to the label aligner? Or is this the one of your own design? If the latter, I’d like to commission @NorCal to build me one. PM me the price if you’d accept.


I did make one and still using it today after a few thousand bottles have gone through it. I would however recommend this one. I haven't used it, but @4score has and he says it does a good job.


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## Ajmassa (Jul 16, 2021)

crushday said:


> Can you post a link to the label aligner? Or is this the one of your own design? If the latter, I’d like to commission @NorCal to build me one. PM me the price if you’d accept.


In the meantime you can just use the glass seam that runs perfectly vertical up the bottle. Makes for a quick & efficient way to keep labels straight.

*(except on tapered bottles. They can be a royal pain to keep labels aligned)


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## 4score (Aug 3, 2021)

We ended up buying a second Label Wizard to speed the process!


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## NorCal (Aug 27, 2021)

Bottling set for tomorrow. I asked if he was able to get anyone to help. He said, I have 10 people coming. Ok then, I think we are set. I'm going over tonight to make sure all the equipment works, wine is racked and SO2'ed. Pics of the winery as promised:


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## Bmd2k1 (Aug 27, 2021)

NorCal said:


> Bottling set for tomorrow. I asked if he was able to get anyone to help. He said, I have 10 people coming. Ok then, I think we are set. I'm going over tonight to make sure all the equipment works, wine is racked and SO2'ed. Pics of the winery as promised:
> View attachment 78008
> 
> View attachment 78011
> ...


Dig it!


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## NorCal (Aug 28, 2021)

Around 350 bottles done, good time had by all. Great host with a wonderful brunch. Some more pics.


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## NorCal (Oct 11, 2021)

I was driving in the car this weekend when I got a call from my old neighbor. He said he brought a few bottles to a wine event that included commercial and home winemakers. Out of 100 bottles, his was chosen as the winner! Crazy. I'm glad I saved the bottles he gave me : )


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