January Blending Sessions

First, I have to include this.  Over the weekend Matt and John came to visit Napa and we went out wine tasting.  I have very tall friends.

 Also this week we continued a series of Olfaction sessions.  Alexandre Schmitt is a former perfumer turned wine-consultant and aroma educator.  A few times a year he brings his vials of essential oils and tries to teach us the difference between Tahitian, Mexican and Madagascar Vanilla.  Or to be more specific when describing a wine as "floral".  Is it violet, hyacinth, lilac or gardenia?

 The other thing we do in January is blending.  We taste every lot several times to decide what will make the cut to the final blend.  This takes a lot of glasses, bottles, space and time.

 The counters are packed with sample bottles to make preliminary blends.

 At least 3 out of 5 days of every week in January, the table looks like this.  We keep revisiting and tasting blends to make sure that we are consistent.  

 Fortunately for me, I was able to bring back intern Joanna to help during this busy time.  Joanna and I set up two tastings at once.  The front section is one tasting, the middle glasses are a second tasting.

 Here we are tasting the front glasses.

Then we cleared away the front row to reveal a second tasting behind it.  So efficient.

So far no winery visits this month.  I need to hurry up to keep my new year's resolution!

Honestly though, when you taste this much wine during the week, tasting on the weekend is the last thing I want to do.

-L