Blending it right

Travelling next to meticulously arranged grape vines gleaming under blinding sun rays, the route to my private wine-blending session in Australia’s Yarra Valley already had me in a tranquil state of mind much before I could indulge in a stir-and-swish of blissful, fermented grape juice.

I was slipping smoothly into siesta mode when the chauffeur opened the car door to announce that we had arrived at Dominique Portet vineyards. Ninth-generation winemaker, Dominique Portet has been churning some of the best wines from Australia’s cool climate wine region. “Which is your favourite wine?” asked Portet, greeting me and leading to the guest zone, amused at my perplexed expression. I answered “Shiraz”. “Shiraz Cabernet or Shiraz Cabernet Merlot and in what ratio?,” he asked again and didn’t wait for my answer after my expressions clearly affirmed that I wasn’t prepared with an answer to the ‘ratio’ bit of the question. My bewilderment and I were stirred away to a big storage room. It was half occupied with drums of empty wine casks playing the perfect backdrop to a little wine-laboratory placed atop a long wooden table.

Beakers, measuring glasses, and some bottles of red wine made of different grape varieties comprised our apparatus for the wine-blending session. The expert vintner Portet was the most essential catalyst.

“Wine blending is the process of winemaking that defines the style of each winemaker. It consists of bringing together different vineyards or sites to create a wine that is greater than what it was prior to the process — a wine that when blended is greater than the sum of its parts”, explained Portet.

While choosing wines to blend, one must select grape vintages that have distinctive characters, both in taste and aroma.

We took two bottles of red wine, each made with a different red grape variety, one Shiraz and the other cabernet sauvignon. “Taste the two wines first and understand them individually,” Portet instructed. On tasting the two and letting my palate understand the individual characters of each, I realised that one had a dominant taste and the other a unique aroma. We then took beakers and mixed about 10 ml of the wine with good aroma and added 90 per cent of the wine with a definite taste to arrive at something that had a good balance of both.

This process of smelling and sipping continued until we settled for a ratio of 14 per cent to 86 per cent as the right blend for a good red wine. In 40 minutes we had a new blend ready. Popular wine blends such as ‘Shiraz cabernet merlot’ or ‘red Bordeaux’ are carefully crafted recipes fine-tuned by expert winemakers. A good shiraz cabernet merlot will have the perfect balance of tasting notes such as spice from shiraz, plum from merlot and blackcurrant fruit aromas from cabernet sauvignon.

While blending wines, it is also important to try to understand where each parcel of wine comes from. “We blend to achieve a sense of place, and hope the person drinking it can travel back in time, and understand what that year was like for the vineyard. The most important factors to consider are the grape variety, the soil they were grown in, and the season in which they grew. For instance, was it a warm year with an abundance of fruit or was it cooler, resulting in a wine that is spicier and more elegant? These are the factors that we think of when blending,” explained Portet.

Wine blending need not necessarily be done with grapes of the same colour. Before blending wine, it is important to know what you are after. Knowledge of what you want from the wine is important to get the blend just right for the occasion. It can be diverse things, such as an attractive aroma, or a wine that goes well with seafood.

“At Dominique Portet vineyards, the essence is to blend from varieties of grapes such as Bordeaux cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, malbec and petit verdot. Each grape has very different flavours, bouquet and tannin absorption. The idea is to blend in a way that adds great complexity, substance and fresh finish to the final product,” explained Portet.

Is wine blending for wine experts only? Can a wine lover who might not be well acquainted with the grape types do wine blending? “Anyone can blend wine; however, it is very similar to adding spices to cooking. If you add too much of something, then it can overpower the dish. Blending experience is vital and will result in into a greater wine being produced. It takes many years to get the balance perfect and much practice. It is a matter of analysing each particular wine and mixing them in a way that it pleases the person doing the blend,” Portet said, concluding our wine blending session.

Shilpa Dhamija is the editor of luxuryvolt.com.

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