The Blind Tasting

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.

 

3 Wines Today!

Tonight was a good evening though we didn’t really talk about the wine…  So here is my reflection…

First of all the blue vein goat’s cheese was a highlight.  Warming to blue cheese at the moment, I did enjoy this one.  Early on I did notice that it made my tongue go somewhat… numb for a better word… and people just kind of looked at me and smiled politely.  However, as the evening progressed more people did admit to also sharing the numb sensation!  It was great though.  Very crumbly and quite a different taste to a standard blue.  Good choice guys.

There were three wines on offer this evening.  I only sampled two as I had two glasses of the second bottle!

The first was quite strong – though didn’t have that yucky burning feeling that lots of red wine has.  It had strong flavours and almost a rough but not burning feeling in your mouth.  This was Darren’s favourite.

The second was my favourite.  It was really soft – almost like you had nothing in your mouth.  The smell was really really strong and I didn’t initially like it (the smell not the taste).  It smelled very strong and rich – but didn’t taste at all how it smelled.

A very profound round up of this evening’s tastes… as always … from Toni

 

12th March 2008

Scarpantoni 2005 Shiraz

Shiraz night tonight!, not really big drinkers of Shiraz, normally prefer the subtlety and smoothness of Merlot or Cab Savs.  Maybe it’s because we prefer Red’s that we can comfortably drink large quantities of without requiring any form of food to take up valuable room I don’t know.

 Anyway, we kicked off with the Scarpantoni – a McLaren Vale Shiraz, with big wraps from Henry at Primo Vino.  Henry hooked me up with a mix of Reds supposedly to last us the next few RWW’s..sorry Henry, 4 down already!.  Loved the Scarpantoni – Thick looking wine with a really nice aroma and rich flavours although not as spicy or overpowering as I was expecting (not a bad thing in my book).  It went nicely on its own and I’m sure would compliment a nice roast beef or something similar. 

Zontes Footstep 2006 Shiraz Viognier

Our second wine for the evening was a blend of Shiraz & Viognier with the majority being Shiraz and a small amount (6%) Viognier.  The addition of Viognier apparently adds to the depth of colour but also softens the finish of what are typical characteristics of bold Aussie Shiraz.  We decided to compare our straight Shiraz with this blend to see if we could spot the difference!.

Surprised to say we did – not so much a softness of typical Shiraz flavours but almost a sweetness to the finish – was this a good thing?, not so sure about that.  Preference was definitely with the Scarpantoni which surprised us all I think with how smoothly it went down.

 

5th March 2008

Farnese 2005 Sangiovese

The Official Line

“A major winemaking achievement from the south of Italy for this price, with clean, ripe berry-redcurrant fruit, leather and marzipan typical of sangiovese without any hint of acetic problems common in this area. It is almost satiny smooth and has an easy-drinking sweetness followed by a dry, sour cherry finish. Not great length but surely good enough at the price. Will grace any casual meal from pizza and pasta to wings, ribs and Mexican fare. It ranked ninth in the Top 25 Killer Values at the International Value Wine Awards. “

Penfolds Koonunga Hill 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon

The Official Line

“Premium Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from some of South Australia’s best vineyards have been selected to maintain this consistent style and quality. The wine has excellent structure and length, and while it is ready for drinking now, will gain further complexity over the next two to four years.”

 

A Meeting of Minds

A wee while ago, this man, Stu, had a party. At the party, this man, Kev, met this man, Darren, and together, they came up with ‘Red Wine Wednesdays’.

The first Red Wine Wednesday will be hosted by Darren and Toni. They will provide red wine so that all in attendance can pretend they know what they are talking about. They will also provide nibbles to go with the wine… YUM.

The idea is that every week, one couple hosts ‘Red Wine Wednesday’ and provides the wine – for the other couples to talk shit about…

They can then come to this site and summarise their findings of the wine. People can also talk about other wines that they have had lately or restaurants that they have been to.

Basically it is our eternal search to find good wine and food and have an appropriate place to talk about it!