Back in 2011, Hendry Winery offered a blending kit for a reasonable
price. The kit consisted of five
half-bottles of 2007 red wines, each 100% of a single grape variety. The idea is that you host a party where each
person tries their hand at a blend of the five varietals to see what comes
up. Lacking enough wine-geek friends to
drink that much wine in one sitting, I instead decided to open them one-by-one
to learn the characteristics of each wine.
In May 2012, when they put it on sale, I decided to pick up a kit.
Tonight I opened the first of the five half-bottles, a 2007 Petite Verdot. Most often this wine is blended with Cabernet
Sauvignon in tiny quantities, seldom more than five percent of the finished
product. I have had a few other Petite
Verdot wines in the past that I have enjoyed, but I have heard that they too
were blended some with Cabernet, so I was a little nervous to try this
wine. The only time in the past that I
have tried 100% Petite Verdot was at the Ridge Monte Bello component tastings,
and those wines were recently pressed and still in barrel, which is not when a
wine shows its best qualities. Still, I
was hopeful that this wine would prove to be interesting at the least. And it was … albeit a bit light bodied and
jammy at the onset. After being open for
about 90 minutes, the wine took on a little weight and some structure, making
it a very nice wine to drink. The nose
was beautiful, and the palette featured flavors of blackberry, raspberry,
blueberry, pencil lead, and minerals, all in terrific balance. I am hopeful that the remaining bottles will
perform equally well.
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