RAVE - Blending Party at Turnbull Winery

Mrs. Page and I have been members of Turnbull Winery in Oakville, Napa, ever since stopping by there after arriving an hour early for a lunch reservation at Bouchon, in nearby Yountville.

Bouchon was fabulous, by the way.

Today's outing was for a members only blending.  With my lady en route to India for a 10-day visit with her pops, Gareth was my hunky companion for the day.

There were around 50 guests, each of whom was given an apparently inexhaustible supply of 2008 Turnbull Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, plus a ton of pipettes, measuring tubes, glasses and plastic jugs.

We each then tried out varying percentages of the wines, until we were happy with our blends.

The Cabernet Sauvignon boasted red fruits - strawberry and raspberry; the Merlot blackberry and cherry; the Cabernet Franc had a curious black tea aroma, and was definitely the edgiest of the three. Most people therefore led with Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, with just a hint of Cabernet Franc.

There was plenty of time to experiment with a number of blends - I tried at least 5, and ended up with my favorite - 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. Gareth's favorite was 35% / 50% / 15%.

Everyone then got to bottle their blends, and design a label.

Cue an excellent lunch outside in the shade (it was very sunny today), and a prize-giving for the best labels. Neither of our efforts impressed the judges - I'm certain Gareth won't be offended if I reveal that his label might make a podium finish at a kindergarten art class) - but they will definitely be the talking point of whatever dinner party we serve them at.

I bought a selection of Turnbull's excellent reds and shipped them to Bill and Margaret in Houston - it works best if I send Napa wines to them, rather than them send Texas wines to me - and then we scooted further north to Calistoga, picking up several bottles of Zinfandel from Laura Zahtila's tiny vineyard there. These will add to the fun at next weekend's Zin tasting and pulled-pork BBQ at my good friend Will's in San Jose.

Looks like I'll be swapping marital bliss for booze over the next couple of weeks. If today's blend tastes good enough, maybe I'll not notice.