Transcript: Vineyard Designate $$$ vs Blend $ Wines
- Slips under the rug is that's the land you own.
- Yeah. Yeah. Who bought this? It's pretty good at making grapes.
- And my name's Ted and this is Ted's vineyard. So we're gonna go ahead and make a single vineyard.
- [Jesse] Yeah.
- Hi and welcome to another episode of Lucky Rock Wine Lounge! I'm Jesse Inman.
- And I'm Aaron single-site Inman. We're not talking about rifles
- Then what are we talking about today Aaron?
- Today, we're gonna be talking about vineyards and how they impact a wine.
- Especially blends versus single vineyard designates.
- So after that stimulating, insightful, titillating conversation we're gonna taste two wines same producer, same vintage. One's gonna be a blend of vineyards, same varietal. And one's gonna be a single site single vineyard expression.
- You know how sometimes people don't like and subscribe when they watch our show?
- I've run into that problem.
- It's pretty rude. Okay. So just to clarify, when we're talking about blends we're talking about a single variety blend versus a Rhone blend, which is multiple varieties blended together to create a complete wine.
- Yeah, That would be one example, or like a Bordeaux blend. That's gonna have like Cabernet, Merlot things of that nature. We're talking about same grape blended from different vineyards as opposed to made from a single estate.
- [Cameraman] So why make a single vineyard?
- Well, you'd make a single vineyard. If there's a site that is particularly perfect for growing a grape, maybe it has a certain characteristic That you wouldn't get from another site that you really want to harness.
- Yeah I think the romantic side of it is that that location has something to say, right? There's like an expression of the place. And then a lot of times what slips under the rug is that's the land you own.
- Yeah. Yeah. Who bought this? It's pretty good at making grapes
- And my name's Ted and this is Ted's vineyard. So we're gonna go ahead and make a single vineyard.
- [Jesse] Yeah.
- [Cameraman] Why blend multiple vineyards?
- Well, you'd blend multiple vineyards because well maybe your single vineyard isn't as cool as you thought. Maybe your single vineyard is light on tannin, typically the soils aren't conducive for a really tannic wine. then you might blend in a wine that's really tannic and it'll even you out. And so you, it's kind of you're blending into, it's a game of averages at that point.
- I like to think of things as like a clock in a vineyard you've got your rightness levels and then you've got your acid levels and you've got your tannin levels and you've got your kind of like expression levels. And a lot of times they're all lined up in single vineyards, right? But sometimes they're not. And then those different vineyards that you're pulling from different areas, then you can kind of blend to get all those clocks like on the same time. And that that's a really good reason to blend in my opinion. You're getting just maybe a little more complexity from that.
- [Cameraman] What do you think the price difference is?
- Well, a lot of times it's manufactured because you're showcasing that vineyard. You maybe wanna put some extra bucks behind it. That means more wood cause wood's expensive. The price has to go up. Scarcity, you're gonna produce less of it. If there's less of it, there's less people to buy it. Supply, demand, there's more cost and that's about it. I mean, it's really a blend in theory could be a better wine because it has all of these different components you can put together to make a complete wine versus a single vineyard might not have all those. Single vineyards in theory should be pretty rare
- [Aaron] Yeah. because they're really pretty special vineyards.
- Yeah I know a lot of times I feel like it's almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy with single vineyards too because, and I'm not knocking there's some amazing single vineyards but a lot of times because it is seen as a special place it gets farmed a little bit more impeccably. So maybe everything, maybe you're not using any machinery maybe you're using it all by hand. And so the scarcity has a lot to do with that pricing too though, like you were mentioning earlier there's only so much of that particular vineyard.
- I want that.
- I want that vineyard!
- [Cameraman] What do you think the main difference in flavor is?
- The main difference in flavor?
- It's a big question.
- Yeah, absolutely. Well that depends on where your vineyard is but it's almost more like what is the difference between the flavor profiles in a single vineyard from year to year. A really nice single vineyard's gonna have a lot of consistency. Like it always ripens really well. But you are gonna get potentially more swings up and down in all of the, either acid, alcohol fruit components whatever, versus a blend because you're blending over multiple vineyards and potentially a bigger geographical area you're gonna get more, or less, I guess variation between them.
- A lot of times it's concentration. I feel like single vineyards are a little more of a concentrated version of a wines offerings because of how they're farming it. Sometimes it's their best site, it gets the most attention. One thing we didn't talk about is how you're making that wine. We alluded to it. Maybe you're leading off a little bit of that Saignée
- [Jesse] Saignée yeah.
- and concentrating down that fruit. Maybe it's getting, you know hand sorted and then berry sorted. It's just gonna be a little bit more concentrated. It's probably gonna have a little bit more oak and usually, not always, but usually a little bit higher alcohol cause it's getting a little bit longer hang time.
- Yeah, and to your point, if you're bleeding off juice it means you're increasing the amount of skin per juice and so that's like having two tea bags in your tea So it's more intense.
- I knew he was gonna slip a prison joke!
- Teabag. So that means there's, you have less quantity. So you're making those grapes that you picked and put all that work into, more expensive by bleeding off and putting it in a rosé or putting it in your blend wine, or whatever so.
- [Cameraman] Lastly is one superior to the other?
- Ultimately superiority depends on who's drinking it.
