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1.5 Liter 2008 Petite Sirah Dry Creek Valley- HAND PAINTED and ETCHED

We hand picked this small vineyard September 24, 2008.  The weather was playing tricks on us again , and it actually rained the morning after we picked these grapes.  It was a bold decision, but I chose these young vines because I hoped they would ripen early, before the rains. The vines are very young, this was the first crop (fourth leaf) so we see smaller berries with higher skin ratio - that means more color, flavor and fruit! The pick was a tremendous success and the grapes came to our winery at about 26.8 Brix.

We crushed the grapes into small, 1-ton-open-topped fermentation tanks.  We let the natural yeast start the fermentation by cold soaking the grapes for 4 days, and then we noticed the gradual start of the fermentation.  We added our own yeast and this Petite took off fast.  WE had fun (and a lot of hard work) "punching down" the fermenting must twice daily for 7 days before we pressed off and put directly into 2 year old, once filled - French oak barrels.  The wine finished Malo-lactic fermentation in these barrels and we aged the wine for 10 months on fermentation lees before bottling in August  2008.

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