I forgot about them and several months later discovered this bucket of vinegar. Not what I was after but usable. In 2004 I had an abundant crop of grapes and decided to try again. I also got some must by helping a local wine maker crush his grapes from Napa.
That effort led to a few cases of Thompson Seedless/Flame wine from my backyard and a few cases of Napa Cabernet – both were bottled in 2005. In 2006 I bought some Cabernet grapes from the El Dorado foot hills and bottled in 2007. Last year I got lucky and was allowed to pick Cabernet Franc from a vineyard that was not going to use the grapes.
On Oct 30, 2008 I picked 190 pounds of grapes, hand crushed and de-stemmed them to wind up with 160 pounds of must.
After taking the juice off the skins I wound up with 14 gallons which should make about 75 bottles.
I bottled the first 3 gallons Oct 1, 2009.
