My oldest had a b-ball game this morning. Then the wife sent me to the grocery store while I was out. She should know better. The shopping center closest to the game also has Total Wine. As if it were divine intervention, I got an email during the game from TW with a coupon for 20% off "Old World" wine. Grabbed a few bottles of reserve Aglianico. Normally $19.99 and a steal at $15.99. Also got a few bottles of Amador Zinfandel. I want to try a few next to my 2014 to compare. After lunch, I think I'm going to do some blending trials and see how that Zin is with a little of my 2013 Petite Sirah mixed in. I just have this feeling that a little of that PS will make this a 'knock your socks off' Zin. We shall see. I'm going to try it with a little of the 2015 PS as well. It's a better wine and isn't in bottles yet. Also need to do an acid reduction test on 1 gallon of my 2015 Cab.
Edit: Well, that was fun! I started by doing a side by side compare of a 2013 commercial Amador Zin to mine from the barrel. Mine has better color and overall, the flavors are stronger. Both the spice and fruit. Tannin-wise, I think the commercial version had just a tad more. I did notice in looking at the two side by side that mine might have a slightly oxidized color - very, very slight, or it's just a normal difference between two wines. Then I did some blending experimentation adding a few different proportions of both my 2015 (obviously very young) and 2013 (already in the bottle) Petite Sirahs. Ultimately, I settled on using somewhere between 14-16% of my 2013. 10% was good, but bumping it up really made a difference. I'm excited about this, as it's my first real attempt at blending. I have about 9 gallons of the zin, so the resulting batch will be a little over ten gallons. 6 gallons of the Zin will be coming out of the barrel in a week or two. Then I'll blend and bottle sometime late this winter or in early spring.
