December 11: California Cabernet

Theme: California Cabernet

Wines tasted: Nine

Discussion and revelation:

Wine 1
I like it. I can't tell you why.
I have goosebumps.
I think it's the one I brought.
Chocolatey -- dark chocolate.
No more recent than 2006
A robust beginning
Result: Ghost Pines, 2008, from Napa and Sonoma ($15)

Wine 2
Crisp
Younger and less developed
Drier
Almost bitter
Tart
Nu ma omor
I like 2 better than one; it's lighter and fruitier
2 growing on me
Result: Rodney Strong, 2007, Sonoma county ($14)

Wine 3
Bouquet: during fall when apples fall off the tree. kind of  like rotting fruit but in a good way.
Lots of tannins
Dry but not as fermented
I brought it!? I hated it!!
Result: Kendall Jackson, 2006, Sonoma Napa ($23)

Wine 4
Great bouquet
Younger than one
Close to one for me in liking
Really oaky
Raspberries
Result: Smoking loon, 2009, Napa ($13 on sale for 10)

Wine 5
Not a lot of personality
Sour
Yuck yuck yuck
It tastes bland
Five not good
Sweeter
Five, I hardly knew ya
Result: Chateau Chevalier, 2005, Napa ($14)

Wine 6
Six is my new favorite
Very balanced - a whole variety of flavors
Result: Poet's Row, 2008, Sonoma ($9) (ps: sustainable)

Wine 7
Very smooth
Soap
Bitter and plumy
Sirah-y
Loose and fruity
I am not digging seven
I'm not getting what it's about. Not a cabernet
Result: Liberty, 2008, Paso Robles ($14)

Wine 8
Liquorishy
Younger, acidic
I'm getting blueberries
Result: Bonterra, 2007, Mendocino county ($16) (ps: organic)

Wine 9 
Fruity
Most flavorful
More alcoholic
Smells like vinegar
Great with dessert
Result: The Show, 2007, Napa ($13).

Crowd favorites: Everyone LOVED Wine 1. Wines 3 and 9 had a smaller following.

The cheeses: Aged Cheddar and Supreme Brie, both from Henry's

Recipe: Bacon Wrapped Dates

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/bacon-wrapped-dates-stuffed-with-blue-cheese/Detail.aspx

(click on image to zoom)

Le Calendar: Year Two

Because if you put a "Le" in front of it, it seems so much more, how you say, enticing...


Standing date: First Saturday of the month
Hour: 7 p.m.
We typically have tapas and appetizers, but not a full dinner.

• December 4: California Cabernet. Because it's about time we paid attention to these gems. Bring in something you've been curious to try, or an old favorite. 

• January 1: Start the year drunk happy. Theme: Decanter go wrong? Bring in anything you want -- from two buck chuck to Chateau Lafite Rothschild '06 Pauillac. We'll sample it twice: first right from the bottle, then after its relaxing sojourn in the decanter.

• February 5: Sherry, cherie? Had some lovely jerez fino in Spain and now I'm hooked. Bring your favorite out-of-print poetry book and if things go according to plan, we'll conclude the evening with readings.

• March 5: California vs French: Half of the group will bring in wines from California, and the other half will bring in matching wines from France. We'll decide on what kind of wine to bring, closer to the date. What are the differences? Which do you prefer?

• April 2: Match the label to the wine. Everyone brings in a red wine with a descriptive label.   Please transcribe the label separately, with no info about the wine's make, model or year. As we sample, we'll try to determine which of the wines is "fruity with a hint of lavender," which "evokes a leek omelet on a raining morning" and which is "aged in oak barrels resulting in a smooth finish." Detective work! 

• May 7: Tequila! We'll experience one from each of the 5 classifications: silver, gold, reposado, anejo and extra anejo. I don't know what they mean, but I have a feeling it will be fun finding out.

• June 4: White Grape Sampler: Let's stick with $10-$25 per bottle and explore less common white grapes. Viognier, Semillion, Chenin Blanc, Palomino, Vernaccia and more. (Anything but Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc and dessert wines, please.)

