On Sunday was the start of a beautiful thing, my first vintage of Cabernet Franc.  Along with my parents and my cousin Melissa, we met at Raphael Vineyards around 9AM.  We were greeted by their winemaker, Richard Olsen-Harbich and Lenn Thompson, of The New York Cork Report and a bunch of Lenn’s followers.

Lenn is NY’s premier wine blogger and an idol of mine.  When Lenn mentioned on twitter a few months back about this opportunity at Raphael, I was all but to excited.  I immediately extended this opportunity to my family to see if a bunch of irish americans could make alcohol from grapes instead of hops.

It was a beautiful morning that day, not your typical first weekend in november.  We were able to harvest two rows of beautifully ripe and sweet Cabernet Franc.  Tasting the grapes, I tasted some wonderful raspberry and juicy plum.

After we harvested we got down to the fun stuff.  We were able to stomp our feet, just like Lucy did.  As you can see from the pictures, everyone was having fun!

Our grapes were then sorted and destemed and pressed into a holding tank till fermentation is finished.

Check back in a few weeks, you will see another report of how my wine is doing.

In the meanwhile, I will have to come up with a name, any suggestions?