Page 10 - Grapevine July-August 2015

In The Winery
dust odors or other off smells and wash them if
necessary. Check the actual room for off odors,
paint smells, or other odors that may interfere with
aroma evaluation. Place a white table cloth on the
table to be used. For all the items to be used try to
eliminate any colors to have mostly white and clear
objects present. For each sitting area have the wine
glasses fanned out, in a semi-circle, in the quanti-
ty necessary to accommodate the largest flight of
wines. Have room to add about four more glass-
es to evaluate blends as they are made. At these
place settings have a water glass, pencils, paper,
cracker dish and a spit cup. At one end of the table
have several graduated cylinders, beakers, and
pipettes all of varying quantities ( See attached list is best to have six, seven or more if the winery has
). Place several calculators on the table for use as
mathematical questions may arise. If your tap water
has an off flavor or a slight odor – use distilled
water or bottled water for the sessions rinse water
and drinking water. Gather several clean 5 gallon
buckets and place them in the room to assist dump-
ing the glasses of wine after each session.
Okay! Now we are set up and ready for our blend-
Page 8 The Grapevine • July - August 2015
ing day.
The morning of the blending session have every-
one gather in the room and take their place setting.
Give them an overview of what they will be doing
but be careful not to reveal any information on the
wines that are bagged and to be tasted blind. Start
with the first blind flight of wine. This most often
will be a primary focus wine flight of past vintages
that have been made by the winery. Older vintages
help one understand what the consumer has been
purchasing, how the lots are aging and what charac-
teristic one may want to enhance or refine for future
vintages. Try to evaluate at least three vintages. It
that many years under its belt. This is a good time
to slip in a competitors bottle that the winery has
discussed trying to emulate. Perhaps slip in a well
known brand to see how your wine compares. Pour
the wines from left to right and make sure that
everyone has them in the same order. This will
eliminate confusion when speaking and critiquing
the wines. Taste through each wine and take notes.
Indicate the positive and negative attributes of each
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