My Husband’s Cabernet

He claims he was about to pour it out thinking it had gone bad, but on the urging of his brother, my husband decided to go ahead and bottle his first barrel of Cabernet Sauvignon. Well, unfortunately, it only made 2 cases, because this wine is absolutely incredible.



Saturday morning Jeff came home from the firehouse with a name and a story and by Saturday night the wine was labeled, wax sealed and we were sharing it with friends in Sonoma. (It helps to have a wine label designer in the family.) I printed these leather-simulated labels on my desktop printer onto old typewriter parchment (great texture), spray-adhesived them to another layer of paper, cut to shape and markered the cut edges with brown ink, then debossed spots between the stitching design. They gave a great real-stitched-leather appearance.

Here’s how the back label reads:

2006 CABERNET SAUVIGNON
This inaugural Cabernet Sauvignon was made and cellared in my father’s barn in Sonoma under the watchful eye of a Western Screech Owl. We believe that this owl represents wisdom and helpfulness, as described in early Indian folklore.
I have enjoyed many years with my family creating white wines from my father’s estate Chardonnay vineyard. This first Cabernet Sauvignon is a deep, red wine crafted from the grapes of the Metzger vineyards in Sonoma.
All aspects of the wine-making process are a family affair -from picking, crushing and pressing, to racking, bottling and label design.
I hope that you enjoy this wine as much as I have enjoyed making it.

PS. Had he been serious about bottling these in the first place, he surely would have used traditional Cabernet bottles and not what was on hand for the Chardonnay.

Here’s more husband-leather fun from the past.