Super Tuscan Final Blend

A great night of tasting trials again proves that group blind tasting is the best way to a successful blend!  We ended up with a bit of an A-B-C blend that incorporated some merlot and cab and petit verdot along with the Sangio, which made for a very nice balance. The group also decided to try and use up the 2005 Petit Verdot in the Super Tuscan blend (leaving a little bit for the Bordeaux Blend).

The final blend ended up being:

 

10 oz ST Base

1 oz Cab

1 oz Merlot

1/2 oz Petit Verdot

 

Which translates to a blend of approximately

 

56% Sangio

32% Cab

8% Merlot

4 Petit Verdot

 

We have about 55G of Super Tuscan Base (need to do a final count with all carboys). Applying the following blend:

 

ST Base 80%

Add 8% merlot

Add 8% cab

Add 4% petit verdot

 

Assuming 55G of Super Tuscan Base we will have 68.75G of blended wine (5 3/4 cases each).  The breakdown would be as follows (again, need to recalc after counting all the ST Base in Carboys)

80% * 68.75 = 55G ST Base

8% Cab Addition = 5.5G Cab

8% Merlot Addition = 5.5G Merlot

4% PV Addition = 2.75G Petit Verdot

 

On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 11:39 AM, Troy Pearse <ttpearse@gmail.com> wrote:

The group meets tonight to decide our Super Tuscan Blend (7pm).  We've had a couple of successful pre-trial blends by adding 20% cab or 20% merlot.  Tonight we'll try the following 3 blends (blind) and see which style we like best. Then we'll tune it (+/- 5%) if needed.  I've tried to keep Sangio as the dominant grape percentage so we keep the Italian style and dryness of the Sangio.

 

Troy

 

Our 2005 field-blend Super Tuscan was:

56% Sangio

33% Cab

11% Petit Verdot

 

Our current Super Tuscan "base" is approx:

68% Sangio

32% Cab

 

Trial Blend #1: ST Base + Merlot (Add merlot to emphasize the cherry fruit in the sangio.)

 

10 oz ST Base

2 oz Merlot

12 oz TTL

 

Results in

58%Sangio

25% Cab

17% Merlot

 

 

Trial Blend #2: Base Pl+us More Cab (Add Cab to add more depth of flavor and some body.)

10 oz ST Base

2 oz Cab

12 oz TTL

 

Results In:

58% Sangio

42% Cab

 

 

Trial Blend #3: Base + Cab & Petit Verdot (Flavor, body, and  BAM!--Similar to our 2005 blend.)

10 oz ST Base

2 oz Cab

1 oz Petit Verdot

 

Results In:

54% Sangio

38% Cab

8% Petit Verdot

 

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Posted By Troy Pearse to Riverwoods Wineries at 9/20/2009 10:39:00 AM