These cabernet Franc grapes are from the Lahoma vineyard located in Rock Stream NY. The grapes were hand picked then destemmed into a 1 ton bin and inoculated with 58W3 yeast. Once a day the cap of grape skins that forms on top of the fermentation was pressed down gently to wet the cap and encourage gentle extraction but maintain the berries integrity. This wine also completed malolactic fermentation and was filtered prior to bottling.

My goal for this wine was 2 fold. First, I wanted to experiment with gentle cap management in an attempt to keep the berries as whole as possible through fermentation to try and achieve some intra-berry fermentation aiming for a fresher and fruitier finished wine akin to carbonic maceration. Second, I wanted to make a moderately extracted cab franc that would be quite friendly to drinkers while the wine was still quite young. Given the cap management style I chose, this led to slightly less extraction and a softer structure. This wine could be a good option as a chillable red.

pH: 3.58
TA: 5.8 g/L
ABV: 12.5%
RS: 0.1%