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!

Slow Time in the cellar --- redeux

It's cold out there! So I'm not real motivated to do much in the cellar. But here are some suggestions of things to do, where you don't spend all your time in the cold...

• Taste your wines and create trial blends



• Visit tasting rooms, make new wine and grape contacts



• Repair Equipment



• Do a Inventory of your cellar



• Plan a dinner to drink those wines you have been saving, or old bottles discovered during inventory



• Make sure your wine making notes are up to date



• Throw a party to celebrate last year's vintage

Today I'll talk about creating trial blends.

Your new wines are now far enough along in their development so you can taste them and get a good idea of what they will be like when finished.

I like to taste my wines whenever I rack them to check their progress and make sure there are no problems developing. But now is a good time to be more critical of a new wines strengths and weaknesses, and plan to address those issues. I believe strongly in blending as a means to address a wines weaknesses and produce a wine that you want to drink.

Blending is a topic that deserves it own entry to cover it in more detail, but here is a brief description on what I'm doing to create trail blends.

Technique:

Pull a small sample of each wine that may benefit from blending, say 1/10 bottle.

Taste each wine. Do you like it? Does it have characteristics that you don't like as much? Does it have a component that needs a little tweaking, e.g. low acid, nose, etc. What are it's strong points. Take Notes!! You can get hopelessly confused if you don't!

Formulate a blend of two or more wines to address weaknesses noted when tasting each wine. I do this with a 40 ML beaker. e.g. 20 ml of wine A, 20 ml of wine B poured into a glass for a 1 to 1 blend.

Taste the blend. Take notes! Did the blend work or not.. do another blend, repeat. It is unlikely that a blend will magically be great at this point, but the idea is to point to the direction that will work in the future for the final blend.

My trial blending of Sauvignon Blanc and Malvasia Bianca.

To be fair, I'm not starting at zero here... in 2007 I bottled a blend of 50% Sauvignon Blanc and 50% Malvaia that I liked a lot. So that seems like a good starting point for the 2009 vintage.

I pulled 1/10 of each wine and tasted them:

Sauvignon Blanc {SB}: Good color, light straw yellow, very strong aggressive nose initially of herbal and grassy character. Good fruit flavors, but a hot finish of higher Alcohol?

Malvasia Bianca: Good color, light straw yellow, Nice nose with floral components, thick in the mouth, good flavors and good acid. Clean finish.

So I like the Malvasia more than the Sauvignon Blanc... so my blending strategy is how to make the Sauvignon Blanc better.

I think it's easiest to think in terms of portions instead of percentages for blending...e.g. 1 to 1, 2 to 1, etc.

I try the 1 to 1, blend mixing 20ml of each wine in a glass. I like this blend. It seems that the Malvasia floral components mask some of the aggressive grassiness of the SB and adds some interesting components to the flavors and smooths out the rough finish.

I wonder if the addition of some acid will help? I add a few grains of Tartaric acid to the glass and taste... seems the acid makes the blend taste thinner? anyway this does not seem to be a good direction to go...

Next I try a 2 to 1 blend of SB to Malvasia. I think this blend is OK, but not as good as the 1 to 1 blend... The idea would be to see how much Malvasia it takes to get a good blend. {It will always be the case where you have a good wine and question how much you are willing to add to a lessor wine to make it better...}

So for now a 1 to 1 blend seems like the right direction, but I have one other white wine, a Pinot Grigio to try in a blend... So a few more trail blending sessions are needed before any decisions are made.....

....And the left over blending wines were consumed with dinner!

Playing Cellar Rat - Checking the wines

Feeling the need to check this year's wines before I leave on vacation for a few days; I tasted them all and racked the Sauvignon Blanc.

The Pinot Grigio is tasting OK... it seems lacking in any real character, not bad, just an ordinary white. Isn't that the rap on Pinot Grigio anyway?

Malvasia Biance is tasting very good just like my 2007 at this stage. The 2007 turned out very good. Thick, floral, clean with good acid.

The Sauvignon Blanc is going to be a big wine. Lots of flavor, but perhaps a little hot in the finish with some bitterness as well. Acid level may need some adjustments... I'm thinking I may need to do some blending with this one...

The Nebbiolo is very light in color. I'm disappointed since I thought I was making a heavier red wine. That said, it has great fruit flavors, a little coffee in the nose, and a bramble like finish... It will make a pleasant light red.

The Zinfandel is also light in color. More raspberry in color where the Nebbiolo is more brick red.
The flavors mirror the color with light raspberry fruit and good acid.... another light red.... {good thing I've made some heavy reds in the past that are available in the cellar!}

So, no disasters wine making wise, but maybe no real standouts either this year... but really too early to tell.

On another note: I always check out Trader Joe's wines to see what bargains they may have. The "Blue Fin" Pinot Noir at $3.99 is a nice light red with good fruit character and clean finish.

I mention the "Blue Fin" wine since I'm going to post an entry very soon talking about the costs involved in Home Wine making. "Think you are going to save money-think again!" So watch for that and check out "Blue Fin" and also "Down Under" Chardonnay.

All the 2009 wines are now aging, what's next?

Wine making seems to proceed at a frantic pace for a short time, followed by a more leisurely period during late fall and winter, then picks up again in the spring.



With the heavy rains in the bay area today, fall has finally arrived and wine making has changed speeds from fast to slow...



So what's next?



All of my wines have finished fermentation and are now in the cellar, clearing, and beginning the year long aging that is my wine making cycle.



The main task right now is racking the wines off the sediment when they clear, checking for any problems, tasting, and thinking about any blending that I may do with this years wines. This is a very relaxing and reflective time during the wine making year.



Time to reflect on what went right, what went wrong, talk about some wine making topics that I didn't cover, and to think about how I might want to improve my process next year.



Here are some topics I am thinking about for the next few posts:

• Grape acid levels, PH, what to do about it, or not.


• High sugar levels in grapes.


• Grape sources


• The wine making year - a one year cycle


• Make wine yourself or with a group?


• Blending


• Do you even want to consider wine making as a hobby?


• ....

Since the acid level in the Sauvignon Blanc was a topic of conversation between me, Joe and Mike who all got the same juice at the same time ; this topic seems like a good place to start.



If the rain continues I should get this blog entry posted soon - "Grape acid levels, PH, what to do about it, or not."