So there was no better way for me to begin this past weekend than with 12 bottles of wine, some new friends, and good conversation. Earlier on Friday afternoon my friend, Aaron, told me to meet him at his job at 8, but moments later I suggested meeting him at his apartment because I was planning on driving in, parking is just a hassle near his job. However, a couple seconds later he advises me not to drive in…he was bringing home 12 bottles of wine to taste. Just imagine the smile on my face when I read that text message!
After meeting up with him later that evening and excited at the idea of seeing the bottles he chose for the night, I found out that I wasn’t allowed to see them. He was staging a blind tasting for a group of five. Honestly, with twelve bottles wine and only five people I thought to myself it must be some sort of social and/or behavioral experiment. So we arrive at his apartment and he locks himself in the kitchen to prepare for the tasting, taking each bottle and disguising them in a bag so as not to recognize what we’re drinking. Meanwhile, some of his friends begin to stroll in…the tasting begins, finally!
First some ground rules; everyone was given a sheet of paper and a pen to rank the wine he or she was drinking from 1-10, 1 being sewer water, 10 being liquid nirvana. However, as the evening progressed, the conversation started veering towards the flavors in the wine and their regional origins. The rankings were suddenly paired with the terms Old World (France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal) or New World (Americas, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand). I was proud to find out, at the end of the evening, that of the last 6 bottles we began playing this game, I had figured out 5 correctly.
I’m not going to go through each bottle but I will say that throughout the evening I was craving some BBQ ribs and surprisingly the one bottle we had which would have been a great match was a 2006 Merlot from Bogle Vineyards, it was a wine that was intense in fruit, and the tannin level wasn’t too high, making it great if you like your BBQ a bit on the spicy side. Another surprising fact was how everyone rated the most expensive bottle of the bunch among the lowest, but by no means was it thought to be a poor bottle of wine…the wine? 2004 Chateau Smith Haut Lafite. What was the worst bottle of the evening? Hands down it was the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon from Bald Eagle, there was no acid to pair with the ripeness of the fruit.
The concept of Friday nights tasting was brilliant. Not only was it a fantastic alternative to going out and spending an insane amount of money on a couple beers and cocktails, but it allowed for people who didn’t have a background in wine to appreciate the different flavors that are available from around the world. It’s really difficult for someone to train their palate if their only glass of wine is on Friday nights with dinner. It’s not necessary to spend $40+ dollars on one bottle of wine every week. You can divide that money among 3-4 good bottles of wine that you can sip on for the following week to ten days. Just imagine, in a month, rather than having 4 bottles you can expose your palate to 12-16 bottles. Now that’s diversifying!