• July 2: Patriotic wine day. Bring in a wine from your home country. So far the options include Romania, Spain, Mexico, Lebanon, India and this fair republic. The point is to explore new possibilities, discover new horizons and decide whose wine comes closest to the insuperable Romanian varietals.

• August 6: Blind paradox: They say knowing a wine is expensive makes a taster prefer it. What happens when the label disappears? We'll taste bottles ranging from $10 to $60. To make it fair, I can 'assign' a price point to each person, then bring in your receipt and we'll average them out. 

• September 3: One grape, one region: TBD. 

• October 1: Benefits of aging: We'll pick one wine -- anything that ages well -- and everyone who's coming brings one from a consecutive year. The more the merrier. Ideally, we'll get to sample the same wine from 2000-2005, for example. If there's a big price difference between bottles, we can average it out. And if only a few people participate, we can do every other year.

All ideas, dates and times are subject to change based on your welcomed suggestions and requests.

Please let me know a few days ahead if you can make it. Let me know if you like a tasting theme but can't make that date. Let me know if you want off this list.


ciao!

February: Port

The assignment: Port to Port: Everyone brings in a port and we'll probe our preferences. If you behave I'll teach you a British maritime drinking game. Basically it involves drinking a lot, in a special order, and lauding Her Royal Highness. By the way, women are not allowed to play, so some of us will be in the kitchen making crumpets. Sarcasm also prohibited.

The players: Tere, Andy, Andy, Roxy, Az, Nat, Ash and Kab

The discussion:

Port 1: notes of blackberry and honey. "Do you think it's Hungarian or Romanian blackberry?" Sweet but not cloying. "I could drink more of this."

Port 2: More alcohol than 1, tastes like sherry, it kind of burns. Cough medicine with an aftertaste of raisins. Suitable for a cold, snowy night. (Color hinted that it was a tawny port. Was it? Scroll down for the dramatic unveiling.)

Port 3: milder, juicier, overtly blueberry, not as viscous as previous two, and no bouquet. Effect: slightly alc-y blueberry juice. Gateway drug?

Port 4: less nose than 1 but taste makes a similar statement. Complex, subtle and drinkable. Flavors? "I hate to say this, but prunes."

The votes: Port 1 was hands down the favorite, followed by 4.

The unveiling:

Port 1: Evenus Zinfandel Port, Candlewood Cellars, Paso Robles, 2006. $11 for 375 ml.Ripe, jammy aromas of cherry and blackberry with spicy note sof anise, sage, pepper and cinnamon. Complex and fruity, this full-bodied wine offers intense mocha and nutty flavors that flow into a lengthy, balanced finish. (More, from a 3rd party website.)

Port 2: Ficklin Vineyards Tawny Port, aged 10 years. Madera, California. $29 for 750 ml.This Tawny Port exhibits the softness and maturity developed only from aging in hand-selected small oak casks for 10 years. Each step of this hand-crafted wine has been personally supervised by winemaker Peter Ficklin, from the harvest of the grapes, to the final bottling. More here.

Port 3: Graham's "Six Grapes" Reserve Porto. No year. $22 for 750 ml.Six Grapes is bottled relatively young to conserve its fresh, assertive style and is not subjected to fining or filtration to ensure that it retains its superb, delicious fruit concentration. However, Six Grapes is released for immediate enjoyment and does not require decanting. More here.

Wine 4: Smith Woodhouse. Late Bottle Vintage Porto. 1995. $31 for 750 ml.
After 4 years in the cask, the wines are bottled unfiltered and cellared for an additional 4 years. It is the all-important bottle-maturation which allows the wine to develop outstanding style and complexity, resulting in a deep garnet Port with rich mouth-filling flavours of ripe fruit, balanced by notes of black chocolate and peppery tannins. More here.

Nibbles:

Goat cheese brie, which the group seemed to like with the ports, and a parmiggiano reggiano which we munched out more out of obligation than anything else.
 
