Journal | February 26, 2024
2023 Hardscrabble Red Blend
Blending trials for the 2023 single vineyard red wines concluded last week. Trials are decisions made using tiny quantities of samples. Graduated cylinders and pipettes measure units as small as milliliters and even fractions of milliliters. Boisseau and Avenius Reds were wonderfully easy blends to make. Great harmony became evident immediately as every barrel and every variety had something good to offer.
But Hardscrabble proved to be difficult. A month ago these trials were temporarily suspended. We got stuck, sort of like writer’s block. We did land on a very good blend. But with this vintage, very good would not be considered good enough. Seeing no path forward, it became clear that the process had to start over again. We took a break to contemplate and to taste other mentor wines that could rejuvenate our approach. After a month we felt ready for another stab at it.
It took 5 days. First, we tasted the most favored barrels from the previous month. Five exceptional barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon were so concentrated and powerful that they could not be discounted under any circumstances. This became the initial base or core wine. The rest of the week, after every blend attempt we continued to ask the question: “what does this blend need to make it a better wine?” Finally on Friday the fine tuning was complete. The final decision hinged on including just one third of a barrel of press Cabernet Sauvignon.
2023 is an exceptional vintage. What was most surprising is that Hardscrabble included a large amount of our younger vines planted in 2018 and 2019. Some of you might remember past posts called Terroir Project where acres of vines were removed and new vines replanted in a better way. Even though the vines are young, they were planted with the advantage of 30 years of experience of winegrowing on Hardscrabble. This was the first year that their potential was unveiled.
The final Hardscrabble blend is approximately: CS 56%, CF 25%, and Merlot 19%
https://www.lindenvineyards.com/latest-at-linden/category/Terroir%20Project
Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Hardscrabble Journal: February 26, 2024