think my favorite part of wine making is barrel tasting. I have 6 barrels of wine aged over 1.5 years in the garage. This past Sunday we racked the fall wines. During racking, before we start drinking bottled wine, we barrel taste. It always leads me to just the right bottle of wine to finish the job.

At 1 pm, my racking crew drove into the driveway. We started with some housekeeping then we cleaned the tubs and began pumping the Primitivo into a fermentation tub. We blended in the Primitivo overflow that was in carboys, cleaned the barrels and carboys and pumped everything back into the barrels.

When the pump is running, the tasting begins naturally. The first glass comes directly from the pump hose. The Primitivo did not disappoint. The next barrel we tasted was a barrel of 2022 Petite Sirah. My consideration was, do I blend it with the Primitivo but the Petite Sirah is so good on it’s on that I’ve decided to leave both wines in their varietal state without blending. This is different because I always add a little Petite Sirah to Primitivo for color.

The next barrel we tasted was the 2022 Cab which is to be bottled in a week or so. The Cab is lovely for sure. Next up was the last barrel of 2021 Syrah, needless to say it past the taste test with flying colors but will age a little longer on almost neutral oak. Lastly, we moved over to the next barrel with our now empty cups. It was the new blend. I had described it last year after first racking as Serendipity’s brother. The notes were as follows:

Serendipity has a Brother!

He is hiding in the shadows of midnight, cloaked in black cashmere.  He is young, but dark and mysterious for his age.  Like his sister, he carries fruit all the way to the finish but along with him comes more pepper, darker color, and a bolder dark fruit profile. 

Ideal for a collector or a want-a-glass-now consumer, he will be moved from the barrel to the bottle for aging later this year.  He will remain unnamed until the second racking so that we are assured he is not a marauder of senses. 

These notes were written in anticipation of what I thought the final product would be. The wine is dark ruby in color and very complex with dark fruit flavor characteristics. Secondary to that it has a bing cherry mid palate and does still finish with a little white pepper. It’s velvety smooth but we need a new name!