Upon arrival to Red Hook Winery on the morning of October 1st, Joshua and I had discussed how we imagined our blend would turn out. We had certain ideas and expectations as to how the three base wines would work together in varying amounts, but it wasn’t until we actually starting measuring and blending that we were able to understand how these three wines played together.
Before we started blending, we set up a chart to keep track of our blends and their tasting notes. For our very first blend, we started off with 70% Chardonnay, 20% Sauvignon Blanc, and 10% Riesling. We had predicted this was the perfect formula to create the wine we were looking for. Upon tasting this blend, we looked at each other in agreement that it wasn’t what we wanted. We were very pleased with our second blend, but we still had plenty of time and wanted to keep going to try new blends. We made six blends altogether, but only two really stood out to us. With another quick tasting and the clock ticking, we decided to move forward with our second blend.
We never would have thought we would end up with the blend we did: 50% Chardonnay, 30% Riesling, and 20% Sauvignon Blanc. We had imagined the Riesling would give too much sweetness to the final product, and that we needed more of a sharp acidity from the Sauvignon Blanc. However, we ended up using more Riesling that Sauvignon Blanc. It was really interesting to see slight variations in each of our blends created six very different wines.
While our initial expectations for the blend were not met, our expectations for the experience were exceeded. We worked well together during the blending process, we listened to each other’s input and ideas, and we encouraged each other to create new blends.