On the sweet side: chocolate covered cranberries, and two bars by Chocolove: orange peel in dark chocolate and cherries and almonds in dark chocolate (this blogger's favorite. Yum!).


The conclusion: Thanks to Natalie, Kabir and our smartphones, we learned the difference between port and porto and the history of port, and thanks to the variety that was brought in, we discovered some differences between younger and older ports, and tawny versus ruby. How do you say "Word!" in Portuguese?


The pictures:

An hour or so into it, the iphones came out. Why, you ask? Because we wanted to find out where port comes from. Right. That's it.

January: Viva Espana!

The assignment: Lucha Libre: Rioja versus Priorat -- bring in one or the other, and let's watch them duke it out.

The players: Fifi, Fufu, Fufi, Fifu, Bibi, Bubi, Bibu, Bubu and Hadley

The discussion:

Wine 1: bitter, metallic, fruit up front, thick legs, "grapey," "I think drinkable is a good word" "it has a bitter finish, but it doesn't have a past"

Wine 2: complexity, body, smooth, juicy, lemony, citrucy, tobacco, leather, "grapey again," "is zingy a word?" "it is now" "the more you drink it gets deeper and deeper

Wine 3: beh, corked, "not getting rave reviews," "almost like rust," "jurassic" "jurassic? sheesh!"

Wine 4: "really good," chocolate and coffee, "I felt the smell was promising but the finish was lacking," jammy, dry, "creamy, oddly" "that's the one I brought"

Wine 5: acidic, pucker, plum, black cherry

The votes: I lost the paper!! But I think we were split between 4 and 5. Right?

The unveiling:

Wine 1: Vina Zaco, Tempranillo, 2006. $12.

Wine 2: Abrazo del Toro, 2008. $4 at Trader Joe's.

Wine 3: Vina Zaco, Tempranillo, 2006. $12.

Wine 4: Venta Mazarron, Tempranillo, 2006. $15.

Wine 5: Hacienda Don Ramon, Tempranillo, 2006. $12.

(Also, since we polished off all 5 bottles, reinforcements were necessary The bottle I opened was a 2005 Campo Viejo, a $10 Rioja.)

The cheeses:

Since you asked, Don Juan, is basque shepherd's cows milk cheese from Trader Joe's (the softer one), and the other is an a sheep's milk cheese produced in Menorca, bought at Costco (the harder one).

The conclusion: We sure love Rioja. Didn't leave a drop. Now gotta discover what in the world a Priorat is!

The pictures:

Waiting for the punchline.

Don't let them fool you.

"I brought that wine" "No, I did!"

Awful camera? Or simply the way the partay looks to a drunk photographer? I report, you decide.

December: Guess the Chianti

[No silhouette targets were harmed in the shooting of this photograph.]

The assignment: Guess the Chianti: Everyone brings an Italian wine (not a Chianti), and I will supply the Chianti. -- idea snagged from a fun tasting I went to a few months ago.

The players: E, E, J, A, R

The discussion:

Wine1: "sophisticated" "more floral bouquet" "there's a lot to take in when you're breathing in the wine"

Wine 2: "tight, light, bright" "lemon peel" "citrusy" "could you think of yourself having pizza with this wine? I can." "A nice thin crust"

Wine 3: "more pinot noiry" "I think it's piemonese" "is it sweet or fruity" "it's sweet" "it's fruity"

Wine 4: "does this wine smell fishy to anyone?" "maybe it's just the octopus talk." "i'm looking for the ocean" "it just is salty to me" "hard to decipher"

The votes:

Almost everyone voted that Wine 2 was the Chianti. A decided to go with Wine 1, for good measure.


The unveiling:

Wine1: Peppoli Chianti Classico (Antinori) 2006. Toscana. 13% alc. vol.

Delivers ripe blackberry and raspberry, with pronounced floral and mineral notes. Almost meaty in character. Medium- to full-bodied, with a silky texture and lots of flavor. Finishes long, with an almost exotic twist in the end. Lots to enjoy. Drink now. 50,000 cases made. More.

