| | The intent of this event was for people to bring inexpensive bottles ($15 & under) that they enjoy for everyday drinking or entertaining larger groups of non wine geeks. Preferably these would be wines that generally drink above their price point, are of consistently good quality, and are generally widely available. Some of the wines were clear hits and some swung but missed a bit. But all were considered good. White Wines - 2011 Cupcake Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc - New Zealand, South Island, Marlborough
Pale green color. Pop and pour. Drank 1+ glass over 30 minutes. Nose is pleasant with citrus, minerals, modest grapefruit. The palate is refreshingly tangy, tart lemon-lime fruits, not grassy, clean finish. Very solid QPR wine. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this. It was much more balanced and the not one dimensional stuff I so often see in NZ SB's and a great price. (88 pts.)
- 2009 Bodegas y Vinedos Shaya Rueda Old Vines - Spain, Castilla y León, Rueda
Pale gold color. Pop and pour, drank 1 glass over 30 minutes. Nose shows good minerality, but was slow to reveal more, developing green apple and white flowers. The palate is fairly round, toasted, light oak, green fruits, abundant minerals. More muted than the bottle 8 months ago, fruit seems to be fading. This is probably past prime, drink up. (88 pts.)
- 2010 Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay Vintner's Reserve - USA, California
Medium light gold color. Pop and pour, drank 1+ glass over 30 minutes. I am not ashamed to admit I really like this wine. I don't think I've had it for a couple of years now, but it seemed like a good candidate to bring to this type of event. The nose is rich with loads of butterscoth, what I would consider moderate oak (our resident oakophobe found to borderline too oaky), nuts, lemon. The palate resonates with a lush creamy mouthfeel, buttery, butterscoth, mineral, spice, oak, and a long clean finish. Some may not enjoy the big buttery style and maybe the oak, but I find this quite nicely balanced and rather stunning considering the total production of this wine (typically 2 MILLION cases!). You could do a lot worse with a chard twice the price. My and group white WOTN. (90 pts.)
- 2010 Donati Family Vineyard Chardonnay Sorelle Per Sempre - USA, California, Central Coast
Very pale gold color. Pop and pour. Drank 1 glass over 20 minutes. Unoaked chardonnay. Nose somewhat muted, mineral, citrus, spice. The palate is fairly light, acidic, tart, grapefruit, citrus, mineral. Medium finish. This was ok, but I thought it was a bit too tart and the grapefruit dominated too much. 87-88pts. (87 pts.)
Red Wines - 2010 La Crema Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Medium dark red color. Pop and pour, aerated out of bottle, drank 2 glasses over 2+ hours. This would have benefited from at least an hour decant based on a previous bottle as well as this bottle. It took a good 30 minutes for this to start to open, but then it really evolved and at 2 hours this was excellent and would have been my #2 red WOTN had the voting not concluded already.The nose shows ripe red berry fruits and black cherry, vanilla, earth. The palate initially is a bit edgy, but really softens and integrates to reveal a velvety texture, medium body, black cherry, ripe berries, oak, spices, round tannin, and a long medium plus finish. Excellent QPR pinot. 89+ to 90pts. (90 pts.)
- 2009 Mommessin Morgon Les Charmes - France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Morgon
Dark red color. Pop and pour, drank 1 glass over 30 minutes. Nice nose, showing earth, ripe cherry aromas, berries, spice. The palate was not as compelling as the last bottle of this, medium body, lacking some mid palate finesse, very tart, cherry. May benefit from some time. (87 pts.)
- 2009 Descendientes de José Palacios Bierzo Pétalos - Spain, Castilla y León, Bierzo
Dark red color. Decanted for 1 hour, drank 1 glass over 30 minutes. Nose has wet earth, pepper, herbs, asian spice, a bit musty, roses. The palate is medium bodied, pepper, raspberry, bing cherry, black cherry, tar. this was a pretty nice wine, fairly well balanced, became a little green after a while in the glass. (89 pts.)
- 2009 Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County - USA, California, Sonoma County
Very dark red color. Opened and slow "O" for 6 hours, decanted for 2.5hrs. Drank 2 glasses over 1+ hour. Even after a decent decant this was a bit slow to emerge. But when it did, it really blossomed. Nose has lovely aromas of cassis, ripe blackcherries, vanilla, chocolate. The palate is medium full bodied carrying some nice depth of black fruits, vanilla, cassis, cherry, mocha, oak, round tannins that are fairly well integrated at this stage, very well balanced, medium plus finish. This is always one of my favorite QPR cabs year in and year out. It absolutely needs significant decanting if you expect it to really show when young though. My and group red WOTN with 7 of 9 first place votes. 90+pts. (90 pts.)
- 2007 McGuigan Shiraz Viognier - Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, Langhorne Creek
Very dark red color. Drank 1+ glass over 45 minutes. Very nice nose with clear aromatics of viognier (7%), florals, funk, spice, savory, blackberry. The palate show medium full body, ripe black berry fruits, spice, oak, good balance, and rich finish. Very nice QPR at around $8. (90 pts.)
Oh No You Shouldn't Have Wines (No really, you shouldn't have...) - 2006 Lafkiotis Agionimo - Greece, Peloponnisos, Nemea
Medium red color. This was another experiment/"bonus" bottle from one of our attendees. Drank a small pour over 15 minutes. Nose is cedary, wood chips, bandaids. Palate is woody, sharp edged red fruits, tannic. This was drinkable, but not much more. (74 pts.)
Voting for WOTN was done for whites and reds separately. The white WOTN was the KJ 2010 Vintners Reserve and the 2011 Cupcake Sauv Blanc was runnerup.
The red WOTN was the 2009 Martini Sonoma Cab with 7 of the 9 first place votes. There was no clear second place red. All in all a very fun, cheap, and educational event! |
