Wine blending is he practice of mixing two or more wines to come up with a wine that is of desirable qualities. Blending is done by the cellar masters and they know the characteristics that they seek for their resultant wine. It all depends on the winery and what wine they want. Have you ever gone  the supermarket and found a wine label written “red blend?” This simply means that different wine grapes are mixed together eg. merlot, shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon.

I got to make my own special blend of wine without having to plant the grapes. On 20th September we went to Slanghoek Cellar to blend our own wines under the expert direction of Pieter the cellar master. In Mission #CAPEable we are divided into groups and we are completing different challenges. I was getting a bit impatient because my team (The Red Team) had not won any of the challenges so I told the rest of the team mates that we had to nail this mission. The challenge was pretty intense. So we were given three wine varieties in glass 1, glass 2 and glass 3. We were then given a special blend and we attempted to recreate it. We needed to create a complete replica of the wine given wine in glass 1, 2 & 3. We had a measuring test tube to help us know the percentage of what we were blending. My team actually emerged the best in the competition and we got a 100% match! We got some gifts and the Slanghoek Creme De Chenin to take home. I was so excited to be part of the winning team!

The advantage of wine blending is that it is easy to alter the qualities as you please. The disadvantage is that once you can get an undesirable wine but it is all about testing. Blending also takes a lot of concentration and experimentation as well as repeated blending on different days so as to approach the process with fresh sense. After smelling and tasting wine a lot, it gets to a point your senses become somewhat numb and the winemakers have to keep blending over a period of time to decide on what they want.