Lidia Celebrates America

-

Lidia

The level of toast inside a barrel will determine many of the final flavors the wood imparts to the wine. Okay so where are we here with-- Yeah, so you can see here the color of the barrel is already changing. Oh, it is. Working over a low fire, the toasting process takes anywhere from 35 minutes to an hour, depending on the desired level of toast. (scraping) All the way around like this. -

Lidia

While we wait, I want to see some of the tools Ramiro worked with in France. So this is called a cutting knife. A lot of these tools we had to build it ourselves. This is an axe, more than a hundred years old. Wow. In the old days, people used to use this to build canoes. You use half of the axe to do the outside of the barrel, and then kinda like the middle to do the inside, to shape the barrel so we can make the groove to insert the head. -

Lidia

As we check on how the toasting's going, sure enough you can start to smell many of the distinctive aromas. The next phase will be spicy. -

Lidia

Aha! I see it. Then that's where your eyes start tearing, and once you get into the spicy, in between the spicy and chocolate, that's where the Cabernet gives you the best flavor of all. I do like, I like chocolate in Merlot. There you go. Where would you put Pinot Noir? Pinot Noir, you put 'em right now. Right now? - Yeah. Between the coconut and the-- And the spicy. - The spicy. Because Pinot is already spicy. So you don't wanna add too much spiciness. Otherwise, it'll taste like a Mexican chili pepper. It's like creating a harmony between these flavors and the character of the varietal itself. Exactly. (pounding) So to make a good wine, it's not only the wine maker, since the barrel is close to 50% of the taste, if everyone else make great job, and you don't build a nice barrel or a good barrel, you can basically ruin their job.