Bordeaux Blending Party

Saturday, joined the Wine Canine (along with the lovely Mrs. Canine), Jeff from the Good Grape, and a host of other wine fans -- including David Davis from the new distributor World of Wines -- for a Bordeaux blending party. Jeff brought the Fusebox wine blending kit which included recipes, flasks, and pipettes along with baseline bottle of cabernet sauvignon, cab franc, petit verdot, merlot, and malbec. (We had back up bottles, too -- 100% cab franc is strong and delicious stuff.) We even had a carmenere not included in the kit. (Ah, traditionalists.)

Recipes in the Fusebox kit included the 96 Joseph Phelps Insignia, an Opus One, a 94 Chateau Lafite, and a few others. What a hoot! Amazing to taste how the purity of one varietal isn't diluted but made more whole by adding others, even those less robust. It was also amazing to taste firsthand the difference cab franc and petit verdot can make when added in small quantities to big cabernet sauvignons and malbecs -- it's fun to taste the layers of complexity. (Great snacks, too -- and Mark severed us a festival of meat. I still can't stop craving that brisket.)