The last time we blind tasted Gigondas and Vacqueyras was mid-pandemic (October 2020), where social distancing rules prevented us from having our full complement of six tasters. While we were happy with the results the last time, we were eager to explore these wines again with a full table of tasters. At the surprise reveal, we […]
Gigondas and Vacqueyras #3 Read More »
We’ve compared bottles from Saint Emilion before (most recently in March 2020), but this time we decided to open it up and include any wine from Bordeaux’s right bank. While four people ended up bringing a Saint Emilion, a Fronsac and a Pomerol were also included. Having some bottle age was somewhat of an advantage
Right Bank Bordeaux Battle Read More »
May was supposed to be the month of the Domestic Rosé Battle, comparing dry, non-sparkling rosés produced anywhere in the United States. But through some manner of miscommunication or mix-up, Ali & Andy brought two French examples to the table, perhaps out of reflex action. So we marched our blind tasting palates forward and without hesitation,
The Domestic Rosé Battle That Wasn’t Read More »
The February tasting marked the 20th year that we have been hosting these blind tastings. It took a couple more months for us to settle into the current format, but February 2004 was our first stab at comparing multiple bottles for quality without knowing what was behind the brown bag. Since this was an occasion to
Châteauneuf Shootout #4 Read More »
We have held many blind tastings where almost all the bottles are outstanding, making the results difficult to rank, but this one clearly stood out as being full of delicious, vibrant, and refined wines. None were duds. There was a clear winner at the end (and a tie for third place), but all of them
Mâconnais Matchup #2 Read More »
What shocked us right out of the gate with this set of six wines was the huge variation in color. One was an intense, unapologetically light red, while another was very pale, barely a rosé, looking more like an orange wine. And shades in between were presented too, along with large variations in style and
French Rosé Battle #3 Read More »
Too many years had passed since we last compared bottles of Sancerre Blanc (the last time was in June 2015), so we gathered fresh guest tasters and six entries for an outstanding night of racy, delicious whites. While this appellation does produce small amounts of rosé and red wines, our focus here was on the more
Sancerre Showdown #3 Read More »
Ten years is much too long of an interval between blind tastings of Chablis. Our last comparison was back in September 2010, and with wine this beautiful and intense, we vowed not to wait so long again. This tasting was one of those examples that showed the deficiency of our scoring format. Our point-based ranking
Chablis Shakedown #3 Read More »
When we last sampled the wines of Gigondas & Vacqueyras in April 2014, David’s winning bottle impressed for its complexity and completeness. So what did he do? He went out and bought another of the exact same bottle, to be stuffed into the back of the cellar, only to emerge for another round of battle.
Gigondas and Vacqueyras #2 Read More »
We waited almost fifteen years to compare bottles of Saint Emilion again (the last time was in October 2005). That’s way too long of a gap, because these are outstanding wines, showing a sense of place paired with refinement and solid dark fruit flavors. Our winner turned out to be the oldest bottle of the
St. Emilion Slugfest #2 Read More »