I held my first ever Blind Wine Tasting. A blast, I will do this again and often.
Huge success, very surprising results - its great to go blind on the tasting as the "emotional" aspect of knowing the wine from the bottle, the label, where you were when you bought it, the price etc are all removed and your forced to experience the wine from your senses. Another really fun part of this experience is the education of the group, as everyone shares their thoughts, opinions and trys to express what they are experiencing; the diversity is fantastic.
There were 10 tasters rating 7 total wines in 5 categories. Each category (Appearance, Aroma, Body, Taste and Finish) had a score from 1 to 5, with a max score for a single wine at 25 with the top score of 250.
We stayed with the "Red" theme although I deviated from an "all one varietals style" - not a traditional tasting format, but we did stay with Washington, Oregon and California wines (the next tasting will be an all one varietals, as the sole Syrah in this grouping, in my opinion was short-changed by having to stand up to the weightier Cabs.
Very surprising that the 2000 Stags Leap came in last with such a huge separation in the points (it does make me wonder if the bottle was corked).
Only a point and a half (1.5) seperated the top 2 wines. Side note, only one "taster" chose to give half points, which interestingly enough, is all that seperated #4 and #5.
The 7 wines in order of picking were:
Also noted is the price I paid for the bottle (remember some of these were purchased between 3-4 years ago.
#1 - 1998 Columbia Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Otis Vineyard "Signature Series" (174.5 pts Washington - $19.00)
Ripe, rich, gamy and earthy, supple in texture and complex in flavor, offering coffee- and tobacco-scented cherry and plum flavors, finishing ripe, fleshy and mature. WS 90pts
#2 - 2000 Guilliams Winery Cabernet Sauvignon (173 pts Napa $35.00)
#3 - 1995 Canoe Ridge Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon (172 pts Washington $50.00)
#4 - 2001 Argyle Winery Reserve Merlot (163.5 pts Oregon $30.00)
#5 - 1999 Andrew Will Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Seven Hills (163 pts Washington $50.00)
#6 - 1999 Rocca Family Vineyards Yountville Syrah (144.5 pts Napa $42.95)
#7 - 2000 Stags Leap Winery Napa Valley Merlot (117 pts Napa $45.00)
The food for the tasting portion of the evening was outstanding, as we had an assortment of cheese (over 7 types), French bread, crackers, 3 types of spreads (the olive tapenade was excellent), grapes, pears, green apples, strawberries, olives and chocolate truffles.
Once the tasting portion of the evening had concluded and we did the "reveal", we fired up the BBQ and started cooking as I opened 11 more bottles of wine (I listed below). Highlights of the food were Pete's chicken skewers with peanut sauce, Nabil did a Jerk chicken, that he grilled as well as pork tenderloin. We also had chicken and steak kabobs with roasted large elephant garlic cloves.
Additional bottles of wine were (the top 3 favorites from this evening are listed in order):
2002 RL Buller & Son Beverford Victoria Cabernet Sauvignon (NR WS pts Australia)
>> Delicious berry fruit flavors, good palate weight. Velvety mouth feel dries noticeably as tannins become evident. Richness on the finish, which is dry, with fruit flavors lingering
2002 Spring Valley Vineyards Uriah (91 WS pts Washington)
>>Gloriously ripe, decadent and complex, offering coffee-scented blackberry, currant, cherry and exotic spice aromas and flavors that extend and expand on the subtle, elegant finish. A graceful wine that packs in plenty of flavor and lasts and lasts. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot
2000 S. Anderson Claret Stags Leap District (Napa)
2001 Bennett Cellars Knights Valley Merlot (Napa)
2003 Tamarisk Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa)
2001 Mission Hill Family Estate Reserve Merlot (Okanagan Valley BC)
1999 Folie a Deux Eschen Vineyard Old Vine Zinfandel (Napa)
2002 Ponzi Tavola Pinot Noir (Willamette Valley, OR)
1999 BV Reserve Tapestry Red Wine (Napa)
2000 Weisinger’s of Ashland Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (Rogue Valley, OR)
1999 Anna Maria Meritage (Rogue Valley, OR)
The evening started at 3:30PM, tasting started at 4PM. Dancing began around 10PM and kept going...
Wine is great!