Think blending red wines is a routine procedure? Think again. The blends in most Merryvale red wines vary distinctly from year to year, often significantly. With Profile, for example the 1996 vintage included just 20% Merlot, while the 1997 vintage included 26%.
Winemaker Steve Test takes a deceptively simple approach to blending his rich, supple, complex red wines: “I start by leaving out all the lots that don’t have the characteristics I’m looking for, and everything I have left is what I work with.”
Those characteristics, the trademark of Steve’s wines, include strong but supple tannin structure, the right viscosity, deep color, good density, concentration, richness, deep dark flavors and integrated oak.
Lots and Lots of ‘Lots’ The blending process begins with a tasting of dozens of ‘lots’. A lot is a small group of barrels of an individual varietal from a small vineyard or section of a larger vineyard. Further refining the craft, Steve creates ‘sub-lots’ by separating these wines into barrels from different French coopers.
The official first pass, which takes place around early February as soon as the wines have finished undergoing malolactic fermentation, includes a huge sampling of lots / sub-lots. For Profile, Steve pulls together several flights of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, plus Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot – often more than 70 lots in all. The goal is to begin identifying those lots that make the cut.
“It’s like sculpting,” says Steve. “You eliminate everything that isn’t the sculpture until what remains is the sculpture itself.”
In the second pass, Steve re-tastes those lots that look like good candidates for Profile, usually eliminating a few more until he feels confident that he’s identified the core of the blend. As with all Merryvale wines, quality is the most important factor and ultimately determines the quantity of any wine we produce.
Benchtop Blends Back in the lab, he begins his actual benchtop blending trials. Will the ‘right’ blend have 1% Petit Verdot? 2%? What’s the ‘right’ proportion of each of the selected Cabernet Sauvignon lots? Those early screenings make all the difference. “I’m a simple guy,” claims Steve. “By starting with only the components that have what I’m looking for, I know that whatever the final blend turns out to be, it’s guaranteed to be great.”
With so many lots and blend possibilities, Steve starts by making some hunches. Still, there’s no way around it – blending trials take lots of time and plenty of fiddling.
Early Blending Unlike many winemakers who put their actual blends together just before bottling, Steve and his cellar team blend the lots soon after the trials – a policy that according to Steve provides the best microbiological stability, efficiency in the cellar, and, most importantly, integration of the wine’s tannins, color and flavors.
With the trials for 2000 Profile done, we have only to wait until summer 2003 to enjoy the fruits of these recent labors.