Super Tuscan Pre-Trials

Michele and Tom came over to pick up some wine for blending into their cabernet and super tuscan as they are getting ready to bottle.

 

We tried a couple super tuscan blends adding merlot and petit verdot.  Adding 10%-20% merlot helped a lot. Smoothed out the flavors and tempered the tartness without covering up the sangio.  We tried adding some petit verdot but didn't like it too much. It was too strong tasting for this year's lighter sangio.

 

For reference, our last super tuscan was a field blend of 56% Sangiovese, 33% Cabernet and 11% Petit Verdot.  I think the field blend with petit verdot last time helped the flavors integrate much better than the post-blending approach. The current Super Tuscan "base" is about about 68% Sangio and 32% cab.

 

I am also slightly suspect of the petit verdot in the plastic platypus. It's been in there for a year (or more) and could have some off flavors.  When we do our blends this fall we should try blending using wine from the carboys.

 

Troy