Wine Blending

Now that I don't have Italian class in the evenings I'm rediscovering that I can go out after work to do fun things like...Wine Blending at Stappo! Way long ago (like 3-4 months ago) I met Heather who does wine info classes at the local wine club here in MdP. It's not quite Taste of Monterey but it's a ton of fun and I always learn something new. Tonight's class was about blending wines and how with the correct blend you can get something a whole lot better than the individual wines. We learned about the different quality levels in Italy and how with each level up the "pyramid scheme" there are fewer and fewer. Yes, house wines and home blends are the bottom of the pyramid but we all know that some of our favorites are from that category! Don't under estimate your unlabeled bottle of wine from the local grocer.

After tasting 2 wines we were put to the task of blending them to make our entry for the taste test. Our team of three liked one bottle a whole lot better than the other so it was our base with just a splash of the other.

Yeah, that didn't work.

With several more splashes and swirls we had a drinkable product and poured it.

We apparently had gone for a different market segment than our judge belonged to, but what I learned in Napa was if you don't like it, don't make it since if you don't sell it...you're going to have a whole lot to drink! Nope, we didn't win but the glass handed to her was empty by the end of the evening. It was a with food kind of blend.