Fabbioli Blending

This is something that Doug at Fabbioli Cellars does every year and it is a lot of fun. Doug lets his customers come up with the blending for this Tre Sorelle.

This year he broke us up into three teams of 4 people and he handed us a list of the wines available to use (I won't reproduce the list here). The list was broken down by varietal, vineyard, and how much was available. Our goal was to blend a wine that everyone would like and would still allow him to meet his target number of cases. So, for example, let's say he wanted to produce 500 cases of the wine and he only had two barrels of Cabernet Franc, that limits the amount of Cabernet Franc that can be used in the blend to about 5%.

First, we tasted all of the wines and he made a point of highlighting the differences between the same varietals from different vineyards. A Cabernet Franc from one vineyard might have different properties or aged differently than a Cabernet Franc from another vineyard...even though those vineyards might only be miles apart. This depth of knowledge of each varietal was very helpful as it made it easier for us to fill in holes in our wine by drawing on more or less of a varietal.

After the tasting we got down to business, complete with beakers and test tubes. Each table sorted out which wines they wanted to include and then started the blending process. After the first one was blended everyone at the table tasted it and determined what it was lacking. A second wine was then blended, using the information Doug had given us to plug holes in our wine.

We then created a second blend. When we were completely satisfied with the second wine we passed it to Doug, who brown-bagged it and passed it around for everyone to taste (along with the finished products from the other tables). Doug let everyone vote to decide which one the room liked best, then he talked about what was good and bad in each wine.

After the first round of blind tastings we were given an opportunity to try again. Each team created a new wine, again drawing on the lessons of the previous wine. This was also passed around and voted upon.

In the end, our wine came in second place both times. The event is a lot of fun and I highly recommend it.