A Blending Party for Any Occasion

October 24, 2007

Shortly after Keswick Vineyards opened their new tasting room Craig and I decided to make the short trip from Richmond with a couple of good friends and a picnic lunch to check it out.

We had an amazing time (how could anyone not with good wine, food, and friends?) and topped off the trip playing a fierce game of bocce and signing up for the Keswick wine club.

Keswick wins the award for recruiting members to its wine club. I've never before joined a winery's membership club on the first visit. The benefits of joining were quite compelling: discounts and access to wines not yet released, special events with the winemaker and winery staff throughout the year, and periodic blending parties - the thing that most caught my attention. A chance to go head to head against your friends and determine once and for all who has the superior taste in wine! I was sold. Craig didn't even argue; he knew there was no way we were leaving without joining.

Several weeks later the announcement I was waiting for showed up in my Inbox. The blending party was scheduled for Saturday, June 23rd and our mission was to create the winning blend for the 2006 Trevillian.

GAME ON

We arrived at the winery early that morning ready for a day filled with wine. The staff ushered us into the barrel room where small tables were set. Each small group was given a bottle of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Touriga Nacional, and Norton and a lot of scientific looking instruments that reminded me of 11th grade chemistry class. It was important that we keep track of the precise measurements of the varietals we used in our test blends so they could be recreated. After each small group created their own blends they were all collected together and a blind tasting competition followed where each wine was judged on appearance, aroma, and taste/finish.

Our biggest concern during this next stage was trying to pick our own blend out of the pack to try to make sure we didn't pan our own wine we labored all day to create. With somewhere around 20 different wines all crafted from the same 4 grapes, it proved pretty much impossible.

Although my group's blend ended up somewhere in the middle of the pack, the winning blend (60% Cabernet Franc, 20% Touriga Nacional, and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon) is a wonderfully elegant fruit forward wine with subtle hints of coffee, plum, chocolate, cinnamon and raspberry. This beautiful wine will likely be released in early 2008, but in the meantime you can check out the 2005 Consensus wine made at last year's blending party.

Keswick is now offering special event blending parties at the winery! Why not take your next celebration on the road to the winery and go head to head with your closest friends to see who creates the best wine? It is guaranteed to be an exciting time that everyone will remember for years to come. Your wine might not win, but you will at least know who should bring the wines for your next party!