We have just received from Vinquiry, an analytical lab, the final results for our 1999 wines which will be bottled in July. All the wines are virtually free of sugar and all have gone through my requirement for malolactic fermentation. The free so2's are around 30 parts per million at this time. We will add a small amount of so2 at racking in April and then just before bottling in July. At bottling, we aim about 20 parts per million so2. At the next racking, we are expecting about 10 ppm of so2 because it does dissipate. The numbers that are somewhat different in each wine are total acids, the pH and the alcohol. 
 

		pH	Total Acid	Alcohol
1999	Cabernet Franc	3.73	.60	13.87
1999	Petite Sirah	3.61	.66	13.74
1999	Carignan	3.54	.68	13.15
1999	Estate Cuvee	3.54	.68	13.55
1999	Aca Modot	3.64	.68	13.59
1999	Zinfandel	3.68	.64	14.36
1999	"4th Mix" (or possibly now named "Heritage Cuvee")	3.74	.65	15.21
1999	Pinot Noir	3.51	.67	13.81
1999	Sauvignon Blanc	3.18	.71	14.78
1999	Late Harvest Sauv. Blanc (residual sugar of 15.16)	3.59	.68	12.57

Saturday, January 22, 2000
(By Brendan)
The new year has now officially started.  Today is the start of Winter Wineland, the first Dry Creek/Russian River wine event of the year.  Although we are not official participants of Winter Wineland, we do open up for people who want to drop by.  We are expecting a hundred or so customers to visit us this afternoon as they cruise around the rest of Dry Creek.
    This is only the second day this week that I have been here at the winery.  I have been spending a lot of time recently on my "other" job as the National Director of Education for the WineBRATS.  The WineBRATS are a consumer organization that is dedicated to getting younger people to drink more wine and also to generally educating people about wine and making it less intimidating.  We have our national conference coming up at the end of February and there is a lot of work to be done.  This works out perfectly with the winery because for the first couple of months during the year, there is very little to do when you are as small of a winery as we are.  The two together definitely keep me busy (as well as my "other-other" job writing for WineX magazine).