In the world of winemaking, blending is a fundamental art. Whether it is different barrels, vineyards, or grape varieties, blending plays a pivotal role in crafting wines. It is often said that blending is the art of creating a final product that transcends the individual components. During the harvest season, winemakers embark on a rigorous evaluation process. They taste each ferment and barrel, recording notes and continually assessing the wines. The timing of blending varies with some preferring to blend immediately after fermentation. At Oldenburg Vineyards, we generally wait 14 months post-harvest for a more extended evaluation period before commencing with blending. Blending typically begins with larger percentage adjustments, gradually refining the blend with meticulous attention to detail. This process can last hours, days, weeks, or even months, depending on winery size, winemaker philosophy, and vintage characteristics.nn nnOnce the final blend is perfected, individual barrels are merged into a blending tank and then returned to barrels for additional aging before the ultimate step: bottling. This meticulous approach ensures that the final product is greater than the sum of its parts, resulting in wines that are nothing short of exceptional. Blending is the cornerstone of winemaking artistry, where expertise and passion converge to create the perfect encapsulation of a vintage. When the wines have completed their journey – from vine to wine – the last step in the process is delivering the precious liquid safely into the bottles. But the bottling process itself can be complex and must be carefully managed and controlled; this product is meant to be stored and aged for many years, and there are a number of factors that need to be controlled during the process to ensure nothing but quality is bottled up.nn nnThere are a multitude of details to check before bottling – including the state of the bottles (are they clean, undamaged, pristine) and closures (corks and screwcaps), but the most important checks are on the wine. Firstly, we will want to keep a close eye on the dissolved oxygen in the wines. Oxygen can be detrimental to wine quality throughout the winemaking process, but especially towards the end of fermentation, and into bottling and storing (it can cause both chemical and microbiological instability, lead to browning and even the production of negative compounds such as acetaldehyde). Dissolved oxygen levels can be lowered through a number of gas management techniques, such as sparging (a process where a gas is bubbled through a liquid to remove other gases or volatile compounds). To prepare for bottling, our bottling tanks are sparged with a combination of 70% nitrogen and 30% carbon dioxide. The nitrogen removes the oxygen from the wine, and the carbon dioxide helps to keep carbon dioxide already in the wine constant (so the nitrogen doesn’t sparge out all the carbon dioxide in the wine).nn nnThe dissolved oxygens are dropped to below 1mg/liter in the red wines and below 0.5mg/liter on the white wines. These levels are then monitored during the bottling process – any spikes or increases in dissolved oxygen is then an indication that oxygen is being introduced somewhere along the bottling line (perhaps a hose that’s leaking and introducing air into the system).nn nnThe other factor that needs to be evaluated before bottling is the pH of the wines. Due to the cooler climate in the Banghoek, our wines typically have a lower acidity. Molecular sulfur is more effective at a low pH, which means we don’t need to add huge amounts of sulfur to preserve our wines for bottling. There is also a connection between the level of dissolved oxygen and the loss of sulfur during bottling – you lose less sulfur during bottling if your dissolved oxygen is low. This also enables us to use less sulfur before bottling.nn nnWhen all the steps are complete, the wines are in their new vessels, where they will rest and start to settle before they are prepared to make their way into your homes, and glasses.