This is the first time we are dealing with 13 different wines from different vineyards to make one blend for a private label wine with Van Williamson. Needless to say, it’s a lot of fun. It seems daunting, but the process is easy to follow. In the end, it's Mark's, our wine director, expertise and palate. He spits, I swallow. It looks like a wonderful blend of pinot noir coming up soon. Van is a great winemaker and produces some excellent wines. We merely take what he makes and make a unique blend for our food and restaurant.
Well, it took three and a half hours to come up with three options for blends to make the AW Pinot Noir private label wine from Van Williamson. This was our thirteenth try, and it would have gone to more blends except we ran out of one of the main components. One was a very delicate princess blend that had a really smooth, nice long finish. The other two were bullies of a pinot, trying to incorporate the smooth lusciousness, and the long finish we had with the princess.
We are going to collaborate now with Van to see what he says. I am feeling quite right and good. As Mark pointed out, we have kind of blown out our noses and palates, this usually is a process that takes days for the winemakers before they decide to put it in a bottle and we just slammed it in three and a half hours. I am looking forward to a great wine folks!