This time of year is all about the bottle. Getting wine into it basically. I have been obsessing over blends and blending, tasting, re-blending, re-tasting, re-obsessing and then finally, actually pulling barrels and putting to plan what was scribbled on paper.(scribbles are part of my mad scientist method) I am asked frequently how the blending process works, more often it’s ; what do I know what I am looking for and how do I come up with a blend?
This is what I tell them: Its not a recipe, but it’s like knowing what spices and ingredients work well together and then developing a recipe from scratch every time you cook. It usually takes some time to hash it out, sometimes you stumble on it, and other times you just have a feel for what is going to taste best together and then fine tune. One thing about winemaking is that the grapes are never the same from vintage to vintage, you have to roll with it to a certain extent, filling out the holes in your wines, finding the best fit for the holes and the right combination to make the blend sing. It is kind of crazy when you actually do it, you can change a percentage of a certain varietal slightly and go from so-so to shazaaam! I guess the trick is to hope what makes it shazaaam! for you also makes it shazaaam! for everyone else.
So now that the hard part is done, we get to enjoy it. This is what I have come up with and most of the blends this year are familiar, but there are a couple of surprises. I have talked about a new Rhone white blend, and I have one for you to try. “Force de Fleur” is a blend of Roussanne, Marsanne, and Viognier. And as you may have guessed it is all about floral aromas big fruit unmarked by wood. Components of this wine were aged in neutral barrels and some in stainless, so the effect is all pure grape nectar. Another newbie is the “Beekeeper”. Beekeeper is a dessert wine, 100% Roussanne 17% alc. With a couple grams of residual sugar making it smooth as honey. Beekeeper got its name not so much from the final product but more from how it is handled during harvest by everyone involved in processing the fruit. The fruit is picked at an extremely sticky sweet level that is very attractive to bees. The bees will swarm over it and engorge themselves with the syrupy juice, and follow it as it moves from the field to the truck, to the press, and then the fermenter. You feel like a beekeeper as you very gingerly move through the swarm trying not to get stung.
Finally the last surprise…ZC White lives! ZC White is alive, however, now as a white Rhone blend consisting of Grenache Blanc, Roussanne and Marsanne. Still using stainless steel to let the fruit shine through, ZC White is a bright refreshing fruity blend with personality. Familiar blends such as my GSM, “Wanderlust” and “Zephyr” are now in bottle and will be released this fall.
-eo
This is what I tell them: Its not a recipe, but it’s like knowing what spices and ingredients work well together and then developing a recipe from scratch every time you cook. It usually takes some time to hash it out, sometimes you stumble on it, and other times you just have a feel for what is going to taste best together and then fine tune. One thing about winemaking is that the grapes are never the same from vintage to vintage, you have to roll with it to a certain extent, filling out the holes in your wines, finding the best fit for the holes and the right combination to make the blend sing. It is kind of crazy when you actually do it, you can change a percentage of a certain varietal slightly and go from so-so to shazaaam! I guess the trick is to hope what makes it shazaaam! for you also makes it shazaaam! for everyone else.
So now that the hard part is done, we get to enjoy it. This is what I have come up with and most of the blends this year are familiar, but there are a couple of surprises. I have talked about a new Rhone white blend, and I have one for you to try. “Force de Fleur” is a blend of Roussanne, Marsanne, and Viognier. And as you may have guessed it is all about floral aromas big fruit unmarked by wood. Components of this wine were aged in neutral barrels and some in stainless, so the effect is all pure grape nectar. Another newbie is the “Beekeeper”. Beekeeper is a dessert wine, 100% Roussanne 17% alc. With a couple grams of residual sugar making it smooth as honey. Beekeeper got its name not so much from the final product but more from how it is handled during harvest by everyone involved in processing the fruit. The fruit is picked at an extremely sticky sweet level that is very attractive to bees. The bees will swarm over it and engorge themselves with the syrupy juice, and follow it as it moves from the field to the truck, to the press, and then the fermenter. You feel like a beekeeper as you very gingerly move through the swarm trying not to get stung.
Finally the last surprise…ZC White lives! ZC White is alive, however, now as a white Rhone blend consisting of Grenache Blanc, Roussanne and Marsanne. Still using stainless steel to let the fruit shine through, ZC White is a bright refreshing fruity blend with personality. Familiar blends such as my GSM, “Wanderlust” and “Zephyr” are now in bottle and will be released this fall.
-eo
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