BLEND IT LIKE.....

I entered the Twinings tea challenge a while ago. This was a pretty interesting exercise. I didn't make the final 10 (and am not really sure if my entry was received as I sent it in on the last day), but discovered an excellent blend that we are using as our everyday tea. The competition was about finding a New Zealand breakfast tea blend by using existing Twinings teas and tea blends. I was looking for a robust style but with some elegance to differentiate it from the tannic Irish Breakfast and English Breakfast blends. My resultant blend which has found favour amongst family and friends was 2 parts Irish Breakfast and 1 part each of English Breakfast, Darjeeling and Ceylon Orange Peko. Sounds simple? All good recipes essentially are but to get to this I tried dozens of combinations . I was also looking for a combination of the world's styles and this blend has teas from three continents. I also made sure that I kept that damn awful Earl Grey away from my blends (it was interesting seeing some of the judging on TV. That stupid bint Kate Hawksby was a judge and as she is an Earl Grey fan she apparently eliminated all blends that didn't have an Earl Grey flavour. The Twinings organisers had to take her aside and explain the principle of non-partisan judging).

I have written before about the advantages of blending wines to find a combination that suits. The other day I opened a 2003 Paul Jaboulet Cotes Du Rhone to go with the pumpkin and broccoli pie I had made for dinner. The wine was complex but a bit faded. After half a glass I decided not to persevere with a wine that was essentially disappointing so opened a bottle of 2007 Altovela La Mancha Tempranillo knowing that this wine is young, fresh and raw and a bit simple on its own. I added some to the Cotes Du Rhone which rejuvenated it akin to a blood transplant. The result was suddenly fuller, fresher with the complex savoury notes of the French wine mingling with the fresh vinous notes of the Spanish wine. Feeling that there was still something lacking (and now feeling a bit adventurous due no doubt to the 13.5% alcohol that both these wines have) I selected a Pinot Noir to add some elegance. I still have a couple of bottles of Canterbury House 2003 Waipara Pinot. This wine in its day was tremendous winning a Gold Medal in the 2005 Royal Easter Show but is now a bit tired. Adding a bit of this to my blend gave a silky, feminine dimension and improved the aromatics a bit (European red wines have more mushroom-like, savoury notes). This was good. After a few sips however I felt that the two 2003 vintage wines in the blend were dominating with their aged characteristics. I didn't want to compensate by using more of the 2007 Spanish wine however as I wanted that more fruity New World character. I chose to open a 2007 Selaks The Favourite Hawkes Bay Merlot Cabernet. This is a very good example of Hawkes Bay red wine and is big (14% alc.), tannic, fruity and will last for a long time. Adding some of this gave a turbo-boost to my blend. The European savoury and complex notes were not lost and neither was the Pinot Noir elegance. The Merlot Cabernet gave a fuller middle palate, a bit more backbone and a deeper aroma. After this experimenting I selected a nice big claret glass, filled it halfway and enjoyed the wine. Closing my eyes and imagining that it had been poured from a single bottle of good wine it could easily have been of the pedigree of top American Cabernet, 3rd growth Bordeaux, expensive NZ or Australian red blends or even a top Italian wine. I know that blending like this leeches out individual varietal and country of origin characteristics but who cares, the result was great. Roughly my blend was 3 parts Cotes Du Rhone; 2 parts La Mancha; 2 parts Waipara; and 3 parts Hawkes Bay.