The blog is my confessional. Monday night's wine tasting theme here at Stimmel's Market offered another chance to taste seven red wines blind, and be graded accordingly, and I was on the other side of the bar, for the first time, to give it a shot myself. I joked earlier in the day that this was my chance to be in the "dunk tank", and believe me, I was soaked by the end of the night. While I'd like to argue that the lever on the dunk tank was faulty, or offer some other vapid excuse for my failure, I was simply another victim of the dizzying world of wine.
I wound up only getting 3 out of 7 correct, and while I take solace from the fact that my answers (and final score) were identical to Lance's (whose palate I greatly respect), I was blinded by my own confidence. Rich, dark, brooding red with a blast of green bell pepper on the nose - must be the Argentinian Malbec, right? Try Bordeaux. Medium-bodied red with good acidity - has to be the Rioja. Nope, try California Cabernet. Chewy tannins and a touch of leather and medium-bodied - it's gotta be the Bordeaux. Wrong again, it's the Rioja. The lesson I learned is this: certain types of wines from certain wine growing areas of the world typically possess flavors and aromas that can be expected, but they are not unilateral. "Typicity" is merely a guideline when tasting many wines.
On the other hand, I did get a perfect score of 7 out of 7 on the beer side, so I've got that going for me.
Cheers!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
After that blind tasting I felt like a kid that just got a bad grade at school... ZERO!!
I try to think of the good side of it: at the next blind tasting it can only get better!
Don't feel bad; that lineup was so challenging that any of us could've got zero. It was definitely humbling for us all!
We wuz robbed!
Post a Comment