Bookwalter Subplot Red - table wine - blended red for everyday drinking -

Aromas black olive, plum, Bing cherries and vanilla. The entry on the palate is sweet, almost caramel-like, transitions seamlessly into a voluminous mid-palate and finishes with flavors of allspice, black berries and cherries followed by silky, lush tannins.

From the winery: "This non vintage red wine is a blend from the outstanding vintages of 2000(2%), 2001 (13%), 2002 (59%) and 2003(26%). The lot number indicates in sequential order how many table style wines our winery has produced since 1983."

Blend - 50% Merlot, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Syrah and 5% Malbec. All of the grapes were hand harvested then hand sorted on a conveyor belt before crushing. After gentle crushing to maintain a high percentage of whole berries, the different wine lots were cold soaked for 24 to 48 hours and inoculated with Bordeaux Red yeast. The various lots were fermented at specific temperatures depending on the health of the fruit and generally pressed at high Brix to avoid heavy extraction. All of the lots were moved to small basket presses where gentle pressing occurred. The free run and press wines are then separated and racked directly to new and used French oak barrels for the culmination of primary fermentation. Malolactic inoculant was added to each barrel to aid in the ML process. The wines were racked and fresh egg white fined frequently during the aging process to help soften the tannins and develop the wines. The wines for our "Lot" program are chosen after final selection for our upper end varietal program has been completed and generally includes younger vineyard fruit and press wine from our established older vineyards."