Sunday Wine Tasting: Bridlewood Blend 175 (2009)

It’s the return of my favorite column! Kirsten Collins does the honors for us this week, taste-testing this sumptuous red from California’s Santa Ynez Valley.

From Kirsten:

Bridlewood Blend 175 (2009)

At last a wine that fits the rigorous criteria for a Horse Nation wine review: an equestrian reference in the title!

Truthfully I have no idea what a “bridlewood” is.  In fact, I Googled it and here is what I found:   “Bridlewood has been looked up 122 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.”

You will notice that this wine is a blend.  Normally, I steer clear of such nebulous origins in my beverages but this is a wine my husband chose.  At this time of year he is overcome by a need to grill meat over open fire, and he sought a wine to pair with his bold and blackened entrée.  My skepticism about blended wine was quickly washed away when I swigged that first mouthful.  Billed as a medium-bodied wine I found it delightfully smoooooth.  Also, I would not limit it to pairings of a charbroiled nature and would have no problem using it as a stand-alone.  If I were one to engage in such behavior, this is the bottle I would stash in the tack room.

So, off to the Bridlewood website we go and while they make no attempt to explain their name they offer plenty of information to cut and paste, like how they came up with Blend 175.

“We spent a lot of time in the barrel room to get this blend just right before bottling. We tasted the different vineyard lots 175 times before we blended them together…”

175 times?  Really?!  If you taste wine 175 times how can you keep accurate records?  Well, at any rate, for your diligent 175 tastings, I think I can safely say that we at Horse Nation salute you.  Also, that barrel room sounds kind of fun.

Kirsten writes: "I don't know why this photo looks shaky."