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Wine Nightly
Grape Stomper
Posts:124
 | | 11/20/2005 3:35 PM |
| CHEAP STUFF: PRE-THANKSGIVING VALUE WINE TASTING PARTY - Chicago NW Suburbs (11/12/2005)
As we gear up to have 45+ people in our home for 3 days over Thanksgiving, I need to buy about 4 cases of affordable wine to please the masses. The goal here was to find crowd pleasing grape juice that is a decent match for the food. This is not a wine geek crowd, but people of all ages eating turkey on Thurday, pasta on Friday and staying up late talking and playing cards every night. It's a great time.
In these quantities, my target price is $6 per bottle and less. So, I put together 3 basic flights with the help of Trader Joe's, sale items and the closeout section at the various Binny's in the Chicagoland area. A couple people brought bottles that were a little out of the price target zone. We had 9 adults, tons of food and appetizers, and worked our way through these over the course of the evening.
This year, I introduced the idea of drinking the wines "blind". All bottles were brown bagged by me, and then randomly labeled A, B, C etc by someone else. Then we tasted them in flights, wrote brief notes, tried to guess the grape varietal and put a simple score on it in the range from 1 to 10. They were all popped and poured without any decanting or being open for any length of time.
I'll preface my notes by saying I have an appreciation for wines at the "value" end of the market. They have a target audience and a specific purpose. Their goal is to be easily quaffed and not to offend. Scores I give probably have a few extra points in there for value, when you consider the price was between $3 and $7. You'll also notice my scores vary from the scores given that evening, because my tastes are different and I had the chance to taste them over the next few days which raised a few scores. Decanting is recommended in a few places.
Welcome wines
I had to open something while we were waiting for a couple of people to arrive. Next time, we don't need any extra wine.
Turkey dinner wines
Average Scores:
6.8 Clock Zin WOTF, WOTN
6.6 Alarba Grenache
6.6 Black Mountain Zin
6.0 Camelot Pinot
5.8 Abrazo
5.3 Black Mountain Pinot
- 2001 Clock Cellars Zinfandel - USA, California
Deep fruit , a little spice and a little structure. Very tasty. Great QPR. $4 on closeout (87 pts.)
- 2004 Bodegas y Viñedos del Jalón Calatayud Viña Alarba Old Vines Grenache - Spain, Aragón, Calatayud
Dark raspberry, balanced out with a nice level of acidity and tannin. $7 (86 pts.)
- 2003 Black Mountain Zinfandel Cramer Ridge - USA, California
Dark raspberry fruit with some dryness. Tasted like grenache. $6 at TJ's (85 pts.)
- 2003 Camelot Pinot Noir - USA, California
Nice for a cheap pinot. Good balance between the red fruits and acid, without it being too sour. $6 at TJ's (86 pts.)
- 1999 Abrazo Cariñena Reserva - Spain, Aragón, Cariñena
Raspberry, strawberry, and acid. A little too much acid from this bottle. $5 at TJ's (82 pts.)
- 2002 Black Mountain Pinot Noir Painted Ridges Black Mountain - USA, California, Sonoma County
Red fruit and spice. This was better on the second day. $6 at TJ's (84 pts.)
Italian food wines
Average Scores:
6.7 Bastardo WOTF
6.6 Cerrina Montepulciano
5.1 Toscana Sangiovese
5.0 Vitiano
5.0 D'Aquino Chianti
- 1999 Marchesi di Montecristo Nerello Del Bastardo Vino da Tavola - Italy, Piedmont, Vino da Tavola
Dark fruit, balanced acidity, with a nice finish. A very nice food wine. Especially for the price. $7 at TJ's (86 pts.)
- 2002 Villa Cerrina Montepulciano d'Abruzzo - Italy, Abruzzi, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
Soft red fruit, spice, acidity and a nice finish. $5 at TJ's (85 pts.)
- 2001 Il Valore Toscana IGT - Italy, Tuscany, Toscana IGT
Dark fruit and very dry. 100% sangiovese. This was much better the next day, so I would give it an hour in the decanter first. $6 at TJ's (85 pts.)
- 2000 Falesco Vitiano Umbria IGT - Italy, Umbria, Umbria IGT
There must be a lot of sediment in the bottom of the bottle somewhere, because this wine was not showing much dryness or tannin at all. Fruity and soft. Could be drunk with or without food, which is unusual for Vitiano. $9 from my cellar. (85 pts.)
- 2002 Gaetano D'Aquino Chianti Riserva - Italy, Tuscany, Chianti
Dry, sour, nothing special. Not nearly as good as the 01. $6 at TJ's (80 pts.)
All purpose drinking wines
Average Scores:
6.1 Columbia Crest Shiraz WOTF
6.1 Napa Creek Merlot
6.1 La Boca Cabernet
4.9 Mon Ami Gabi Meritage
4.6 Funky Llama Shiraz
4.2 Fat Bastard Shiraz
- 2002 Columbia Crest Shiraz Two Vines - USA, Washington, Columbia Valley
Purple fruit, sweet tannin and a little spice/oak on the finish. Varietally correct and easy to drink. The lone glass in the bottle two days later is just as good. $6 (87 pts.)
- 2002 Napa Creek Merlot - USA, California, Napa Valley
Dark fruit and a little tannin structure. The wine was still holding up well after several days in the fridge. $5 (86 pts.)
- 2003 Medrano Estate Cabernet Sauvignon La Boca - Argentina, Mendoza
Dry, red fruit and a reasonably long finish. Too dry to drink without food. Was better the next day. $4 at TJ's (84 pts.)
- 2001 Mon Ami Gabi - France, Bordeaux
Watery and weak on the first night. My wife drank it a few days later and said it was better, so I'll tack on a few points for that. Benefits from some air time. 45% merlot, 40% cab, 15% cab franc. A special blend for the Mon Ami Gabi restaurant chain. $4 closeout (80 pts.)
- 2003 Viña Fundacion de Mendoza Shiraz Funky Llama - Argentina, Mendoza
A little bitterness getting in the way of some soft purple fruit and tannin. A little too funky for me. A few days later, the bitterness was gone leaving a soft non-descript wine. $7 (81 pts.)
- 2003 Thierry and Guy Shiraz Vin de Pays d'Oc Fat Bastard - France, Languedoc Roussillon, Vin de Pays d'Oc
Thin and soft. My guess on varietal was merlot. Not much going on here. $11 (78 pts.)
This is our second time doing this event, and it gets more fun each year. Some people get pretty creative in their tasting notes, with the emphasis on being funny way more than being analytical. Serving the wines blind was a great idea, even for this group. Everybody was skeptical about the brown-bag process, but we all had a lot of fun with it.
One observation, people were a lot more generous handing out 10's and 1's by the end of the night than they were in the beginning. So, those scores may be a little suspect.
At this price point, you don't find a lot of varietal correctness. The wines are pretty much just fruit forward, soft and drinkable. We had a lot of wine left over, and it was all recorked and refrigerated. I was surprised that several of the wines were better the next day or after a few days. I didn't expect any wines under $6 to really benefit from any air time. That just goes to show what I know.
Posted from CellarTracker | | | |
| ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:11169
| | 11/20/2005 4:38 PM |
| | Sounds like you really did your homework. I picked up a few bargains that I hope are OK. I bought two bottles of the 2004 St. Francis Chardonnay, on sale, for $8. I have some 2004 Goldwater and Kim Crawford SB for $14 or $15. I have some more expensive reds ready to go, some CSM Syrah Reserve and a Zin or two, and some Le Cadeau. | | | |
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