Crafting a Wine Inspired by an Album of Music

Band tryouts. Let’s see what you got.

Trying to craft a wine after an album of music is a new concept and while the project was narrowed down considerably by choosing specific varietals for the three albums, there were still heaps to decide on how the blends should represent the sound of the bands.

Maria Angel & Winemaker Mark Beaman emerges from the Secret Laboratory

There clearly was a need to have “try-outs” and check out all the potential candidates that may make up the blend/band. At the winery we keep all our vineyard lots separate up until it is time to blend. In any one season we may have 20-30 different wines of the same variety each from a unique location within Mendocino County’s diverse micro-climates. Also if that particular vineyard was divided up into a redwood tank, new oak barrels from a French cooperage or an American cooperage which may be new barrels, once used barrels, twice used barrels, and so on.

So clearly there are many spices in the spice rack to select from any one vintage. So to get a snapshot of these separate lots of wines they have to be sampled (Yeah, that part of the job is a bummer).

Wines are lined up, swirled, sniffed, sipped and spit and notes are recorded on traits of the wines. One wine may grandstand one or two particular traits (aroma, fruit, acid, tannin…) over others. The next wine will have the opposite attributes even though they are same variety, picked at roughly the same time, and from within a few miles of one another. There can be incredible diversity in wines due to the different vineyard sites expression. So with all this available options the objective was to assemble an appropriate mixture of wines of the selected variety that forms a singular wine that captures the best of each component.

Blending is a search for the best grouping of individual highlights that when assembled can achieve a wine of harmony, energy, and focus that each wine alone could harness without the others. This, of course takes some trial and error. Luckily, the music is something I have no problem listening to, over and over again and the same goes for sampling wines. Call it band try outs.

Part one of a three part series.  More to follow from Mark :)