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The home wine makers may want to blend wines in order to improve the taste of a particular wine. This is different than commercial wineries that blend wines in order to create consistency in the wines that they sell.

To be able to calculate how to properly blend wines, it is recommended that the home winemaker use the Pearson Square because it is a visual math tool that can help determine values when blending wines and it is a tool that anyone can use.

Pearson’s Square:

Let us look at an example of using this simple application. Let us say that you have two wines, and one has an acid level of 1.2 and the other is 0.5. Let us say further that you want the end acid result to be .8. The top left corner (A) and the bottom left corner (B) represent the acid level of the two wines you are trying to blend. The center number in the square (C) is the desired acid level. The two numbers on the right are numbers that you calculate. Square D (0.4) is the difference between square A (1.2) and square C (0.8); in addition, the square E (0.3) is the difference between square B (0.5) and square C (0.8).

You now have the numbers 0.4 and 0.3. This creates a 4 to 3 ratio of the wines. When you blend these two wines, you will use four parts of the first wine for every three parts of the second wine in order to get an acid level of 0.8. This simple calculation is already taking you down the road of creating the blended wine that you desire.

There are certain rules that should be followed when attempting to blend two wines:

• Blend two wines at a time in small quantities. Make sure you write down the results.
• Filter the wine after you blend.
• Spit don’t swallow when testing.
• Blend two similar wines of the same year.
• Wait a day before blending large quantities and retest your final formula.
• Test with the end product in mind. What is it you want to improve?
• Need some inspiration? Go to your local wine store and see what commercial wineries have blended.

If you follow these simple ways you should be able to make your own wine blend with fantastic results.

Interested In Learning More?

Here are some great resources I have found online that you should consider having a look at:

• Using Pearson’s Square (PDF) (from the North Texas Wine Makers Guild)
• Person’s Square Calculator (Excel Spreadsheet) (from the North Texas Wine Makers Guild)
• Tim Patterson’s Blending Spreadsheet (from WineMaker Magazine)

Scott “The Wine Making Guy”

One of the things I love about helping people with their wine making is hearing about all of the crazy things people make wine out of! I guess I’m a “traditionalist” though as I typically make wine from wine kits and fresh fruit.

For example, I currently have the following wine kits from Winexperts on the go:

1. Piesporter (Vintner’s Reserve)
2. Pinot Noir (Vintner’s Reserve)
3. Napa Valley Stag’s Leap District Merlot (Estate Series)(my wife and I are big fans of Stag’s Leap Artemis, which is a Cabernet Sauvignon so we thought this kit would be interesting to try - cost us $150 though so BETTER be good … ).You can view the PDF for this one by clicking here.
4. Chocolate Raspberry Port (Limited Edition)(one of my readers has made this kit as well and said it was a big hit at Christmas)

On the fruit side I currently have on the go:

1. Blueberry Wine
2. Crabapple Wine

I have also completed a batch of Canadian Wheat Ale, which is quite tasty (need to tone down the carbonation though) and have a Mexican style beer waiting for it’s turn as well.

So needless to say, our house has been a perpetual “fermentation zone” for quite some time now.

In any event, I figured the wines that I make are pretty much what everyone else makes and man was I wrong!

In fact, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I discovered that people actually make wine out of “non-grape” fruit as well. My ski patrol friend Brian, for example, loves making wine from rhubarb, choke cherries and raspberries and this is mainly because he both loves the wine he can produce and he gets his fruit for free (not a bad deal).

Then there were the wines made from fruits I’ve never heard of including:

1. Pomerac
2. Otaheite Apple (Pomarosa, Malacca Apple, Plum Rose)
3. Samarangense

Next, there was Rob who emailed me today and mentioned that he was making wine from Ribena. Well … I guess all you need is sugar right?

There’s Peter from the UK who loves to make wine from Beetroot (claims it went over quite nicely).

>> By the way, he sent me the recipe if you’d like it. You can contact me by going to www.AllWineMaking.com/Contactus.html

Then there’s Ian (also from the UK) who I think gets the award for pushing the wine making limits with his wine made from:

1. Tomatoes
2. Coconuts (ok … this one doesn’t sound toooo bad)
3. Sycamore (maple)
4. Prawns (yes … that’s right … prawns … as in … shrimp)

Don’t believe me that you can make wine from prawns? Here’s Ian’s recipe and I double dare ya to try it!

“You have to cook and blend 1lb of prawns in with flour, I found that half a banana helped with them . Get it to room temperature, add 2 lbs of sugar, leave them for a few days and then add the yeast. ” -> He did admit though that it took him a few tries to “get it just right”

I could go on with a bunch more entertaining wine recipes that I’ve heard but I’ll spare you the details.

It goes to show you though that once you feel you have your wine making skills honed and under control that you shouldn’t just limit yourself to just one style of wine as you never know what new and exciting flavours are waiting for you just around the corner.

It’s just a matter of getting out of your comfort zone and trying something completely different.

Now get out there and make some wine damn it!

To your wine making,

Scott
www.AllWineMaking.com