It’s time to head back into the cellar. In these winter months it is easy to be distracted by the unfortunate necessities of business planning, marketing, and other dreary desk-work, but the wines are calling.
Barrel tasting at this stage actually becomes (yes, it’s true) hard work. Over the next few days I’ll be individually sampling each barrel from the 2009 vintage in preparation for one of the most crucial steps in the élevage (upbringing, or raising, of wines, as children more or less) of the new wines: blending.
I like to blend early, to encourage integrated flavors and stable wine, so the blending decision is a bit like deciding what you’re going to be when you grow up, except that you don’t get to change your mind later. So, I go through the barrel stacks and look for wines that show structure, intensity, purity of fruit and age-worthiness; those barrels are put into consideration for the Velocity bottling.
If the wine tastes friendlier, yummier, perhaps a bit softer and more vigorously youthful, it is a clear candidate for bottling under the Velo label. Then comes the fun part – assembling the components. Just because, say, seventeen barrels show Velocity-level promise, that doesn’t mean that those should simply be tossed together and called a wine. Now I get to play with the proportions in an attempt to blend a wine which will display the kind of balance, elegance, and focus I strive for. Perhaps a bit more block B, or less block A; maybe a dash of Cabernet franc will spice up the Malbec, but which barrel is best suited for the job?
So, off I go armed with my palate, my instincts and a sturdy glass, to start clambering around the barrel stacks.