So how was it? It was excellent. The blind tasting format really seemed to work well. It levelled the playing field, threw biases out the window, and made your only judgement based on the flavours in each glass. Made it about the nuances in the wine – which is what I was seeking.
What did we find in the wine? Most showed varying signs of sulpher compound related unpleasant smells when first uncorked. Completely expected, and I tend to find it interesting how a wine’s nose can evolve from ‘gunpowder’ to ‘elegant’ in 15 minutes. Wine “A” was a light bodied red showing its age, smelling and tasting of prune and raisin. “B” was harder to nail down, but had an obvious likeability to it that seemed to improve the most as time passed. “C” was spicier, meatier, a little more tannic, and also a crowd pleaser. And “D”. Well, “D” wasn’t the most popular kid in the playground, let’s say. “D” tasted like wine gums, was described as “altered”, “unusual”, and at one point a guest removed the half finished bottle from the table. In fact, I believe there’s still some left on the table as I write this. “D” was the clear loser.
A – Beni di Batasiolo Barolo 2002 [Piedmont, Italy]B – Gerard Mugneret Nuits-Saint-Georges ‘Les Boudots’, 1er Cru, 2000 [Burgundy, France]C – Chateau de la Riviere Fronsac 2001 [Bordeaux, France]D – Cousino Macul Antiguas Reservas Merlot, 2005 [Maipo, Chile]
To be honest, I was humbled by the blind tasting. I thought “A” was the Burgundy. Wrong. Wrong country, wrong varietal. I found B and C had similar flavour profiles. One was a high-class Burgundy Pinot Noir, and the other a Bordeaux Merlot blend at half the price. Thinking “A” was the nice Burgundy, I wanted to like it more, and was disappointed. And thinking B or C was the Italian wine, I thought my France bias might be over. Wrong, and wrong. The French wines won the day.
Some interesting points.
Each taster ranked the wines prior to the ‘reveal’, and the resulting group ‘scores’ correlated exactly to the prices. The most expensive bottle was the group favorite, the cheapest bottle was the group’s loser, and the other two fell into rank by price. As a group, quality won the day, and we tasted the price, so to speak. I wasn’t sure this would happen. I thought there might be some surprises.
I asked the group to pick out the one New World wine of the four. I believe nearly everyone identified it correctly. And right or wrong, I pegged it simply as the one that was ‘too much’. ‘Too’ this or ‘too’ that. New World. It tasted manipulated, altered, strange, and simply was the odd man out of the 4 wines.
Guessing which one was the $60-70 bottle was all over the map. I thought it’d be the most subtle and aged one. Someone else thought it’d be the one with the strangest character. And a case could almost be made for each one. So although ranking identified it, our preliminary guesses were quite wrong, for the most part.
The star of the night for me? The Fronsac bordeaux. I stood up to the quality of the Burgundy, for half the price. I also felt it had a little more grip that made it a more hearty food pair with the beef brisket. So it was a highlight for both value, quality, and best food pair – for me.
Disappointment of the night – the New World merlot. I thought I’d done well to select one of the best from the tasting I’d done of 40+ wines. But that ‘best’ did not stand up to the other 3 wines. Not even close. I thought the relatively low bottle price might surprise. Nope.
And I really enjoyed the food. Sharing a meal gives a good vibe, and the wine with the beef was fantastic. We started with a true garden salad with diced egg, lardons from the last of my recent batch of bacon atop chard, sorrel, lovage, oregano, and chive. The main was a fork tender 12-hour braised beef brisket on korean chive mashed potato. The desert was a simple rhubarb compote with some mint from the garden. We also had a nice whiskey and maple syrup liqueur from Quebec to top it all off.
Overall, I had a great time.
One Comment on ““4 Wines and a Plate””
When do I get my invite to one of these functions?