Wine 2: Matteo Correggia Roero 2007. Piemonte. 14.5 % alc. vol.

Aroma: Fresh berries balanced with the oak of ageing, plus vanilla and roasted scents with touches of strawberry and cherry jams. Slightly reminiscent of rosemary, watermelon, pear and raspberry. Taste: Smooth and elegant flavor of very sweet tannins reminding raspberry jam. A fruity aftertaste mixed with touches of smoked oak. Very balanced and persistent in the mouth. More.

Wine 3: Michele Chiarlo Barbera D'Asti. 2006. Piemonte. 13% alc. vol.

On the nose it shows itself to be rich in ripe fruit and possesses a marked elegance; on the palate it is pleasantly easy to drink, harmonious and tasty. The aforementioned features make it a modern wine, highly successful and suitable for serving with the widest range of dishes. More.

Wine 4: Sesti Rosso di Montalcino 2007. Toscana. 13.5% alc. vol.

Beautifully juicy, plump and sweet fruit on the nose, suggestions of wild strawberries, menthol, and curiously, leather bottles. The palate is rich and extremely succulent, generous yet spiced, playful and somehow grown up. Good complexity here, finish of fresh roasted coffee beans, the inside suede of a well worn tobacco pouch, clove, sweet raspberry, redcurrant, black plum, sweet earth and ground mocha. More. (This is about the 2005 and from a blog, not Sesti's site; I couldn't find the homepage.)

Verdict:

Siamo scemi (we suck)! At identifying Chiantis, that is. If anyone is up for a makeup test, let me know. ;)


Note from the pre-party: Campo Viejo Reserva Rioja 2004 and Lafite Medoc Reserve Speciale 2005 (drunk with dinner, unblind, in case you were wondering).

The Pictures: 

Wine 2? 3? Losing count!

Peppole: the Chianti that wasn't, according to 4 out of 5 people polled. (Standard deviation 4. )
 

"I see hezbollah debriefings in your past and a teddy bear in your future..."

Dopo.

Next: Lucha Libre: Rioja versus Priorat -- bring in one or the other, and let's watch them duke it out. Non-experimental tapas will be provided. Viva Espana!

November: Argentina

The assignment: Argentina. Because of its Tango, because of its midnight dinners, and because of its delicious Malbec. Bring in your favorite, or something new.

The players: Pseudonym, Pseudonyma, Pseudorino, Sudonim, Pseudonetta, Psdudeonym, Psew Do Nymh.

The discussion:

Wine1: "sweet" "not sweet" "Tastes like old leather" "I'd go with leather"

Wine 2: "lighter than 1" "tangy" "citrusy" "this will keep mosquitos away" "a touch of chocolate" "it makes my face feel warm -- I think this could make me buzzed. Understated"

Wine 3: "I like how this smells. Mmm, good!" "I could get drunk on this" "Most complex" "a lot of fruit, but more dry" "you could soak pickles in this" "it's making my eyes water" "i see three phalluses" "hmmm" "you have to write that down"

Wine 4: "a berry nose" "very vinegary" "if I were in the desert I'd drink it" "there's nothing to it" "moldy  blanket" "the kind you had when you were a kid" "it makes me want to see a hairy french man topless" [note: almost two weeks later it's actually innocuous; i've just poured a glass using an aerator and i totally forget that i didn't like it before. for insipid table wine, this totally works! just fyi...]

Wine 5: "winner" "it changes" "higher alcohol content" [comments devolve into satisfied slurps]

The votes: 3 was the hands down favorite. 5 was second. 1 and 2 were tied. 4 was universally reviled.

The unveiling:

Wine1: Finca Lalande, Malbec 2007. Mendoza. 14% alc. vol.

Biodynamical produced fruit sets the standard in this wonderful project from the Lalande family known for producing great wines in Bordeaux. It seems a lot of big names are setting up shop in Argentina and for good reasons; the fruit is fabulous. This wine proves that statement one more time. Berrylicious, bold and spicy all at the same time; this one will be a hot seller. Get it before it's gone. ~Marc Hinton More.

