A Corked Wine - How Lucky! plus some basic QPR's

I am teaching a class at the Community College here. Last nights class was a one session Wine 101 class at the downtown branch. The audience was people who like wine and want to know a bit more about it. Most of the class regularly prefers local sweet wines, so this was a good chance to introduce them to other wines. After a bit of history and viticulture, we tasted thru six wines based on varietal. It turned out one of the wines was corked. Ordinarily that would upset me, but this was a great opportunity to demonstrate a corked wine, talk about sending wines back, and the benefits of screw tops.

• 2008 Loosen Bros. Riesling Dr. L 86 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Screw capped. Green/gold/silvery in color. The nose has lots of green apples with a slight bit of minerality. A strong streak of acidity is slightly balanced by a bit of sweetness. Light bodied. A good wine that needs some food. $12 Ohio makes it a decent, but not great value.

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• 2008 Monkey Bay Sauvignon Blanc 83 Points

  New Zealand, South Island, Marlborough

  Pale green/gold in color. The nose has some apples and also mangoes. On the palate, it has a pineapple note, especially on the finish. This is very light bodied with just a vague notion of sweetness. Not grassy, but just lacking. At $8 Ohio, there is nothing really wrong her but not exciting either.

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• 2006 Ravenswood Chardonnay Flawed

  USA, California, Sonoma County

  This was corked. How lucky can you get. I am teaching a Wine 101 course at the local community college. Our first two wines were screw capped, and I was trying to explain the benefits of screw caps. I talked about TCA, but to have everyone try the wine and see for themselves really is lucky. We had no backup for this wine, but I would rather teach a class like this about TCA than have a pristine bottle of this wine.

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• 2008 Red Truck Wines Pinot Noir 82 Points

  USA, California

  Not a bad wine for the $8 Ohio price tag. It is hard to make decent Pinot for this price and I thought this was fine enough. The nose has cherries, some cola and a bit of a forest floor quality. Clean, smooth and easy to drink. No complexity, but nice cherry notes. BTW, no one in my Wine 101 class had seen the movie Sideways.

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• 2006 Hogue Cellars Merlot Columbia Valley 84 Points

  USA, Washington, Columbia Valley

  Took a few minutes to open up. Purple/ruby in color. The nose is pleasant with cherries, raspberries and the lightest whiff of cocoa powder. On the palate, this is smooth and easy to drink. Black raspberries mostly. No tannins or complexity, but for $10 Ohio, a decent enough value.

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• 2007 Chalone Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Monterey County 87 Points

  USA, California, Central Coast, Monterey County

  This could use a bit of air. Purple in color, mostly opaque. The nose has cassis, leather and spice. On the palate, this has some tannins and a bit of complexity. Easy to drink but somewhat interesting. $12 Ohio, and for that, I thought a very good value. Maybe its the vintage, but this seems like it will be good for a few years.

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