| A Dinner Party with Shiraz November 19, 2005 Note - see update for nine stones wine, sample "A" It started out as an opportunity to have a dinner party with friends and taste wines. It ended as a very successful, fun dinner with 13 people and 7 bottles of Shiraz from Australia. Well, mostly Shiraz, more on this later. I have a selfish motive for these wine tastings: I want to learn more about wines. By drinking a variety of wines from the same region I get the chance to imprint that taste and learn nuances. So, I have selfishly been organizing wine tastings by region and/or grape. For this evening we asked our guests to bring an Australian Shiraz at less than $20. When each couple arrived at our house I took their bottle and wrapped it in newspaper and labeled it with a letter (“B”). Wines were tasted and rated according to the wine score sheet. Because I think wines are best appreciated with food (a carryover from my days in Italy) we scored the wines before eating and then while eating dinner. The menu for the evening was locally grown organic lamb, oven roasted with fresh rosemary and dried apricots. We roasted potatoes at the same time, so this was a very easy meal to prepare. Everything went into the oven; we opened the bottles, had our first tasting, took a break and served the meal, and continued the ranking. Guests brought our favorite local Artisan cheeses, salad, roast squash, and a couple of unbelievably good desserts. As people were arriving we served a glass of Nouveau Beaujolais. We were only able to find two different bottles: a Georges Duboeuf, 2005, 12% alc., $12, and a Chateau de BoisFranc, 2005, 11.5% alc. $15. The latter wine was listed as Organic. I don’t generally like Nouveau Beaujolais, but some is better than others. This year the organic wine was the clear favorite, but then, I never like Georges Duboeuf. It was a nice way to get things started. I poured the A wine and the crowd began earnestly debating the relative merits of my wine scoring sheet. How to score this wine on Sight with a 0-4 scale? This was difficult for people who don’t do this on a regular basis (none of us). I read a description of the wine style from Karen MacNeil’s book The Wine Bible, and this helped us. Aroma was easier, Flavor was was also easy and overall impression was the easiest of all. I then poured wines B through G. This really was too many wines, but we were developing a way to compare and contrast. As we tasted a new wine someone would say “I get leather” and off we went debating if we tasted leather or something else. Several wines got significantly better with food and two wines got much worse. Interestingly, these were almost all high alcohol wines at 14% and higher, and none of them had that “hot” sensation that often accompanies a lot of alcohol. Finally, we all had a great time and learned about Shiraz. One of our guests does not drink and for him we had a tasting of NA beer. It is always interesting to taste when the labels are covered up, and he found a few surprises. Most of all, we enjoyed ourselves with great friends and good wines and mouthwatering food. WINES and Notes: My Favorite, Group Second choice 14.5/20: Kangarilla Road 2003, 14%, $23. This wine was consistently good, with complex flavors and a nice lingering aftertaste. From McLaren Vale. Group Third choice, 14.5/20: Greg Norman Estates, 2003, 14.5% $??? . This was my favorite wine to start, but with food it was disappointing. Group fourth choice, 14/20: d’Arenberg The Footbolt Shiraz, 2003, 14.5%, $16. Like the Kangarilla Road above, this was an excellent wine, full of nuance, developing flavors, complex aftertaste. Group fifth choice, 11.7/20: Nine Stones 2003, 15.5%, $15. This was our one wine from the famous Barossa Valley, and it was disappointing. For me it was thin, simple, fruity and fortunately without a lingering aftertaste.Update: After a few days I finished the bottle. It was awesome!!! Complex, delicious, a nice aftertaste that stays with you. A totally different wine than during the original tasting. Although this is a screwtop wine I capped it with a leftover cork - hardly the best way to keep the wine. But it certainly didn't hurt.
At a close tie for last place were the two wines that were out of character: Clos de los Siete, 2003, 14.5%, $18. This was a blend with 20% Syrah, 20% each Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, and 40% Malbec. It is from Mendoza Argentina and didn’t represent itself well. The other wine at the bottom was a Spanish wine with no Shiraz at all, Don Ramon Red, 2002, 12.5%, $10. This wine has 75% Grenache and 25% Tempranillo and almost nobody liked it.
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