News

Cabernet Franc is going through its secondary fermentation in a plastic carboy with airlock. Vidal Blanc is doing the same and trying to clear itself of its strange green color. The two Cabernet Sauvignon batches are still fermenting in tubs with cheese cloth on the top. We have been punching down the cap a few times a day. Both caps are starting to form more slowly, which is a sign that fermentation is slowing. Soon we will press both and rack them into carboys.

In corporate news, Fraser Hall Wine Company is taking steps to diversify its portfolio of beverages in response to market conditions and as part of our risk management strategy. In other words, we makin' more booze!

Our corporate board approved a proposal to start a mead project. Mead is a honey based spirit that is thought to be the oldest alcoholic beverage. It undergoes fermentation, just like wine and beer, and is clear or a golden color. The aging process is similar to a red wine. It can be drank a year after fermentation and should taste fine, but will get much better with age.

We located an apiary (beekeeper) in Centreville, VA, who is going to provide the honey.

Finally, our website is under construction and should be up and rolling in a few weeks. We outsourced the work to a VA Tech grad.

Cab Franc

100 lbs of Cab Franc were crushed and de-stemmed on Monday night while everyone else was celebrating the voyage of Columbus, the puffy shirted Spaniard.

We tested the must and it was extremely low in acid. We added a bunch of acid. The juice tasted much better afterwards. It was very sugary tasting at first with little pucker factor. Afterwards it started to taste like grape juice. Hopefully this will improve the final product.

John added yeast on Tuesday and the Cab Franc must is patiently bubbling away in the 20 gallon bucket.

We are picking up 200 lbs of Cab Sauvingon on Saturday, which will complete our grape purchases for this year.

Meanwhile, our vidal blanc is persistently fermenting away. We know it's fermenting away b/c the airlock is constantly bubbling and John's basement smells like a cross between a sweaty feet and hard boiled eggs.

More pictures to come.

Grapes Arrived!

We trekked up to Mt. Airy, Maryland this morning, Sunday, October 5, 2008 to pick up 200 lbs of grapes from Maryland Crush. We purchased two 20 gallon, food grade trash cans from Home Depot, loaded them and a few other necessities into John's truck and headed out.


After a quick stop in Purcellville to pick up a side of cow for John, we went Northeast to Rob's house in Mt. Airy. There were two other groups there to pick up grapes when we arrived. We sat back while Rob helped the group of men in front of us to crush and de-stem their Syrah grapes.

When it was our turn, Rob took us to his garage, which was fitted with a huge meat locker like refridgerator. He went in and returned with a lug of Vidal Blanc. We ended up getting four lugs of Vidal Blanc, which topped out at 100 lbs. Unfortunately he ran out of Merlot and so we are going to get 50 more lbs of Cab Franc and Cab Sauvignon when they are harvested.


We got set up on the crusher, de-stemmer and went to town: I poured one lug at a time into the top of the crusher and John hand cranked the crusher, which separates the stems from the berries as it crushes the berries. The must (juice, skins, pulp and seeds) falls through the bottom into a large bucket.



The Vidal must filled 3/4 of the 20 gallon trash can and we added Pectic Acid and Metabisulfate to the must: the Pectic Acid helps to break down the skins to extract flavor and the Metabisulfate kills native yeasts that may be living in the must.

Back at John's house we used the new press to get 6 gallons of juice from the 100 lbs of Vidal grapes. The 6 gallons is sitting patiently in our fermentation bucket waiting for some yeast, which we will add tomorrow.



The 20 gallon trash can filled with Vidal Blanc must.



The Vidal Blanc grape must.



The wine press awaiting some action. We use cheese cloth on the inside of the press to keep the solids from running out.






Juice flowing out of the press into the bucket.



Juice with a few seeds. The juice is incredibly cloudy and does not resemble wine at all.



The wood blocks are used to press down on the must.



Here is what the grapes look like after being pressed.


Six gallons of wonderful juice.

Grapes are coming.

We are receiving 200 lbs of grapes this weekend, October 4, 2008: 100 lbs of Vidal Blanc and 100 lbs of Merlot.

We are still waiting on word of the Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The initial order had been for 200 lbs of Cabernet Sauvignon, but that was changed this past week when we found out that we could get some Virginia Cab Franc.

The plan is still to make Ebrietas as a red blend, but the blend has taken on a new dimension now that a third varietal is in the picture. Having no experience blending, it will be interesting to experiment later with different blends of the three reds. I dont know if we will just combine all or combine two and bottle one on its own.

We will drive up to Mt Airy, Maryland this Sunday to crush and de-stem the Vidal and Merlot. Although we have some ideas, we have yet to purchase travel vessels. It looks like we will use 20 gallon food grade buckets from Home Depot.

Once back from Maryland, we will let the Vidal must (skins, seeds, juice, pulp) sit for a few hours and then press the must to extract the juice. This juice will go into a smaller 6 gallon carboy and yeast will be added to start the fermentation process. The Merlot must will be fermented with juice, skins, seeds and pulp and pressed only after a few weeks once fermentation has finished and we have gotten enough flavor from the skins and seeds. The Merlot must will also be pressed into a 6 gallon carboy to age and go through any subsequent fermentation.

Our hope with the Vidal is to leave a bit of residual sugar, which will mean a lower alcohol wine with a sweet taste. The Vidal will probably need to age for at least 6 months, possibly a year until it can be released. We have not determined when we will bottle the Vidal.

The Merlot and the other two red varietals will age much longer than the Vidal. Regardless of when we decide to blend and bottle, Ebrietas, in whatever form it takes, will not be available for at least a year and half to two years.