Last night I was invited to a friends for dinner and blind tasting with his wine group consisting of mainly doctors and lawyers whom on introduction were proud that they had been meetting for 30-35 yrs. I thought that I was maybe a little out of my element not usually fond of blind tasting.
We started with a 2005 German Reisling Kabinet ??? that was paired with grilled lamb chops with a very mild curry sauce which paired nicely but I wonder if it through our tastebuds off for the post dinner tasting.
We were told two countries and served up 6 blind youthful looking reds. Most of the guys had their own tasting glasses and I was provided a set from my friend. Two of the glasses smelled so putrid that I thought the wines were off but when smelled my friends glasses it was obvious the off putting odours were from dirty glassware...big problem. New glasses brought a new light on the tasting. Wine 5 was corked in many of our minds and there is no doubt in mine it was badly corked however 3 of the 8 around the table strongly disagreed. Eventually once the wine was revealled and I've had several bottles I was certain that the wine was corked.
Wines had all been decanted 2 hours prior and all were inky purple with no visual signs of age. Asked how old...I said young and not older than 10yrs. Youngest was 8 and oldest 11yrs.
Wines all showed well on the nose with several showing candied cherries and plummy notes that I thought was merlot based.
Each wine showed hard mouth puckering tannins which made me think more youthful wines and through me off where these were from. Reminded me of Madiran and the Tannat grape??? Definitely old world in my mind but couldn't believe many were thinking Australian,Californian,Chilean...I couldn't believe what I was hearing...these guys prided themselves as knowledgable wine lovers...boy were they wrong. They weren't even close.
Once cheese course came in these wines all transformed noticeably. The tannins softened and the mouth became much more rounded. I'm convinced the curry had tainted our tastebuds big time and universally evryone noticed a tremendous change.
As it turned out I was surprised with the reveal with 3 St Emillion and 3 Spanish wines. At least I got the countries and the right bank wines correct the closest of anyone. I must say that there was not one wine that I truly enjoyed and sure still if it was the wine or what we ate before the tasting.
2005 Bellefont Bercier. Fearce tannins and certainly nowhere near ready. Merlot forward with tannins overpowering fruit. Never had this chateau and based on this not one that I'll look for.
2005 Clos des Jacobins. Again tannins on overdive but wine corked so can't really assess.
2008 Troplong Mondot Tannin driven at this point but ample dark plummy fruit with modern styl that doesn't ring Bordeaux for me. Not my style and I'm not sure Jim could even cut through this one.
2004 Alion. One that I thought should show much better with softer tannins by now. Well crafted but way too young.
2005 Aalto Ribero wine that was inky black,modern styled and big mouthfeel but again tannins dominated and gave little pleasure.
Can't remember wine 8.
Lessons from this:
1. Blind tastings tend to be a disaster and embarrassing.
2. Food served around the tasting can hugely and negatively impact good intentions.
3. Dirty glassware can ruin a good bottle.
4. Corked wines are a plague. Until the individual producers are hit with the cost there is little incentive for them to change. This problem is not getting better and what a huge disappointment when you've invested time and $$ only to pop a corked bottle. These should come with a money back gaurantee!!
5. It doesn't matter how much experience you think you have blind tasting are humbling and picks out the knowledgeable from the blowhards!!
An interesting lesson in humility!!
