Cute doggy at Von Strasser taking a nap

Sasha and Jason posing all cutsey at Von Strasser. Sasha was trying out her new hat.

The crew at Jericho Canyon Vineyards. We're in front of their caves

Some old wine crushing thing at Jericho Canyon

These were our wine making aparatii. They filled the different vintages of port in these beakers, then we pipetted out the wine into our own (smaller) beakers

This is John sucking the port out of the barrells and filling the beakers with each of the components.

3 of the port components: the '05 tinto ruiz, the 06 petite sirah, and the 07 tinto Roriz.

John filling up more of the beakers with port!

Once we had all 5 vintages poured into beakers we got to taste a glass of each of the vintages and take notes. Here Sasha and Jason are tasting the '07 Mouvedre, which was super sweet and had the lowest yield (so you couldn't use much of it in your blend or it wouldn't be "producable").

The Tinta Tao from Touriga!

The 5 vintages of port with only 4 glasses (one of us must have one!)

Sammi pipetted a bunch of the wine out of the beaker and then added 10mL into our own blend at a time. We started by making a base of 3 wines and then added in a hint of the 4th for extra flavor.

Jason loves his Sasha, especially while Port blending!

Sammi sucks the '07 Tinto Tao into a pipette and then into our beaker (you can see our small beaker to the left of the big beaker she is sucking onut of). We made small increments and then tasted our blend, adjusted it, then added the final components.

Aaron sucking the wine out of the beaker and into a pipette for use in our own blend (the small beaker next to it).

Jason does his pipette sucking while Sasha holds their blend.

Jason does his pipette sucking while Sasha holds their blend.

Sasha perfects her chemistry skills while pipetting wine into their blend.

We made notes on each of the components before starting to make our blend. Then we made a blend that we thought was best. After tasting it we adjusted it slightly and tasted again. After deciding it was delicious we added a small amount of the Mouvedre to finalize the awesomeness. Sammi and I finished with the following blend: 40% Petite Sirah, 35% '07 Tinto Roriz, 20% '04 Tinto Ruiz, 5% Mouvedre

Once we told John our blend he sucked it up from the barrells and turned it into a bottle (well, we actually did 2 bottles of each of our blends). Then he pulled out this corking contraption and we got to cork our port!

Once we told John our blend he sucked it up from the barrells and turned it into a bottle (well, we actually did 2 bottles of each of our blends). Then he pulled out this corking contraption and we got to cork our port! Here's Sammi corking our wine!

Sammi with our completed port, minus wine label!

Aaron and Sammi with their blend of port, complete with decorate wine labels. Notice how my label is way cooler than hers (ok, you'll have to zoom way in).

Once we told John our blend he sucked it up from the barrells and turned it into a bottle (well, we actually did 2 bottles of each of our blends). Then he pulled out this corking contraption and we got to cork our port! Here's Sasha corking her port!