WineoftheNewWorldF19

Uptown Blend #1 Voted Best White Wine and served in the Janet Lefler Dining Room. Uptown Blend is made of 50% Chardonnay [Fermented with no skin], 40% Chardonnay and 10% Riesling. Uptown Blend has a oak taste mixed with fruits. This wine will leave you wanting more. It’s the perfect white wine for a great time.Made from Mattebella Vineyard, Jamesport Vineyard, and Macari Vineyard, located in North Fork of Long Island. Riesling comes from Seneca Lake. Pair this wine with creamy chicken dish served with vegetables. You won’t be disappointed.

Team #4

Diamond John, Jesus Rodriguez

This Autumn red wine is a blend of (75%) Cabernet Sauvignon/Petit Verdot from North Fork Long Island. The Cabernet Sauvignon/Petit Verdot is accompanied by (25%) Cabernet Franc which adds the perfect balance of oak to hints of tart raspberries and cherries. This wine is perfect for the fall season with full body and tannins to coat the mouth. This wine pairs nicely with a warm beef stew, accompanied by duchess potatoes.

For team #3, the final blend that we have decided on was a combination of 80% of the first Chardonnay, along with 20% of the second Chardonnay. Craig and I wanted a nice and light white wine that would pair well with the creamy Béarnaise on top of the fatty broiled salmon, something more towards a lighter to medium body with a slight acidity that can cut well through the thickness of the dish.

Originally, our plan was to start off with 85% of the oaked Chardonnay, with 10% of the non-oak Chardonnay, and 5% of the Riesling. Upon tasting the first and original blend, the flavor profile of the wine was quite there but not exactly what we were looking for. The acidity was a bit low, with a buttery feel and taste on the palate, somewhat opposite of what we would have liked the wine to do. We then started adjusting the blends by eliminating out what each wine was doing to the blends, and adjusting accordingly to the reactions. We went from increasing the Riesling to completely eliminating it on the 5^th try. We also played around with the effects of the Chardonnay, as we noticed the acidity fluctuated in measurable amounts, even though the original base wines did not differ much. Sad to say, it took to the 6^th and final attempt for us to finally settle down with a blend that we thought would pair well with our dish.

Throughout the entire blending process, we realized that creating a blend of wine that matches the exact expectations of what you would like the wine to be like will have to take a lot of patience and creativity. What one would expect the outcome to be from a certain wine is not guaranteed at all, and the slightest minor adjustments can reveal the biggest surprises. This emphasizes the saying that every little detail can affect the taste of wine, from the soil all the way to final blending stage (if any, of course).

Hamilton and I were set on having a 60% / 40% wine blend. The 60% of the white wine we used for the blend was fermented with juice only and the 40% was the white fermented with the skins. We came to a consensus that the white fermented with the skins was overly acidic and being that the dish we were assigned was a light body dish, we decided to steer clear of having an overly acidic wine. Another reason why we didn’t want an acidic wine is because the tomatoes in our dish added an acidic component. The 60% of the orthodox wine we used for the blend was very balanced and added a subtle finish with stone fruit notes. 

After trying the 60/40 blend, Hamilton and I decided that we could possibly cut the acidity further by changing the formula. The second trial we decided to do 65/35. This blend we found to still be acidic and immediately knew that we needed to drop the Unorthodox blend further. We then tried 75/25 and we found this was perfectly balanced. The acidic was subtle and far less overbearing than the first trial. The finish we found, would greatly complement the baked fish and ideally creamy mushrooms. The blend was light bodied on the palate. There was little to no viscosity. The color was a pale yellow with green tint. There was little to no oak on the palate and the wine was properly dry. We found that the wine would greatly complement the dish. 

Unfortunately while we were blind tasting, we found that not only was our wine not what we tasted earlier, we got no votes on our wine. At first sip the wine was way too acidic. Hamilton and I were so caught by surprise by how different the wine tasted during the blind tasting, that we almost figured we gave the wrong recipe. Overall, we are proud of our work and findings.