
Finding this bottle in Dad’s cellar brought back so many different memories. As far back as I can remember my father made wine in the basement, we had carboys, trash cans for open fermentors, bungs, air lock bubblers, a canoe oar for punch downs, a hand corker and a crusher, the family was the destemmer. Yes, my father actually made us pick the grapes individually off the stems before it was crushed.
He saved previous wine bottles and reused them for his own concoctions. A practice he continued in the early days of Horton Vineyards.
This blend was 625 ml of Cabernet Franc and 125 ml Norton – What? Huh? In his usual maverick style Dad put a medium bodied, peppery, Bordeaux wine with inky, earthy, bold American Norton. I wondered whether he was trying to beef up the Cabernet Franc or tame down the Norton or just see if they played well together.