This is kind of the Penfolds approach - blend anything, from anywhere, no matter how insane the blend seems from a "terroir" standpoint. And I can't wait to live in a world where wines from different countries and even continents are reguarly blended for the quality result. The rest is just words.
I hear that, though they've kept pretty strictly to in-country blends, right? Would be cool if they hopped the puddle over to New Zealand and tried bringing some fruit in from there. I've always thought it would be cool if restaurants offered a "house blend" that was the somm's best post-bottle concoction. What a world that would be!
Totally with you on wine shops and/or restaurants doing thier own post-bottle blends. I currently work for a winery literally called “The Blending Lab” and we teach a blending class where have folks post-bottle blend between different single varietal bottlings to find their perfect custom blend. But then there’s also blending blends, which we don’t officially do but I very much unofficially do in my spare time ;)
To my knowledge, we’re the only assholes that do anything like this! The owners are working on patenting their “blending kit”, which you can buy online and have them ship to you, where you get 3 half bottles of wine to blend with, along with beakers, pippettes, etc. It’s great fun, and kind of a crash course in how wine works, and since people are actively involved, they catch on easier than if someone was just sermonizing to them while they sipped.
As for fave recipes, my all time fave is a 50% Zinfandel 50% Petite Verdot blend, which is mind-boggling good and two grapes that otherwise are never throught of together, I don’t think. Then there’s a 50% Grenache, 25% Mourvedre, 25% Petite Sirah, so almost a standard Rhone style blend. And one of my fave post-bottling blend-of-blends, we have 2 different GSMs, one which is traditional and another that swaps out the Mourvedre for Malbec, and aged in American oak instead of French oak. I love doing a 50/50 of both GSMs, which is absolute chef’s kiss.
Y’all are gonna have to let me guest blend on one of your future post-bottle blending entires, I’m just not-at-all gently suggesting…
Finally! The long-awaited "alchemy" issue. A single winemaker is limited by the "ingredients" their vineyards can supply, while you twisted geniuses of wine alchemy have orders of magnitude more diverse ingredients to choose from to create your "cuvee".
Love it. I hope we'll see a lot more alchemy from TP.
I did this once at a wedding with one bad red wine and one bad white wine option, and I made… you guessed it- bad rosé!!!
Wow! Incredible things happen when you simply believe ✨
This is kind of the Penfolds approach - blend anything, from anywhere, no matter how insane the blend seems from a "terroir" standpoint. And I can't wait to live in a world where wines from different countries and even continents are reguarly blended for the quality result. The rest is just words.
I hear that, though they've kept pretty strictly to in-country blends, right? Would be cool if they hopped the puddle over to New Zealand and tried bringing some fruit in from there. I've always thought it would be cool if restaurants offered a "house blend" that was the somm's best post-bottle concoction. What a world that would be!
While not a “post-bottle” blend, Penfolds does a number of Napa Cab / South Australia Shiraz blends (https://www.penfolds.com/en-us/california-collection.html) which are expensive AF but make my heart sing to see!
Totally with you on wine shops and/or restaurants doing thier own post-bottle blends. I currently work for a winery literally called “The Blending Lab” and we teach a blending class where have folks post-bottle blend between different single varietal bottlings to find their perfect custom blend. But then there’s also blending blends, which we don’t officially do but I very much unofficially do in my spare time ;)
That's awesome! Had no idea that wineries like that exist. Any favorite "recipes" to share?
To my knowledge, we’re the only assholes that do anything like this! The owners are working on patenting their “blending kit”, which you can buy online and have them ship to you, where you get 3 half bottles of wine to blend with, along with beakers, pippettes, etc. It’s great fun, and kind of a crash course in how wine works, and since people are actively involved, they catch on easier than if someone was just sermonizing to them while they sipped.
As for fave recipes, my all time fave is a 50% Zinfandel 50% Petite Verdot blend, which is mind-boggling good and two grapes that otherwise are never throught of together, I don’t think. Then there’s a 50% Grenache, 25% Mourvedre, 25% Petite Sirah, so almost a standard Rhone style blend. And one of my fave post-bottling blend-of-blends, we have 2 different GSMs, one which is traditional and another that swaps out the Mourvedre for Malbec, and aged in American oak instead of French oak. I love doing a 50/50 of both GSMs, which is absolute chef’s kiss.
Y’all are gonna have to let me guest blend on one of your future post-bottle blending entires, I’m just not-at-all gently suggesting…
Hell yeah, that would be awesome! Cheers!
Finally! The long-awaited "alchemy" issue. A single winemaker is limited by the "ingredients" their vineyards can supply, while you twisted geniuses of wine alchemy have orders of magnitude more diverse ingredients to choose from to create your "cuvee".
Love it. I hope we'll see a lot more alchemy from TP.
That's the plan! We're going to try to get one of these out every month or two with new concoctions for you all to try 🧪
You are brave! But I love this idea for a workshop... (Once I've done a few experiments myself!)
Hell yeah, let us know how it goes! And please share any "formulas" you come up with that you think we should try!