Wine blending in the Languedoc
- Categories :
- Gifts
- Wine
- Wine Making
- Enjoying Wine
- Languedoc-Roussillon
- Allegria
Last weekend we welcomed the parents of the adopted vines to Domaine Allegria for a Vinification Experience Day. And with them, a light drizzle for the first day of Spring, but that didn't dampen the good cheer and enthusiasm of our participants in any way!

Once everyone had arrived and had a cup of coffee, we booted up, and headed out into the vineyard to find our adopted vines.

On the way, Ghilsain, the winemaker at Allegria, explained the different work in progress in the vineyard. The pruning has now finished and the first tilling of the soil has started.
This allows the rain to better penetrate the earth. We then returned to the winery building, and we spent quite a while in the chai to better see and understand the different ways that the wines are worked during the vinification phase.
The questions abounded, covering topics as varied as sulphites, racking the wines and ageing them.

Before lunch, we participated in a workshop which the winemakers children had help to devise. We had to guess which aromas the 37 different cups contained!
These weren't synthetic aromas, but natural ones that were hidden from view with a tin foil cover over the cup with some holes in.

And so we set about identifying smells as diverse as burnt cork, rosemary, blackcurrant and truffle.
To spice things up a little, we organised a competition and the winner left with a bottle of Dolce Vita 2014 rosé wine!
We then sat down for the meal and wine tasting, which Delphine had lovingly prepared.

To start, a warm chickpea salad with slices of black pudding, which pairs delightfully with the Cinsaut Abuelo 2013.
We then enjoyed a home-made lasagne, and some local goats cheese from the Mas Roland.

After lunch we set about the serious business of blending wines. We blind tasted different grape varietals of Carignan, Mourvèdre and Syrah to learn what characteristics each brings to a blend, and then had a go at blending some wines to learn how they combine with each other!
Many thanks to all our participants and to the winemakers for a great Vinification Experience Day.