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I snagged a bottle of Concannon 2014 Cab Sauv. (Paso Robles) for $9. :db. However, I will probably be serving whatever our esteemed guest brings. I'll keep the Concannon in reserve.
 
Reaching back into the Cellar tonight. 2009 Longshadows "Chester Kidder". ~50% Cab Sauv, 25% Syrah, 15% PV, 10% Cab Franc. 90pts WS and smoking good with a short amount of air.

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Was thinking what I was going to send to @Kraffty for being nice enough to send me one of his extra "window stickers". Opened up a 2015 Dornfelder, made from some local grapes to see if it was worth sending. Nice and dry, big fruit since I don't have too much oak in this half of the batch (other half still needs bottled, but I'm lazy of late). Great thing about these warmer temperatures is that I took a glass full up to the grilling area where I had set up a electric skillet to fry some chicken cutlets up (for Chicken Parm, how I love thee, for tomorrow's dinner). Amazing how much more expressive this red wine is when it is at a warmer temperature (basement is still around 64*F). So many more flavor notes coming out. I've noticed a good Pale ale is somewhat muted when it has it's heart frozen out (served in the high 30's vs. the low 50's). I think it passed the test, just needs some air for 20 minutes or so and it's good to go. Still very tannic in my opinion, so it should age pretty well for some time to come.

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I snagged a bottle of Concannon 2014 Cab Sauv. (Paso Robles) for $9. :db. However, I will probably be serving whatever our esteemed guest brings. I'll keep the Concannon in reserve.

For the appetizer, which was a scallop, I served a Menage a Trois Gold Chardonnay.

Coincidentally, our guest brought a bottle of Menage a Trois Red Blend, which I served with dinner. Frankly, both were pretty danged nice. :try
 
Saturday night I had 2013 Orin Swift's Mannequin Chardonnay. It was very good. Soft creaminess texture, yet still containing a crisp edgy citrus flavors.

Very enjoyable.

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Around my area most wineries hire a bottling truck. It's a tractor trailer equiped with a full bottling line. I was fortunate enough to see it in operation. Don't know if you call this automatic or semi but the bottles were hand placed on a conveyor belt the wine was being filtered as it was being pumped to the bottling line. The wine was then poured, corked, foiled and labeled automatically. The finished bottles were then hand boxed and put on a pallet. They did 1200 cases that day but did several wines and I wasn't there to see the down time between wines. It was really neat to watch. So that many botttles must have taken a long time.
 
We had "Dock Therapy" prior to a home made Clam Sauce over Linguine. The wine was a Don Amado Sangiovese blend Oct 2014. Absolutely awesome!!! Made by By "Geek" on this site, or Varis by friends. This wine was the best Sangiovese/blend Chianiti we have had. Ps I make & drink a lot of Chianti! Thanks Varis. Hope your stock is good, if so please bring more next Christmas! Thanks, Roy & Dawn

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Well that's how we felt about OUR Oct 2015 Cab from Pardo Grapes from Calif. that we had last night for the first time! It was Blahhhhhhhh!!!! So disappointing after all that work. So tonight's Sanginovese by Varis was an inspiration, we will try harder next fall. Our wine from grapes was Weak, Pale, No legs, Flat, Blahhhhh! It was 100% grapes too. Abv was 13.2. We added tannins but nothing else. Roy
 
Well that's how we felt about OUR Oct 2015 Cab from Pardo Grapes from Calif. that we had last night for the first time! It was Blahhhhhhhh!!!! So disappointing after all that work. So tonight's Sanginovese by Varis was an inspiration, we will try harder next fall. Our wine from grapes was Weak, Pale, No legs, Flat, Blahhhhh! It was 100% grapes too. Abv was 13.2. We added tannins but nothing else. Roy

Try adding a high end enzyme like Lallamand EX or EX-V, let it hang out for 12 hours or so before pitching your yeast (for more stable color). Also adding some Opti-red might help the mouthfeel a bit.

For mouthfeel:
http://www.scottlab.com/product-115.aspx

For color:
http://www.scottlab.com/product-160.aspx

No, I'm not a salesman for them, the stuff seems to work really well.
 
Carbed up some Cucumber Melon Sauvignon Blanc in the Sodastream and served w/ a slice of lime. Dang! I need to make another batch of this. What a great summer cocktail! This will cut nicely through the richness and spice of the barbacoa tacos in tonight's dinner.

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