Student Blend

Going into the wine blending, both Alaijah and I had the mindset of making a white wine to compliment our Baked Fish, Mushrooms and Tomato Sauce. During our discussion we were thinking of the flavor profile of the fish, if it was going to be fresh or ocean fish, how the mushrooms were going to give off that earth dirt profile, and the tomatoes mellowing out the flavor of the dish. We wanted a wine that would have citrus, creamy, buttery and with a crisp finish to ensure that dish isn’t overwhelmed by the complexity of the wine that paired along with it. Nor did we want the wine to be an afterthought for the dish so we thought of things that would go in unison with the dish. Unfortunately, my partner couldn’t attend so this is where the blending was thrown for a loop. Having discussed with Alijah about the flavor profile helped give an insight as to what to look for when blending the wine. When presented with the 6 wines, there were two different Chardonnay’s, one with some skin contact and one without, both having flavors that were worlds apart. The Chardonnay without the skin contact had such a buttery clean finish while its counterpart was a complexity of flavors that just had you salivating for more. While blending I decided on making a white where it was 12ml of Sauvignon Blanc, 14ml of Chardonnay with contact, and 8ml of chardonnay without contact. The Sauvignon Blanc added the crisp flavor that was the missing piece for this white blend that I attempted the first time. With this blend, I was satisfied and confident that this would be the wine that compliments the dish perfectly. Professor Struck made an announcement that we can play with Rose and try to make our own blend, which was highly intriguing, as it really challenges the complexity of wine combinations and trying to see which would be the best red wine for our product. After sampling the red wines individually again, I found that the Merlot that was provided had that subtle tannic flavor profile. This wasn’t a dark red, nor was it lighter meaning it was made in a climate that was more continental or near fresh water giving it that crisp flavor of cherries, red berries and some oak flavor from the barrel it was stored in. These characteristics when blended with the mixture I made gave the wine such a complexity of tannic, citrus, butter, slight oak finish, and a mild tobacco texture was something that would compliment the baked fish with tomato and mushrooms perfectly. The product was 12ml of Sauvignon Blanc, 14ml of Chardonnay with Contact, 8ml of Chardonnay without contact, and 2ml of Merlot. This produced a light pink rose. The outcome was far from what we expected, seeing as how our group had 2 wines we wanted to blend, to using 3 whites and one red wine to blend.