RWW returned this week to the southern most corner of the Red Wine triangle for a “Blind Tasting”
The format went a little something like this…
3 Bottles of red, unknown to the consumers, served in a genuine Brown Paper Bag (Yeah , you know like the ones the Dero’s outside Stus office have).
Each of us had a score sheet with various questions, each worth a fixed number of points.
Hemisphere, Country of origin, Price Range, Vintage, Variety, Some sensory perceptions (no points for these otherwise everything would have got a five) and last but not least the official RWW-MCCWQA. Or for those not in the club: Your Most Creative and Comedic Wine Quaffer’s Assessment which was worth a totally mint 4 Points. All were encouraged to “freely make shit up, but make sure it’s funny”. No surprises that “Full and Flavorsome” scored a massive ZERO (Toni).
So on to the line-up:
The Line up in order left to Right
UNO
2003 Tegole Toscana (Italy)
We didn’t rate this one too high at all. Most thought it was a lot younger than it actually was. Half were spot on with it being Italian. Commentary varied from “a light summer drop” to a “Watery sweet rubbish but i bet I’d buy it if it had a bright yellow sale sticker on it”. No wonder the supermarket tried to pass it off as Chianti.
DUE
2007 Crawford Farm Pinot Noir (New Zealand)
Most of us thought this was a dirty old Spaniard. Kev commented that it was a “Local best seller”. Everyone picked up on the “fizzyness”. Personally I think someone went crazy with the Fanta during the bottling phase. Sarah labelled it as a “Dirty Foreigner”. Sadly in fact was an example of a cheap and chearful Pinot Noir from Godzone. Perfect for those summer BBQs for the guy that asks for his Eye Fillet to be “well done”. Alternatively, the kids in Manurewa will love this one.
TRE
2006 Casillero del Diablo Carmenere (Chile)
Well, this long lost Carmenere from Chile turned out to be my saving grace for the night. Everyone picked this as being from the southern half of the globe and 3/4 said it was definitly an Aussie. We all thought is was older than it was by a couple of years and rated it further up the chain in the dollars per bottle stakes. Some pinned it as being a Shiraz or Merlot Cab Sav. I think Sarah summed it up with “Like drining an Oak Barrel”. This is now being added to the RWW Best of the Best.
Scores
At the time of writing no bribes have been received by the author. The scores went something like this:
Stu (20 points)
Toni (14 Points)
Kev (13 Points)
Sarah (12 Points)
A fun night. Was good to mix things up a bit.
