Event For Wine Blending At Wiens Family Cellars Temecula Winery
A warm greeting from the Wiens family launched our exhilarating wine blending class at Wiens Winery yearly wine blending seminar. After a warm reception, the crowd of more than 30 participants was ushered into the atmospheric barrel room. This pleasantly decorated room had 10 tables covered by linen table cloths. Each table had a setting for four, four mysterious wine bottles labeled A to D, a graduated cylinder (similar to the one you would find in a chemistry class), and several other tools for blending wine. To set the proper mood, all in attendance were poured a glass of Wiens delicious wine and provided tasty hor doeuvres.
The course was lead by Doug The Palate Wiens, a winemaker, viticulturist, and one of several Wiens family members that attended. His 30-minute course was intended to prepare us for a contest, pitting table against table, as we designed our own blended wine which was to be tried by the Wiens family later that evening. During the course we found out that wine blending is practiced by many wineries. It is used 1) to increase the quality of the wine in terms of color, fragrance, mouth feel and finish, 2) to expand the size of a harvest lot in order to multiply bottling economies of scale, and 3) for marketing considerations. Doug also revealed that as he blends wine and tastes the results, his math skills (critical for the blending process) degenerate as his philosophical skills become better. Amazingly, we were able to share this peculiar experience as the night developed.
Once Dougs course was done, the teams got to work. You could feel the tension as each team battled to perfect their blends. Some groups had more fun than others as their wine emptied faster. It reminded me of my son and his early experiments mixing various household items to see what would grow; even though my son had a great time, he did not consume his creations (Thank goodness.). Some of our mixtures were not fit to be tasted either, but in the end, all 10 groups delivered their best mixtures with pride, wondering how large the royalties would pile up for their award winning creations.
These 10 wine blends were escorted to another room to be tasted by the Wiens family. Fifteen minutes later, when the judges came back from their task, we were told the identities of the four wines we had blended: two were high quality Wiens Temecula wine and the other two required more time to mature. Being able to guess the weak from the strong wines really parted the novices from the connoisseurs in terms of wine tasting palates. The connoisseurs congratulated themselves with their award winning blends, while the balance of us took our bruised egos home with a better understanding of what is considered good wine. Surprisingly, several of the winning groups were able to involve large percentages of the weak wines into their blends–a valuable goal for professional wine blenders as they do not want to loose a drop of the harvest.
After the winning blenders were announced, we each tasted the winning wine blend. Most of us agreed with Rich Wild’s (one of the participants) observation that increasing a small amount of a different wine to a blend can make a tremendous difference to the blend. Because of the fun we had at the class, other attendees, like Su-Chun Huang, are planning on throwing wine blending challenges of their own at their next dinner gathering.
What actually caught my eye was the fact that so many of the Wiens family members were at the class. They wholeheartedly greeted each attendee as we entered the winery and supported each of us as if we were extensions of the family. This family oriented Temecula winery is reminiscent of an earlier day when the family and community stood behind one another. The attendees loved having the family there and gave a lot of extra love to Grandma Wiens. As Mike and Holly Lester said, Your help allows us to return home as wine Mix Masters. We all look forward to the next event at the Wiens Winery. Well done Wiens family.
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