Last week, we found out that the Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon were medium to high in tannins, while the Cabernet Franc was low- medium bodied with a smoother finish. Based on the tasting, we decided to make Cabernet Franc as the base for our blend and then add a few drops of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon to give the wine structure, as well as floral/oak aromas. We all agreed to make four wine blend samples to choose from in order to come up with our final blend as shown below:
1.) 95% Cabernet Franc (9.5ml), 3% Cabernet Sauvignon (0.3ml), 2% Merlot (0.2ml).
2.) 90% Cabernet Franc (9.0ml), 5% Cabernet Sauvignon(0.5ml), 5% Merlot(0.5ml).
3.) 60% Cabernet Sauvignon (6.0ml), 30% Merlot (3.0ml), 10% Cabernet Franc(1.0ml).
4.) 60% Merlot (6.0ml), 30% Cabernet Sauvignon (3.0ml), 10% Cabernet Franc(1.0ml).
After a series of blending and tasting the base wines, we narrowed down our choices to samples 1 and 3. Sample 1 still tasted like Cabernet Franc, with more structure, but the floral/oak aromas was missing. We were surprised that the wine, now had more tannins, something we didn’t expect with just 5% from both Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. We felt that sample 2 was very similar to sample 1, but with more body. Sample 3 had a deep ruby color, with vibrant aromas of flowers and oak. On the palate, it was fruit-forward(cherries), dry, medium plus tannins, with a long finish. Sample 4 was high in tannins and too dry for our palate, but it had bold fruit-forward flavors. We decided to pick sample 3 as our final blend. We didn’t base our decision on the tasting alone. We also based it on the wine pairing, because we thought this wine would perfectly pair with the Lamb Steaks “Hache” with Ratatouille.
