Rhone style blends

Last night we assessed the frost damage that occurred on 5/15/2011. Temperatures plummeted around 3 am to a low of 28.4 °F (based on data from DRI weather station at Valley Road Experiment Station) and hovered there for about 2 hours. The damage is still being assessed but was sporadic with some shoots being completely damaged and other shoots not at all on the same vine. Overall the damage so far looks to be about 20% of the shoots. On vines that had not yet been pruned, these shoots were emerging from portions that would be pruned off anyway. We dodged a bullet, just barely. Note that hybrids suffered just as much damage as the viniferas. For the tasting, we tasted three different rhone varietals: Grenache, Syrah, and Petite Sirah. Then three different blends from these wines. Just about everyone agreed that the wine tasting was fantastic and that the blends were significantly better than the individual wines by themselves.