Bordeaux Blends

We've had 2 types of Bordeaux blends--a Left Bank and a Right Bank.  :-D  What's Left vs. Right have to do with it, you ask?

 

The Bordeaux region is divided into regions, including a "Left Bank" and a "Right Bank". Cabernet is favored on the Left Bank and Merlot is favored on the Right Bank. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordeaux_wine for more details).

 

2 years we've had a more traditional "Left Bank" style with Cabernet as the dominant grape and last year we had more of a "Right Bank"style with Merlot as the dominant grape.  We'll blend a Right and a Left bank style tonight and see which we like best.  The previous blends are listed below and we'll use them as a starting point.  We only have 1G of Petit Verdot left so we'll be limited to roughly 0.25% of Petit Verdot.  (Not a lot, but enough to add some finish to the wine.)  It will be an interesting comparison!

 

For Boisique we've liked between 20-25% malbec in the blend--mostly 20%. We'll setup an 80/20 and a 75/25 to compare.

 

Troy

 

 

Left Bank Bordeaux Blend (10 oz tasting samples)

60% Cabernet (6 oz)

30% Merlot (3 oz)

9.75% Malbec (1- oz)

0.25 % Petit Verdot (drop!)

 

Right Bank Bordeaux Blend (10 oz tasting samples)

50% Merlot (5 oz)

40% Cabernet (4 oz)

9.75% Malbec (1- oz)

0.25 Petit Verdot (drop!)

 

 

PREVIOUS BLENDS

 

2007 Maganfique

50% Wood River Merlot

40% Wood River Cabernet (Clone 8)

9% Wood River Malbec

1% Wood River Petit Verdot

 

 

2006 Magnafique
60% RiverRock Clone8 cab 
26% Merlot
12%Malbec
2% Petit Verdot

 

2005 Magnafique
55% Cabernet (Williamson)
35% Merlot
10% Malbec

 

--previous post with estimated gallons of each type of wine. we need to verify actual gallonage before blending--

 

2008 Wine To Bottle

ID Cabernet: 38G

Merlot:  77G

ID Malbec: 32G

WA Malbec: 16G

Super Tuscan: 55G

 

Reserve Hold Over (We will each get ~5 cases of reserve cabernet next spring).

ID Cabernet 32G

WA Cabernet 27G

 

Some rough bottling calculations--subject to change as we refine the blends.

 

Boisique:

Assuming our Bordeaux blend has around a 30% merlot content and the super tuscan has about 10% merlot, we are left with 60G of Merlot for Boisique. With the normal 80%/20% blend that gives us about 75G of Boisique, or 6.25 cases each! (YEA!).

 

Super Tuscan:

Estimate 60G of Super Tuscan (including 10% merlot addition), 5 cases each.

 

Magnafique:

Estimate 38G cabernet, 15G Merlot and 10G of Malbec for a total of 63G or 5.25 cases

 

Malbec:

We have lots of malbec this year. A good 20+G more than we need (1 2/3 cases each). We can bottle it as a stand alone malbec or hold it over in case we don't get malbec grapes this year.  (We'll hold a 3 gallons over to mix with the reserve cabernet.)