I'm having a tasting of US wines in April with some NZ's top wine writers and critics present. Below is the tasting schedule (by the way big THANKS TO GMT IN JAPAN and HDW.).
Do you think the flights should be organised in this way. As my expirience of US wines is very limited I'm not sure if I'm organising wines in a manner with which they will clash.

Flight 1 ( Broad Varietal and Regional Selection)
Melville 2001 Chardonnay Clone 76 –Inox -Lompoc
Kistler Durrell 1999 Chardonnay- Sonoma
Small Berry Vineyard 1999 Cline Mouvedre- Sonoma
Andrew Murray vineyards 1998 Syrah –Santa Barbara
Hartford 1999 Dina’s Vineyard Zinfandel- Russian River


Flight 2
Legacy 1997 Meritage-Alexander Valley
Adelaida 1999 Meritage- Paso Robles
Justin Vineyards 1995 Isosceles-Paso Robles
Dehlinger 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon- Russian River
Joseph Swan 1985 Zinfandel –Sonoma


Flight 3 (Pinot Flight 1)
Melville 2001 Estate - Lompoc
Chalone 2000 Pinot Noir- Gavilan Mountains
Au Bon Climat 1998 Sanford and Benedict Vineyards- Santa Ynez
Valley
Broadley Vineyards 1999- Claudia’s Choice- Willamette Valley
Woodenhead 2000 Elf Prairie Vineyard- Humboldt County
Talley Vineyards 1999 Rosemary’s Vineyard


Flight 4 (Pinot Flight 2- one Oregon pinot, 5 Californians)
Domaine Serene 1999 Evenstad Reserve – Willamette Valley
Patz and Hall 1998 Pisoni Vineyard- Rutherford
J Rochioli 1998- Little Hill Vineyards- Russian River Valley
Martinelli Vineyards 1999 Reserve – Russian River Valley
William Selyem 1999 Hirsch Vineyard- Sonoma Coast
Robert Mondavi –Reserve 1999- Napa

The 99 Martinelli wine will blow your mind!

Looks like a fantastic lineup, Jeremy. I have tasted or own many of the wines in your tasting. A couple questions though...

Not really sure what is going on with the first flight. I think it would be great if you could add a few more whites (2) and move the Cline, A. Murray, and Hartford Dina's (excellent, btw) to the second flight. The other thing I would do would just be to have the Pinots earlier than the Zins/Cabs. They may seem overpowered if tasted after some of those highly extracted Meritage blends.

I wonder what that '85 Swan will be like?

Anyway, if you don't mix things up, I would suggest the flight winners would be the Kistler, Dehlinger (although if the Hartford were in the second, that would be my pick), Melville PN and the Martinelli (tremendous wine). Have fun and do let us know your thoughts.

jb

This looks like a great line-up, but do you really want to taste the bigger reds in front of the Pinots?

I agree with JB and DukeRiley regarding the order of the reds. Perhaps drop flight #2 to the end and and the Hartford Dina's into that mix? It's a big, heavily-extracted wine.

Sadly I have little choice about what wines I can organise (there are few decent US wines in NZ.) I will arrange Flight 2 to be the last Flight and move Flight 3 and 4 back a space.

Flight one is really just to try out some differant varietals and styles. I understand that the INOX chard is quite austere in comparison to the Durrel's which is more oppulant. I thought they would provide good contrast of styles. The rest were just differant wines.

Thanks.

Reasoning for Pinot being last. I presumed the CA pinots would be more masculine in style with strong acid and tannin structures. The CA cabs and Zins I presumed would be more in balance and consequently wouldn't over power the palate too badly. However if these pinots are not as powerful and a re rather more elegant in style then I will definately swap them around.

To give you an idea this will be the biggest tasting of US wines in NZ ever, so you can see that our expirience is very limited. even Bob Campbell said he will be standing at the starting blocks with regard to these wines. Jane Skillton MW who worked in the UK said she hadn't seen a line in NZ like this ever in her 20yrs here as a writer.

All in all we just don't see decent CA wines here.

You should be in for a real treat Jeremy. Enjoy!

Your analysis of the two whites is spot-on, btw.

jb

Jeremy, you better report back.

BTW, when are you gallyvanting (?) over here to the States again? It's sometime this year right? You better ask stemor for those wine hauling tips since I think you might fill up the entire airplane's cargo hold with wine!

TJ,
The US trip is in October/November. I have already organised for shipping in September to San Fran for six cases of wine (mostly NZ but a few special ones outside of NZ.).

Will report back in April about the above tasting.

Well, you better keep us posted of your itinerary Jeremy. Plus, be prepared to haul back aload of stuff, too.