Since early March, I have been participating in a wine tasting group in Walla Walla that meets about every three or four weeks. Most of the group is in the wine industry in one way or another. Each time, about ten tasters show up bringing a bottle of wine for the evening's theme. The wines are tasted blind in two or three flights. Then, the top two from each flight are re-tasted together to get the overall ranking of the top wines. The results can sometimes be surprising. Here are summaries of the three tastings I have attended so far.

 

The first was an Italian Barolo tasting. Eleven wines were tasted. The top wine turned out to be a "ringer" - a 2005 La Velona Brunello di Montalcino, made from Sangiovese Grosso, not the Nebbiolo of Barolo. Curiously, two of the top three wines were the same, 2005 Barolos from Terra da Vino "Essenze," but they tasted decidedly different, which indicates that Italian wines can show bottle variation.

 

The next tasting was hosted by Lynn and myself at our home in Walla Walla. It consisted of Oddball Cabernet Sauvignons, which was defined as ones not coming from Washington, California, Bordeaux or Coonawara.  It was a wide-ranging collection from around the world, including Italy, Hungary and Arizona. The final four were, in order of preference, 2007 Concha y Toro "Terruyno" Old Pirique Vineyard, Maipo, Chile, 2005 Fraser from Idaho, 2007 Neil Ellis, Jonkershoek Valley, South Africa, and 2007 Cousino-Macul "Antiguas Reservas, Maipo, Chile.

 

Our last tasting was held on March 30th. It was Alsace Riesling. A wide range of styles were presented, ranging from clean and fruity wines to ones with heavy phenolic aromatics. The number one wine was a German "ringer," a 2008 Heymann Lowenstein Schiefersterrassen from Winningen on the lower Mosel just before the river flows into the Rhine at Koblenz. Number two was a 2005 Domaine Weinbach Schlossberg Cuvee Ste. Catherine and number three was a 2008 Zind Humbrecht Clos Hauserer. At this tasting, opinions about the wines varied considerably with some wines being ranked low as well as high, which goes to show that results can be highly variable even among expert tasters.