Trial Blending Session

In my last post I wrote about creating "Trial Blends". In that session, I blended my 09 Malvasia Bianca with the 09 Sauvignon Blanc {SB}. A 1 to 1 blend seemed to be on the right track.







In this session, I'm going to throw in my 09 Pinot Grigio {PG} into the mix.





The techniques outlined in the last blog post still apply...e.g. mix small amounts {20-40 ml of wines} in a glass and taste.





One reason to do multiple trail blending sessions is to be able to focus on a subset of wines and combinations to avoid getting hopelessly confused.





For this session I want to see if adding my Pinot Grigio to a blend with the Malvasia and Sauvignon Blanc will yield a better wine than the 1 to 1 Malvasia-SB blend from my last session.





the wines....


PG: light straw yellow, hints of pear fruit in the nose, tart and clean. Slight bitterness in finish.



Malvasia: Nice floral nose, thick in the mouth, tart with fig-like flavors. Very nice.



SB: Grassy nose and flavors with a slightly hot and bitter finish. This sample was pulled from a different carboy than was used for the last blending session. This one does not have the aggressive SB nose like the previous sample!





Note: at some point it is a good idea to blend all containers of the same variety to get a uniform wine, unless a container has something bad or good going on as a reason to keep it separate. Also you won't have to wonder why one bottle tastes different than another later on....

I blended up the favorite blend from my last session, the 1 to 1 Malvasia and SB, to taste the new blends against.

First I tried a 1 to 1 PG and SB:

The PG pear nose comes through and the bitterness of the SB is toned down, but still there. Only OK.

Next I tried a 1 to 1 to 1 PG, Malvasia and SB blend:

The Malvasia adds some floral component to the PG pear nose and the thickness of the Malvasia helps to further smooth out the SB. Very good acid and complex flavors though no variety stands out...e.g. it will be hard to tell what variety you are tasting later on...Very Good blend. I like it better than the 1 to 1 Malvasia and SB.

I tried a few more blends that were dead ends... and finished off the samples with dinner. Woke up this morning with a headache from too much sampling....

I have one more trial blending session planned for later in the month. My fellow home wine making friends will be coming over to taste everyone's 09 wines. I plan to pour my two favorite blends at that time and get everyone's opinions... should be fun!