Stalker and SociusPath level Locus wine club members faced a difficult task last night (June 11th) at the Tasting Room downtown Seattle: Blend two Syrahs, one Grenache and one Mourvédre to make compelling blends, using wine that’s only about 7 months old (read: green and not ready for prime time). Well, people took the task seriously and did really well. It helped that they started the evening with a glass of Wine Club only wine, 2017 Locus Wines Sauvignon Blanc, and closed it with 2016 Locus Wines Garage Series 100% Cinsault, along with five different dishes to keep them satiated through the night.
In just under 2.5 hours, everyone created their own blends; then competed against fellow blenders at the table to choose the best blend from the table. Then the tables competed against each other in a blind tasting to arrive at the winner. Dave Warner’s blend from table 2 was the winner for the evening.
Participants kept saying how hard blending is. And it is. There are easier ways of doing it: You can simply blend all the wines you got and hope that it tastes well. That is one way of doing it and it is the commercial way. As a cost-conscious winemaker, you want to use up all the wine you have. Well, that is not always the most gracious way. What if the resulting wine is just not good enough to highlight all the best of the varietals that are in it? That is why winemakers usually make multiple blends that really showcase the characteristics and then hope and pray that there is a commercial application for it.