ATTRIBUTES OF VARIETAL BLENDING

Cabernet Sauvignon
The Cain Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon forms the backbone of the Cain Five. It provides the structure upon which the other varieties are used to build complexity and a well defined sense of completeness. Cain Cabernets tend to have lots of tannin and concentrated flavors. Aromas are often bright and forward, but they can be more subtle and can reflect the individual vineyard site. Black cherry, blackberry, black currants, and tobacco are typical elements.

Merlot
The Cain Merlot is darker and more concentrated than most Merlots. Its rich, soft, and supple tannins balance the aggressiveness of the Cabernet Sauvignon, giving the Cain Five a supple and round mouthfeel. Flavors and aromas tend toward the middle, ranging from cherries and plums to black tea, black olive, and chocolate.

Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Franc, grown in a mountain situation such as the Cain Vineyard, can be surprisingly concentrated and ripe as well. It has tannins intermediate between the Merlot and the Cabernet Sauvignon, but with more richness in the middle of the palate. The aromas range from berries and briar to roses and truffles. Like the Merlot, the Cabernet Franc adds significant volume and roundness to the Cain Five.

Malbec
This variety is known for its difficult-to-manage production. When yields are controlled, it gives deeply colored wines which, surprisingly, come from large berries. The Cain Malbec is very dark and displays a wide range of fragrances from plums to tobacco. In some years, the exotic aromas may seem to go beyond the Cabernet Sauvignon family of grapes. These unique qualities add complexity to the Cain Five bouquet.

Petit Verdot
Like Malbec, this is a variety less known in the North Coast. Petit Verdot (“little green thing”) always ripens last and tends to have high acidity with a firm structure and more floral-spicy than fruity aromas. The Petit Verdot grown at Cain is very aromatic with its berry and violet nuances. Small berries and low yields give a wine of substance that can increase the length of the finish of the Cain Five.

HOW WE MAKE CAIN FIVE

Each variety of the Cain Vineyard is hand harvested, and vinified separately. The fruit is carefully destemmed, delivering a high proportion of whole berries directly to the tank. After a prolonged gentle maceration (two to four weeks), the free-run wine is drawn off. The best of these lots form the essence of the Cain Five.

In November, the different lots go individually into traditional Bordeaux-coopered French-oak barrels. After three months in the barrel, the wine is blended in March, following extensive blending trials. It receives a traditional élevage of quarterly barrel-to-barrel rackings and light egg-white fining in the second winter prior to an August bottling in the second year.

Cain Five is typically released for general distribution four years after the vintage date.

SULFITES

It's fairly common knowledge that the “Contains Sulfites” warning that we put on almost all bottles of wine (anything over 5 ppm or 0 ppm, depending on interpretation), although ostensibly intended to protect the consumer, was really part of a larger strategy on the part of neoprohibitionist groups, like the Center for Science in the Public Interest, whose real goal is to reduce the consumption of alcohol.

See CSPI: http://www.cspinet.org/ and regarding sulfites: http://www.cspinet.org/reports/food.htm (look down to the sulfites entry)

And regarding “booze:” http://www.cspinet.org/booze/index.html

Sooner or later we should see ingredients labelling on wine, just as on all other foods. It is possible to make wine with nothing added whatsoever. Then the label would read: "grapes." or possibly, "fermented grapes." Know that yeasts are always present, and bacteria almost always. At Cain, we don't add yeast, but we do add yeast nutrients, we add bacteria (just as in making cheese and yogurt), and we add small amounts of sulfites.

Sulfites
Specifically, a salt of the gas obtained when you burn elemental sulfur (that yellow powder). The flame is blue and the smell is acrid—it stings the nose and eyes. You get the same thing when you light a match, or a firecracker. Its antiseptic properties have been known for a very long time. Beyond this, it also inhibits oxidation, such as the browning of the cut surfaces of apples, or potatoes, or lettuce (why it was often used/abused in salad bars). Sulfites are what keep dried apricots orange, and their smell is quite noticeable when you open the package.

Sulfites are added to wine to protect it against oxidation (especially white wines, which can turn brown) and to protect it against unwanted yeast and bacteria, after the fermentations have finished.

Sulfites are typically added at rather low levels during the winemaking process—when the grapes are received, at the end of fermentation and the beginning of aging in barrels, and just before bottling.

Because sulfites not only protect the wine but can also ruin the smell and taste of the wine, it is very important to know and control the precise amount that is present in the wine. For this reason, we're always testing the level of sulfites in each wine we have in the cellar.

Sulfites exist in aqueous solutions principally as the ions sulfite (SO3–) and bisulfite (HSO3–) and in a small amount (1–5% of the total) as the gas (SO2)

In wine, Total Sulfites usually range from 50–150 ppm, although the legal limit is either 300 or 350 ppm (that's parts per million, or milligrams per liter). So a 750 ml bottle of wine could contain 130 ppm, or about 1/10th of a gram total.

Yeasts can and do produce small amounts of sulfites—usually in the range of 5–30 ppm and, in fact, some producers of organic wines in Germany specifically use strains of yeast that have been selected because they can produce enough sulfites to help protect the wine.

Thus, it's not certain that you can get wines with no sulfites, but, you can get wines with very little by purchasing organic wines. One maker in the U.S. is Frick. There's a whole association in France, and I assume in Germany.

Check out this site: http://www.ecowine.com

Sulfites can be a very big deal for some asthmatics. Others say that they're allergic, and they may be, but it's such a simple molecule (like water), that I wonder about that. Nobody has ever said (at the levels we're talking about) that sulfites cause a problem for the stomach or the intestinal tract.

How do you know if you have a problem with sulfites? Most symptoms tend to revolve around the feeling of a shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing, or burning sensations. A headache is also possible.

Vigorously smell a glass of a white wine just after it's been opened—do you feel a constriction in your throat or trachea? Is there burning or tingling in your nose or the back of your throat? Smell the same glass a day later or even a week later. The sulfites will be gone (oxidized by the air). Do you perceive the same sensations? Check out those dried apricots. Compare them with the brown ones from the organic food store.

By experimentation, you'll know which wines tend to cause a problem. I believe that most good wines don't cause problems for the vast majority of people.