Hot Tub Time Machine Syrah

Every vintage we do something different in our winemaking. Its part of a philosophy of getting better (I seem to remember the 5 min manager book about "keeping the saw sharp") Sometimes they are ideas that I have leaned in my travels to other wineries during the year (new cooperage,delayed ml) . Other times its something I learned from other winemakers. This year one of our experiments has been 6 years in the waiting……..

Flash back to a tech tour at Tolosa Winery  http://www.tolosawinery.com/: I was there with a group of other winemakers taking a tour of some local cellars to share winemaking ideas when I spotted an old lonely looking oak fermenter in the corner covered by a tarp. I asked my friend the winemaker there Ed Filice  http://lafilice.com/ what it was. "That was my uncle Carmen's, he re-coopered a redwood hot tub form the 70's into a fermenter. His wines really were good". His bosses wanted it (and any of its microbiological funk) out of the cellar. So I offered to hold it for him, I love that type of funky old school winemaking stuff.  Well it took me a few years of storing it in my cellar until I found time that it would take to get it back in food grade condition. (and when I say "time" it really means I finally hired an intern to work for us for this vintage). Teddy the intern went to work on cleaning it up and getting it ready for wine. It took about 3 weeks of cleaning and soaking in every chemical known to a winery. I even bought a new product from Italy that was designed to help bring back old oak.  Well we ended up fermenting some Syrah from the Bassi Ranch in it for this vintage and it ROCKS!

Next time you in the cellar with us remind us to taste you our our Hot Tub Time Machine Syrah......