What type of wine tasting participant are you?  Do you grab something you’ve never had before on your way to the tasting OR are you anal-retentive like us an perform your own week-long tasting competition just amongst yourselves to pick the “perfect” bottle for the party?  Sure, there’s often some praise or prize for the “winning” wine of the night, but that’s not what we’re generally after.  Hell, I can’t even remember the last time our wine scored the highest, if at all.  But, that’s ok because everyone’s tastes are different and part of the fun is seeing how everyone reacts to the wine and how the wine performs when tasted next to other wines instead of by itself when you last had it and thought it was the bomb.  Ok, it’s also fun to see who’s stumblin’, ramblin’ drunk at the end of the night too.  Just 2 ounce pours people!!

The theme for January’s event was Washington Reds, encouraged by the fact we will be visiting Washington wine country this summer.  Using Paul Gregutt’s essential guide to Washington Wines & Wineries we set about with a list of WA producers and tried to find what we could here in Atlanta.  We were able to find several!  These are the results in order of best to least favorite:

2004 Buty Merlot/Cabernet Franc – This was our winner to take to the tasting.  It was very fruit-forward, with aromas of chocolate and coffee beans.  Abundant black fruit, vanilla and hint of spice on the palate.  We thought this would rock some worlds at the tasting, especially since we knew many of our friends are big red lovers.  Stay tuned to find out the reaction…

2004 Januik Cabernet Sauvignon - Herbs, black fruit and hint of eucalyptus on the nose. Blackberries, raspberries on the palate w/ great velvety mouthfeel. Great find.

2005 Chateau Ste. Michelle Col Solare “Shining Hill” - Recommend decanting. Chocolates, cassis and raspberries on the nose. Black fruit and spice on the palate with a long finish. Very tasty and blossomed throughout the evening.

2007 Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay Indian Wells - OK!  This is NOT a red, obviously, but during the week we wanted to mix it up a bit and we’re glad we did – Great Chardonnay. Vanilla, apples and slight toast on the nose. Very well balanced with apples and citrus on the palate and a good finish.

2005 L’Ecole No. 41 Merlot Columbia Valley - Nose of hints of coffee and black fruit. Blackerry on the palate and good mouthfeel. Very fruity.

2006 Woodward Canyon Merlot - Coffee bean and vanilla on the nose. Cherries and blackberries on the palate and medium spice.

2004 Januik Merlot Columbia Valley - Funk, prune and hint of chocolate on the nose. Hard time getting this wine to open up. Good mouthfeel and black fruit on the palate with medium finish. Not that exciting.  However, we didn’t finish the bottle this night and the 2nd night brought more distinct aromas of coffee and chocolate.

2006 Columbia Crest Merlot H3 - Very funky, wet and mushrooms on the nose at first but eventually blew off to smokyand slight black fruit but not much else. Blackberries and blueberries on an otherwise uneventful palate.

2006 Barnard Griffin Merlot - Tight nose somewhat smoky.

 Next, I’ll talk about how the tasting went down and what else was brough to the party.

Cheers!

It’s that time again for a Winter wine tasting to warm the soul featuring none other than good ‘ol California Cabernet Sauvignon.  We brought together some close friends for a blind tasting of some inexpensive (< $15) vs. expensive (> $30) Cabs to see a) if we could tell the difference and b) if expensive wine tasted better than the cheap stuff.  A veritable 2-for-1 especiale!

We called it the “Thralls Throwdown” and challenged our pals to bring it on and try to fool every one’s senses while enjoying the variety and region that got most of us into really enjoying wine in the first place.  Here were the contenders:

Underdogs <= $15                           

2006 Avalon Napa Valley  ($15)

2006 Bonterra Mendocino County  ($15)

2005 Chateau St. Michelle Indian Wells  ($12)

Heavyweights     >= $30

2004 Joseph Phelps  ($42)

2004 Seavey Napa Valley  ($90)

2005 Amizetta “Complexity”  ($35)

Over the next few posts, I will tell you how the tasting went down.  How many of us correctly chose which were inexpensive or expensive, who won and who was toasted by the end of the night (that’s an easy one).

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