- [Aaron] Yeah, It's pretty subjective.
- Yeah, If you want a very consistent, complete wine then a blend might be, year to year, the place to go. But if you want maybe that extra special wine and maybe not every year, it's the wine that you want But like when it's knocking it out of the park it's hitting a home run. That makes perfect sense.
- Yeah, I believe that's a baseball term.
- Yeah, when you're hitting it really hard, you're hitting it really hard!
- I think a lot of times too, you know Jesse and I at Lucky Rock don't get as caught up in some of the fanfare of certain producers or certain vineyards. I mean, it's always fun to taste some of these vineyards that are amazing
- I'll anybody
- Whoa! But at the end of the day there are certain vineyards that are just really doing, you know, they've been doing it a long time at a really high level and they're fun to taste. But then I've had some blends that are really good too! So I think it's kind of, it's one of those you probably will get a different answer when you ask different people.
- Okay, So we have wine, number one
- Wine, number one, this has been poured for us. So we don't know if this is the single vineyard or the blended.
- So it's pretty dark.
- [Aaron] It's got some good color and you know sometimes with younger wines too like a 19 is younger The nose, they're not always quite as expressive as they need a little bit of time. The oak tends to show a little bit more in the beginning. This one is kind of, it's darker fruit and it's maybe a little more muted than you would think for being a Pinot.
- Yeah. It's funny cause a lot of times when I'm trying to peg if it's a single vineyard or not, I look at how much wood is on the wine. And this one I know the two wines are pretty similar and so the wood's not giving it away.
- Yeah, It's a tasty wine We'll start with that, it's balanced, the fruit's dark. It's like almost more like plum and cherry little bit of earth. Good mouth feel, it's got good tannin, good acidity. It's a well balanced wine. Before I say what the wine is, I usually like to taste the other one to kind of play it off.
- [Jesse] Agreed.
- But if I had to guess right off the bat? I would call this the blend.
- [Jesse] Same.
- I don't know why per se other than it does, it's seamless
- It misses a little bit of nuance maybe? because it is such a complete wine There's no like one thing that's setting it apart from maybe a single vineyard. But we'll have to try the single vineyard to be able to tell it.
- Yeah and when we taste the next wine we'll have a little more information. When you're tasting, you kind of play them off of each other.
- So!
- We got wine number two here! again, poured blind. We don't know which one this is.
- So it's just a touch lighter in color I'd say.
- [Aaron] Touch lighter in color
- Which could be because it's single vineyard but also could be because it was the less nice components from the single vineyard and didn't have as much color. So it's kind of confusing.
- This one has a tiny bit more spiciness to it too. A lot of times like Pinot noir, you know it's like it's red fruit, it's earthy. It can be a little spicy, especially some spicy when there's like some whole cluster involved. And this one smells maybe like a little bit more whole cluster to me, I haven't tasted it yet.
- And again, it's a little bit of a cheat but on the tasting notes it said 25% whole cluster on the blend and 50% whole cluster on the single vineyard and whole cluster is gonna give you a little bit more substance in the mouth and maybe a little bit more of a spicy herbal component depending on the grapes.
- You know, this is pretty interesting too because it's not like one of these wines is a massive standout from the other one. But now that I'm trying this one, the other one does have a little more concentration than this.
- Agreed, I like the other one better.
- Yeah, I do as well. I think it's a little bit more complete of a wine. I actually think this one could still be the single vineyard. I think the lightness could be from where it's from. Not so much how it was made, if that makes sense
- these are all just hypotheses.
- Totally. This kind of stuff is tough!
- But now that I'm tasting this I think the other one's the single vineyard. I think it's got a little more concentration. It's a little bit more
- The concentration is there of a complete wine
- on the other one
- If I were to make a single vineyard that's the one of the two that I would want to be it.
- There's one way to find out but I gotta get my final answer on this one. I think I'm gonna, you know what, I'm gonna ride with that this is the single vineyard Because I'm going with those coastal elements.
- Oh Split!
- Yeah.
- [Cameraman] This one was the blend. Other one was the single one.
- Yeah and that makes sense.
- Yeah, I think it just comes down to that. If you're gonna pick a single vineyard it needs to be complete. it's typically a little bit more concentrated a little bit more finesse maybe in the wine making. Is it twice as good?
- No, it's more concentrated. It's it's a little more elegant. This one again is a little more rustic a little spicier, a little lighter. So that kind of, I mean, that was a good case study on what we were talking about earlier like with the concentration and some of the wine making and it really manifested in these two wines.
- Yeah.
- You know, the single vineyard was probably more complete than I even expected.
- Yeah, It was. So that's again, it was going back to, in theory a blend can be the more complete wine because it's filling in all the gaps. But if you're, I think if you're really doing your job as a winemaker and a picking a single vineyard properly that's the wine you want because it's complete by itself.
- Sure, so there you go. There's a little bit of an education on single vineyard versus blend within the same grape, same varietal. These were fairly different wines
- Yeah. But neither of them were bad.
- No.
- I just think that the single vineyard was probably the more complete wine, a little more concentrated
- A little bit more pizazz
- And you're gonna pay double for that.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, almost two and a half times.
- I'm not strong in math.
- So anyways, this was kind of fun. Now go out and purchase within your price point.
- Yeah.
- Enjoy.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
- See ya, On the next episode.
