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As I wrote a few days ago, the Cabernet Franc — long our favorite wine from our grower — wasn’t its usual self at last racking. While it’s been dependably fresh and lovely any time we pull it from barrel, last week it was dull and flat, seemingly absent the will to live. A little unsettling, to say the least.

Today I got back some lab results from our long-suffering friends at ETS Labs, so we have a better picture of what’s going on with this sullen teenager. But even as the data answers some questions, it raises some others.

Stroke your beard and consider a theory or two with me after the jump…
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A few nights ago we got together to rack our three wines, and of course, couldn’t help tasting them as they poured from barrel to tank and back into barrel.

2007 Cabernet Franc
I think the consensus was that contrary to any of our previous experiences with this wine at this stage, the Franc showed the worst of the three. It had a decent fragrance, but it was murky and lifeless in the mouth, oddly framed with a hint of oak (it’s in an essentially neutral barrel). And once past the tonsils, it was like it was never there. Overall, a far cry from the fresh, precocious party-in-your-mouth the Franc usually is — and the way it was in March, when last we racked it.

So, what’s going on? Theories abound — more in a future post — but it’s certainly true that most wines go through “dumb” or hibernative stages, where between one chemical state and another they’re kind of in limbo. I think of it like a construction project: you begin with one thing (nice bones, but what Nazi scientist designed that wallpaper!?), but before the shiny new thing emerges (did you notice it matches my iTouch?), you float like Dante through the undoing of one and the creation of the other, where your thing isn’t what it was, but it isn’t what it’ll become. It’s something, yet it’s also not quite anything, either. And you have to use a port-a-potty in the back yard for a month.

Anyway, that’s not unusual for wine as it evolves (for example, see my notes on the Sauvignon, below), but it’s not how the Franc has ever performed in the past. More soon.

Cabernet Sauvignon
Next up was the Cab. It was also a little shuttered, but more in a way you’d expect at this stage in its life. All the stuffing was there, and indeed, it had a lot of complexity and good feel in the mouth, though not much of a finish that night. All in all, however, showed pretty good life for so young a wine, and all present murmured approval into their cups.

Merlot
If you’ve got a weak heart, please skip the second half of this sentence: the merlot was the best wine of the evening. I’ll give you a minute to get your bearings. Sometimes a glass of wine helps.

While it lacked a little backbone (though in point of fact, it showed the backbone of a good Merlot), it betrayed surprising life, in addition to a bass marimba-like depth and velvetyness in the mouth. Almost complex, and a pretty good ride through the finish.

If this is in fact representative of where the Merlot will end up (no guarantees there, of course), I’d say this is due to a combination of three things: 1) wild yeast (so many gene pools, so many flavors); 2) crop load (we asked the grower to dramatically reduce yield in 2007: and 3) pulling a seignée out of it (in a nutshell, a seignée drains juice from a fermenter, increasing the proportion of flavor-packed skins to tasty juice). I’d give more of a nod to 2 and 3 than 1, but probably all played a role.

Next up is blending, so we’ll see if this was an aberration or a strategy worth repeating.

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Gosh, what’s the correct answer? Find out after the fold!
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It was meant to be a solemn symposium and sober analysis of the 2007 vintage on the eve of a new year. But something went horribly wrong.

Yes, there was a lot of great food. Yes, there were reveling guests aplenty. Yes, by midnight we’d worked through barrel samples and bottles of most of the Garagistes’ product over the last 6 years, to say nothing of nearly a case of sparkling wine and a lovely palette-coating of hop liqueur.

But how quickly we lost our focus. How quickly I lost my focus (I think it must have rolled back behind one of the barrels). Surely we are better than this. Surely we can rise above our youthful definition of wine as delightful beverage and key ingredient of a full life, and reformulate wine as something nobler, as a chemical process leading inexorably to a quantifiable score? Surely that’s the true stuffing of wine, gentlemen, surely.

So here’s hoping we can regroup from this tragedy in the new year and get back to picking apart wine until even the vultures send out for pizza. In that spirit, my incredibly scientific notes after tasting through the barrels:

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
Like the two other wines, this baby is barely out of the crib, and considering it was pressed into this vale of tears less than 3 months ago, its immaturity isn’t too surprising — it charmingly cried out “uppy, uppy” (which of course, as parents, we had no choice but to indulge), but the rest of its discourse didn’t get much more complex than “grapey, grapey.” Nevertheless, the wine is beautifully healthy and sound, feels great in the mouth, and is nicely balanced even on so wobbly a set of new legs. I can’t wait to try this after even one racking.

2007 Merlot
Also youthful, but sweeter and simpler, like a kitten on a cookie. Again, nice feel in the mouth, but this one will really benefit from the breath of fresh air a few rackings will provide. For now, the most uneventful of the three.

2007 Cabernet Franc
I think most people liked this the best of the three, and that’s not too surprising, since the Franc is at its best on the fresher end of the aging curve. Lovely spice, great depth and balance, nestled in a pillow of pure fruit flavor.

2007 Piquette (aka Pinto)
Our “second wine” from the Cabernet Sauvignon pressings has been in the Oregon Oak barrel for 2 months, and it was the talk of the tasting. Light, but not insubstantial fruit slides effortlessly over the palette into the welcoming arms of an eager gullet. There’s still a little spritz to it, possibly due to ongoing malolactic, but the slight sweetness could also suggest one last hurrah for primary fermentation. I predict it will supplant water as the Garagistes’ liquid of choice this coming summer.

What did you like?