Pat Henderson’s Blending Spreadsheet

When a wine comes up lacking, the solution may just be blending a totally different type of wine with it. Grape wines and wines made from other fruits often have complementary characteristics that lend themselves as a key ingredient in the other.

Blending different grape varieties to make a better finished wine is a bedrock practice in the commercial wine world — and one often overlooked by home winemakers. If they do it in Bordeaux and the Rhone and Chianti, why not do it in your garage? There are good and bad reasons to try blending, and it’s important to keep them straight. The real power of blending lies in the potential for adding…