Cash on the Barrelhead

We tasted 27 barrel samples today at Halter Ranch. 

The first sample was a neutral 2012 barrel.

The rest were brand new oak barrels from various cooperages.

What an awesome experiment!

The wine was an opulent blend of mostly Cabernet with 5% Malbec.

The neutral barrel was easily my favorite.

Brilliant wine.

Stunning actually.

Kevin Sass and Molly Lonborg are crushing it over there at Halter Ranch and we are big fans of the whole operation.

That said, our philosophy is, if it isn't broken don't fix it.

I relayed my findings back to the home office.

My message went thusly:

If you aren't packing heat, don't mess with wood. 

Ledge wines lean torward toward subtlety and lots of new oak runs the risk of overpowering the fruit.

We are not going to put on muscle man outfits that don't suit us.

We like to coax things.

Spectate.

Applaud.

Love.

Snuggle. 

Smoulder.

Lay around them.

Touch things. 

Oh, wait, was I talking about wine or our last lovely vacation along the shores of the Danube? 

More next week. 

Planting time for the nursery!