How to Blend It

“I want more fruit!” says I.

“I want more finish!” says my editor.

“But what about the minerals on the
mid palate?” butts in our City editor.

It was our first blending session for Chateau Square Mile, a bespoke claret created with CrushPad, but it had become a scene from Are You Being Served?

Crushpad offers something truly unique in French wine making: it allows you to produce your own premium bordeaux, participating as much or as little as you want in the process – from harvest to bottling. And for the first time in history, it allows you to blend wines from different AOCs (regions regulated by an anally-rigid French certification system).

Stephen Bolger, the company’s CEO, had travelled over from Bordeaux to bring us our barrel samples. He arrived from a blending session at the London HQ of a well-known German bank. His clients had been holed up for hours debating what ratios would make up their final blend.

“You won’t have that problem here,” we assured him at this, our first ever blending session. “We’re professionals.”

That was until we were presented with nine different but equally delicious wines: three merlots, three cabernet francs, and three cabernet sauvignons, including our own initial blend components straight from barrel. As we had decided to produce a right-bank style claret, we began with 80% merlot and 20% cab franc – and set forth to adjust our ideal claret from this point.

The 80:20 ratio was a promising start, but left us wanting. Although our editor was happy with the finish, I wanted something fruitier (oo-er, missus) and our colleague was after something a bit earthier. After several unsuccessful fusions, we learnt to avoid more complex blends and stuck to simpler ratios. Just as well, as by this stage it had become harder to do the math. Eight bottles later, and every blend seemed to taste excellent. After much gnashing of taste buds, we finally settled on: 60% Le Ruisseau; 15% Pey Labrie; 25% Ikory Ouest. This will be our wine. Maybe. You see, we have a second tasting in spring before it’s bottled, so it could all change… crushpad.com