I have been busy the last three or four weeks. I have been getting my wines ready for blending. I have chosen a range of wines from three vintages to combine into a blend, Cuvee Rouge or Tramp Harbor Red.
I did an egg-white fining on about fourteen barrels, then did a very light filtration through loose cellulose filter sheets. The egg-white attracts the opposite electrical charged proteins in the wine and settles out of the wine at the bottom of the barrel. This helps to soften some of the harsher tannins. Then the filtration removes the egg-white and sediment from the wine and “cleans up” the wine. The resulting wine is smoother and brighter (or polished).
Then I put the wines back into barrel, ready to be bottled. I have already blended the ’03 Reserve Red, the ’04 Reserve Red, the ’04 Cabernet Sauvignon and a new blend of half Cabernet Franc and half Merlot from the ’04 vintage. Each of those wines is exciting but the new Tramp Harbor Red is even more exciting. Into this blend went a bit of each of the fore-mentioned wines plus some ’05 Cabernet Sauvignon and ’05 Merlot. Also I added to barrels of Malbec, one each from the ’03 and the ’04 vintage. The Tramp Harbor Red (THR) is concentrated and elegant, and a terrific deal.
It will be selling in the stores in about a week at an incredible price of around $16.99. I hope to sell it out. I need to sell it out to help pay off my loan that I used to purchase the winery.
I will pay off the loan. And I will do it in whatever manner it takes. I have a lot of inventory, not too much mind you, but enough that I am willing to sell it a bit cheaper to pay off the loan.
That is my mantra in ’08: sell lots of wine!
