When reviewing wines, I often have six to eight bottles open at once. Different types and profiles help me calibrate my taste and I sometimes open a wine I’m already familiar with for comparison when assessing something new.
That’s exactly what I did with the Deluxe Pinotage. This time, I decided to also open an Asda Extra Special Pinotage, which is one of my picks. I like its deep, smoky, earthy flavour and nothing else comes close at that price point. Tasting the Lidl Pinotage alongside it, I found the Lidl Pinotage while ok had much less flavour, but the mouthfeel was lovely. I ended up doing something I never usually do: blending the two.
A bit of backstory. I’m a self blending sceptic. About a decade ago, on a Holland America cruise with my wife, they offered a wine blending activity in a specially set-up room with, what looked like, hundreds of wines. I thought the idea was a gimmick. How could an amateur blend something better than a winemaker? We didn’t participate, dismissing it as a waste of time, money (and wine).
Fast forward to now, and my spontaneous 50:50 blend of these two Pinotage turned out to be revelatory. The result captured the best elements of both wines, the great flavour of the Asda Pinotage and the full mouthfeel of the Lidl one. Since they’re both made from the same grape, there was no clash in character. I won’t be finishing the remaining bottles separately as this blend is simply too good. It’s got me thinking about other blends I could create and whether we might have missed out by skipping that cruise activity.
