During our second visit to the Red Hook Winery we were supposed to blend the grape varietals of our choice . Before we started trying different percentages to get our desired blend,Christopher was kind enough to share with us three tactics of wine blending. According to him,wine can be blended based on senses and intuition. The second method is strictly objective, based on calculations and math measurements. And finally, the third way is following the recipe and instructions. Since our group was lacking an experience, we mainly relied on the knowledge we got during the lectures and at the visit to the winery and our intuition and senses.
The menu item of our choice is Lamb Hache, our team decided to mainly work on Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, since these grape varietals had the characteristics to complement perfectly the “gamy” meat without overpowering the taste but giving unique characteristics at the same time. Our first try was 50% Cabernet Franc, 50% Cabernet Sauvignon. It turned out to be very plain blend and we lost all the characteristics that we were looking for. We tried different variations of blending with Cabernet Franc as a base wine, however for some reason we wouldn’t get that bold body that Cabernet Sauvignon has, and all the peppery and cherry aromas and oakiness wouldn’t be as vivid as we projected for our blend. Finally, we decided to use 75% Cabernet Sauvignon as a base Wine and 25% Cabernet Franc, and we got medium to full body wine, with balanced tannin and acidity, which was also unique with its peppery and dark berry notes, oakiness.
