Wines for Vines

On Thursday, May 18th, we pulled up twenty-five Cabernet Franc ENTAV clone 214 from our "nursery" and drove it over to Jonathan Edwards. The winemaker, Michael and vineyard manager, Chris were there to receive the vines. Jonathan Edwards also has Cabernet Franc 214 planted in their vineyard and they expressed an interest in planting our tall grafted vines and seeing how the vines compare to their conventionally grafted vines.

Chris had to run off, but Michael gave us a tour of the winery. One of the items that we are interested in are the Mueller fermentation barrels. Michael had a few so he showed them to us. We had heard from other winemakers that the curvature of the stainless steel barrel is a critical feature for being able to top it off. Michael said that stacking a curved stainless steel barrel was better for the barrels than if they were flat. Before leaving the facility, Michael asked us how much we wanted for the tall grafted vines. We were just happy that they wanted to experiment with the vines, so we said, "nothing", to which he replied, then you're getting some wine, and he gave us 7 bottles of the wines that he had made! We'll be sharing it with our friends and I'll be blogging about the wines.