Cellar Stuff: Racking Cabernet, Tasting Zin

Question: What happens when you pump wine at 35lbs of pressure through a hose rated at 20lbs of pressure? Answer: You look and smell like wine.

Yup, I had a regulator-valve on a trusted pump fail on me today. Which meant I was drenched in a very tasty 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon (there are worse fates). The poor hose couldn't handle the pressure and spewed a goodly few bottles of wine all over the cellar (and me). Talk about alcohol abuse! Ultimately, we replaced the hose, fixed the valve and finished racking the 2005 cabernet sauvignon without further incident.

We also put our 2005 Creston Hills Vineyard (Paso Robles) Zinfandel barrels out in the sun to help expedite the malolactic fermentation. We couldn't help tasting a bit (hey, the barrels are down from the stacks and we needed to do a little quality control tasting, didn't we?). It was so delicious we took a sample bottle over to Sharon (she and Mike own the vineyard where these grapes come from). You should have seen her eyes light up! She said tasting this wine has made all the cost and time involved with managing a vineyard worth it. I credit them. They are truly committed to making great fruit on their property. I am glad we have to opportunity to extract some tasty vino from there diligent farming. The wine still very new yet. I can only imagine how wonderful it'll be in a year or so! But when we rack it, I'll make sure the pumps are in good working order.