Wine Blending, the 2011 Syrah

Because 2011 was what they call a "challenging" vintage in Washington, it was necessary for us to do some blending with our finished Syrah.  (We are also blending the Tempranillo, but let's focus on the Syrah in this post shall we?)

First off, the Syrah is good.  It is what you would call an old world style.  This is not your monster Australian Shiraz or even a classic Washington or California Syrah.  We are talking 13% alcohol, little oak and subtleties; think à la française.

Our plan entering the night was to add some Grenache and Mourvèdre.  We had already had one blending session where we tasted the Syrah with a Grenache and they melded nicely.  The Grenache filling out a few holes in the Syrah.  But we wanted a well made (but cheap) Mourvèdre to add a little more body and more importantly, color.

Nate found a Spanish Mourvèdre, technically a Monastrell as that is what the grape is known as in Spain, that fit the bill.  So it was time to taste.

It takes a lot of glasses and measurements to get the ratio how we wanted it.

In the end we settled on quite a bit more blending than was our original intent.  The blend is going to be 57% Syrah, 28% Grenache and 15% Mourvèdre.  Not exactly a typical GSM blend, but a GSM nonetheless.  For those curious, that is a Washington Syrah, Australian Grenache and Spanish Mourvèdre.

And more importantly, it's good.  At least Nate and I were extremely happy with the final blend.  We will be bottling next weekend.  It will definitely be ready to drink come the holidays. 

Why not this weekend you ask?  Because Sunday is the day our grapes arrive.  After a quiet summer, the wine making activities are going to ramp up dramatically over the next three weeks.  We are going to crush and destem at Chateau Tobin this year.

Watch this space for updates.