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Napa Vs. Washington State - Blind tasting

Bobby Van's on Park, NYC

Tasted September 13, 2019 by SMHalps with 110 views

Introduction

A Friday night steakhouse dinner with 8 members of my NYC wine group. We had, 1 Napa Chardonnay, followed by two flights of blinded pairs of red wines. All the wines were opened, but not decanted, for about an hour before pouring. We knew in advance that two of the four reds were from Napa and two were from Washington state. We had the names and vintages of the four wines and the tasting notes from the Wine Advocate. Since the wines were covered in paper bags, the order of the wines was completely random.

Flight 1 - Opening wine, non blind White (1 note)

White
2014 Shafer Chardonnay Red Shoulder Ranch USA, California, Napa / Sonoma, Carneros
93 points
My last of the 2014s. Very enjoyable. I had this with my wine group, and we could all swear it underwent malolactic fermentation. But Parker's review specifically states that it didn't. If has that feel anyway, somehow. Notes of citrus and maybe some green apple.

Flight 2 - 1st blind pair (2 notes)

Two wines, chosen at random from the 4 reds.

Red
2010 Anderson's Conn Valley Vineyards Éloge USA, California, Napa Valley
93 points
Blind tasting. Very enjoyable. Long finish. It was a tough call ID'ing this as Napa, compared to the 2013 Avennia Sestina that it was randomly paired with. Having had a few bottles of this vintage less than a month ago, I'm surprised that it was so difficult to tell this from the WA state wine. My 2nd favorite of the night.
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Red
2013 Avennia Sestina USA, Washington, Columbia Valley
93 points
Drank at a blind tasting in NYC. My favorite of the night. Long finish, excellent QPR.

Flight 3 - 2nd blind pair (2 notes)

Two wines, chosen at random from the 4 reds.

Red
2008 Andrew Will Champoux Vineyard USA, Washington, Columbia Valley, Horse Heaven Hills
92 points
A blind tasting, and somehow, I don't think this wine showed as well as it has in the past (for me). Still a very tasty wine.
Red
2012 Lail Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Blueprint USA, California, Napa Valley
91 points
I may be being generous with my score here. My third bottle of this vintage. I loved the 2nd bottle, but was disappointed in the 1st bottle and especially this one, which we had blind. It just seemed to be lacking something. Structure, maybe? 6 out of 8 of us, correctly I'd this as a Napa wine.

Closing

Everyone was asked to try and identify which wines were from Napa, and which ones were from Washington State. We also took a vote on our favorite wines of the night, vote splitting was allowed. The results were: wine #1, the Anderson's Conn Valley Eloge, was the favorite with 3 votes. Half the group thought it was WA state. Wine #2, 2013 Avennia Sestina had 2 1/2 votes, and again, half the group thought it was WA state. Wine #3 was the Andrew Will Champoux, and had 1 1/2 votes for the favorite and 6 of us thought it was WA state. The 2012 Lail Bluebird, came in last with only 1 vote as a favorite (and no one felt it was a 2nd favorite either), and 6 of us ID'd it as a Napa wine.

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