Wining while "Tasting Blind!"

One of the things I love most about teaching about wine is the 'aha' moment that occurs when students suddenly realize something that had never occurred to them before. Several of those moments happened Wednesday night when I led an intent group of acolytes through a blind tasting.

I brought in 8 wines from all over the world, and provided the group with a tasting grid that included sample descriptors to help them find the appropriate words for what they were smelling and tasting.

I gave them a few hints to start:
All the wines were visibly red.
All the wines were between 2 and 5 years old.
And the most important clue of all: There were multiple instances of the same grape varietal.

Wining through the holidays – Hanukkah…

Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah, come light the menorah.

Let's have a party, we'll all dance the horah.

Gather 'round the table, we'll give you a treat.

Dreidels to play with and latkes to eat.

And while we are playing, the candles are burning low.

One for each night, they shed a sweet light, to remind us of days long ago.

One for each night, they shed a sweet light, to remind us of days long ago.

-      Traditional lyrics

When I was growing up, celebrating Hanukkah, the Festival of the Lights, was fairly traditional. The family gathered for dinner – beef brisket accompanied by white potatoes and carrots, green beans, sesame seed rolls, lukshen (noodle) kugel, and, of course, latkes – potato pancakes – grated, oniony, fried pieces of heavenly goodness with a dollop of sour cream. It was a feast to celebrate the miracle of the oil; the small amount of lamp oil that lasted for eight nights after the Maccabees defeated the Seleucid Greeks. It wasn’t fancy or gourmet; it was comfort food.

Before dinner, the adults would sip cocktails and nosh on chopped chicken or beef liver and crackers. At the dinner table, we mostly drank water or soda, because my folks weren’t big drinkers, and they weren’t wine drinkers. If wine was needed for a barucha (blessing), there was Manischewitz Concord Grape. Insert shudder here.

Wining...and Blending with Four Brix...

Blending wine is an art. The goal of blending is to create a wine that is greater than the sum of its parts; to make a wine that other people will find pleasing to the nose and palate, and will want to buy from you. To make this happen, the winemaker must be part chemist, part artist. Part mad scientist helps, too.

I was invited to participate in a group blending experiment at Four Brix Winery in Ventura. Winemaker Gary Stewart sources fruit mainly from Paso Robles, carts it down to Ventura and makes wonderfully appealing, delicious wines. Having completed the bottling of the wines that were planned, Gary found himself with some wine still quite viable for further blending for a special bottling for the Brix Heads - the winery's club members.

Let's get some blending background first:

A standard varietal like Syrah or Chardonnay, is made from the same type of grape. In California, a varietal needs to be 75 percent of one type of grape, while in Europe it's generally 80 percent. It's possible for wineries to add other grapes to a varietal to enhance the elements and still call it a single varietal wine. Blends are what their name suggests. They typically consist of at least 40-50 percent of one type of grape and a smaller mix of two or more other grapes.