Today each group of students proved that a varietal name on a wine label is only one indication of what a wine might taste like. Each student began to understand that wine makers have thousands of decisions to make in order to make a wine that is enjoyable and marketable. Remembering that the marketing team sells the first bottle of wine and the wine maker sells all others the technical expertise required by a wine maker grew more evident to everyone.
Collaborating on the wine making process was important when deciding on the style of wine each team wanted to create. Working in teams can often be challenging but today it seemed to only enhance the experience. Students chose a style they wanted to create and then experimented with the various blends to create the style they wanted.
Finally the Final Blends… Some wines were spicy and full bodied while others were fruit forward. The wines that were loved by all were those that were balanced showing acidity and vibrant flavors. They were elegant. I would be proud to
serve any of these wines in the Janet Lefler Dining Room or even my own home.
In fact the wines were already served in the Janet Lefler Dining Room. The wines were an overwhelming success with the faculty who tried them. For the students, they could not be more proud to showcase their work and transition the technical experience they just engaged in into a more “front of house” communication, speaking about their blends with ease, even to Dr. Hotzler!
Wow, it was a wonderful experience to learn how to blend and to understand all the decisions that winemakers have to make when blending. Blending wine is a difficult task because you have to consider all the elements that make a well-balanced wine. My group made 6 different blends in order to get the best blend. Thank you, Prof. Goodlad and Prof. Dagorn for that incredible experience.
The best part about this process for me was tasting each individual wine. By doing so we were able to identify what characteristics we wanted in our final blend. I liked this the most because it is the essence of what the entire semester is about ! That is: learning to identify and describe each wine and grape variety. Everyone took part in expressing their opinion on which wines to use and how much of them. After three atempts we finally chose a final blend. We called it “Spicy Brooklyn” and it was chosen as one of the winners. I am very proud of my team and everyone else’s blend because there was something good to say about all of them ! Can’t wait to start making wine next week !