We rarely end these blind tastings with a feeling of disappointment. Most often, we finish the night with a sense of excitement and satisfaction that we’ve tasted some great wines and discovered something new. But this night we generally felt underwhelmed by the entries, because they lacked energy and an element of surprise. Perhaps disappointment […]
World Of Pinot Gris #2 Read More »
These are strange, frustrating, and unpredictable times. Faced with the restrictions of a pandemic, it would have been impossible to assemble our usual tasting group in one home and not violate social distancing rules, so we were tempted by the obvious choice of cancellation. But we were also steered by the desire to connect
Quarantine Tasting Read More »
Back in December 2014, we compared six bottles of bubbly from around the world, blind tasting for quality as well as for place. This month was our opportunity to try this exercise again, with six new bottles. Like last time, the true Champagne was the winner, easily besting the competition, but after that the voting
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While we did do a worldwide comparison of different Pinot Gris appellations in August 2015, this was our first tasting of only Pinot Grigo from Italy. In summary, these were largely well-made wines that exhibited varietal character paired with lively acidity, and were easy to enjoy. They also offered value – none were more than
Pinot Grigio Battle Read More »
Another in our “world of” series, this month we each brought to the table a bottle of Chardonnay representative of the region it was grown in. We last compared these in July 2012. This was a very good showing for Chardonnay, with all bottles not only recieving points, but earning accolades for being well-made and
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What did we learn from this month’s tasting? That we’re not great at determining where in the world a Sauvignon Blanc comes from. While some of us got a few right the last time we did this, for the most part we didn’t do well this time. Andy was the champion identifier, with four out of
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Due to an unfortunate scheduling mishap, we had to skip the structured format of our regular tastings, and instead gathered for some fine wine and cheeses at Ali & Andy’s place. Regular readers of this site know that Ali & Andy spare no expense when it comes to their selection of cheeses (sourced from Formaggio
Dinner at Ali & Andy’s Read More »
As we often do in the summer, we take a month off from our regular tasting format and go over to Ali & Andy’s place for relaxation, fantastic cheeses, and sharing of wines from our cellars. Below are the notes from the bottles we opened. No points awarded. Perrier Jouet Brut Champagne Non-Vintage.
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Next up in our “world of” series was our comparison of six bottles of Pinot Gris from six different countries. The winner was a bright, fun inexpensive bottle from New Zealand, with the Oregon entry getting plenty of praise in second place, as well as also being a great value. None of the wines
World of Pinot Gris Read More »
Next up in our comparisons of wines from around the world was the noble grape Chardonnay. Often referred to as a winemaker’s grape due to its relative ease of growing, as well as its ability to be manipulated using tools such as malolactic fermentation and degrees of oak aging. While there were some negative
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