This blending template was created by Pat Henderson and is available for download here:
One evening this past winter, a friend was perusing my trophy shelf, where I exhibit my wines that have won medals or ribbons in amateur winemaking competitions. He picked up one bottle of red wine that was bedecked with a blue ribbon awarded by the Virginia State Fair. The wine was my 2001 Meritage. My friend scrunched up his forehead, trying to make sense of this strange, unfamiliar wine name and asked,…
The first time I ever blended two wines was an exercise in ignorance. I had a dewberry wine that had beautiful color and clarity but tasted flat. I also had a blackberry wine that was deeply pigmented and very clear, but tasted quite sharp to me. (Today I would describe it differently — excessively malic — but back then it simply tasted sharp.) I decided to blend the two wines and after…
