Racking Our Red Wines into Oak Barrels

Yesterday was a first for us. We went to Jonathan Edwards Winery where Jonathan Edwards and his crew had prepared two oak barrels for us so that our reds, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc could age in oak! Jonathan chose two of his 2018 Nadalie Elite oak barrels to store our wines for aging.
The paper chromatography taken of our wines on February 17 showed that the malolactic fermentation was over. This is a good time to transfer the finished wine from the stainless steel barrel that fermentation was done in, into oak. Jonathan Edwards had all of the equipment in place when we went over and the transfer went without a problem. We put in 35 ppm of sulfur dioxide (in the form of potassium metabisulfite). We ended up with a full barrel plus a full 5 gallon keg to use for topping up the barrel as the wines age.

We can't wait to taste our wines after barrel aging! Thank you, Jonathan!