Wine 2: Bodega Septima Malbec 2006. Mendoza. 14 % alc. vol.

Aroma: Fresh berries balanced with the oak of ageing, plus vanilla and roasted scents with touches of strawberry and cherry jams. Slightly reminiscent of rosemary, watermelon, pear and raspberry. Taste: Smooth and elegant flavor of very sweet tannins reminding raspberry jam. A fruity aftertaste mixed with touches of smoked oak. Very balanced and persistent in the mouth. More.

Wine 3: Diseno Malbec 2007. Mendoza. 13.5% alc. vol.

Aromas of blackberry, black tea, and flowers. Bright fruit in the center, with nice acidity. Like the lift of this wine, and its deeper black tea, tobacco, and violet notes. Really nicely made for the price (ca. $13) More.

Wine 4: Tierra Brisa Cabernet Sauvignon 2008. Mendoza. 13% alc. vol.

I found nothing online about this wine from the "Tierra Brisa" people -- apparently it's made by the same conglomerate that produces La Boca and more. For whatever that's worth.

Wine 5: Bodega Norton Malbec 2006. Mendoza. 14% alc. vol.

Deep red colour with purple hints. Expressive on the nose, ripe black fruits, violets, spices and tobacco. Persistent finish. More.

The Pictures:

[To be posted once Psdudeonym uploads them.]

Next: Guess the Chianti: Everyone brings an Italian wine (not Chianti), and I will supply the Chianti. -- idea snagged from a fun tasting I went to a few months ago.

October: Pinot Noirs

The assignment: Pinot Noirs from around the world, between $15 and $30.

The players: Alberto the non-Antonio, Radhika the radical, Julieta the jubilant, Teresa the terrific, Andrei the ambidexter, and Roxana the resolute.

The discussion:

Wine 1: sweet, juicy, fruity, young, very pleasant and drinkable, growing more acidic after cheese consumption.

Wine 2: "a walk in the forest," "Disney movies, birds chirping," oaky, simpler and mellower than Wine 1.

Wine 3: complex, heavy, intense, moderately tannic, small bouquet, maintaining vigor even after eating cheeses, hints of plum. "This is for beef."

Wine 4: round, lush, full bodied, fragrant, "not sweet but strong," possible afterthought of oak, most alcoholic of the bunch.

The votes: The group was split between 1 and 4.

The unveiling:

Wine 1: Domaine Alfred 2006 Pinot Noir from Edna Valley, California. 14.5 % alc. vol.

Toasted brioche and Chamisal spice notes waft from the glass to complement the strawberries with cream, mandarin, and black cherry fruit flavors of our Estate Pinot. Dense, mouth-filling and well-structured, this youthful wine finishes cleanly framed by refined oak and grape tannins, and promises to age gracefully. (more)

Wine 2: Red Bicyclette 2007 from Languedoc-Roussillon, France. 13.5% alc. vol.

The 2007 Red Bicyclette® Pinot Noir showcases dark fruit aromas and flavors of black cherry and ripe plum. The light oak influence produces subtle notes of cinnamon for a soft, yet full middle palate and a smooth, luxurious texture. (more)

Wine 3: Louis Jadot 2006, Burgundy, France. 12.5% alc. vol.

It offers a colour of medium intensity, purplish in its youth changing to ruby and then garnet, after several years in bottle. It is harmonious and balanced, with a plump fruitiness and silky texture offset by round, gentle tannins in a wine of medium body and elegant structure. The very typical, fragrant varietal bouquet is complemented by a deliciously lingering finish. (more)

Wine 4: Estancia 2008, Monterey, California. 13.5% alc. vol.

A classically styled Pinot Noir, adopting the Burgundian philosophy of handling the fruit as delicately as possible. The result is a wine which is lusciously fruity with ripe cherries layered with sweet oak, dried flowers, leather, and spice. (more)

The pictures: