Birthday Sangiovese

As I've said, we've watched al lot of WINEKING. Peter Koff's love of Sangiovese inspired me to plan a Sangiovese tasting. I figured if I could use his company, Great Wine 2 U, even better. A lot of the choices were unavailable, but I found my way to a selection if 4.

I was concerned about the age of two of them. I contacted the company with this concern. Peter responded, saying he had tried one of them recently and it was "lovely." He said he hadn't tried the other recently, but would. He responded later that he was trying the other and it was "delicious!"

Despite the assurances, I was still concerned. A couple of days before the tasting, the latest WINEKING tasted some Sangiovese. I decided to add one last minute, if I could get it to everyone involved.

The front tree always looks beautiful my birthday weekend.

It was yet another celebration via remote tasting, but there's light at the end of the tunnel, and I look forward to in person, vaccinated gatherings.

In an effort to reduce the cost of the tasting, 4 of us split bottles the day of the tasting. I was worried about some of the corks being problems, since they were over ten years old. I used an AH-so wine opener and didn't have any problems.

We used these great half bottles I found on Amazon, inspired by Jose's suggestions.

When Jose picked up his bottles, he dropped off a box of Alfajores Lili had made for me for my birthday. What a wonderfully delicious surprise!

We all joined up at 6 to taste and enjoy each other's company.

Results

E - 2017 Volpaia Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG, came in first place with an average of 3.59. It cost $30.50 from TotalWine.

C - 2013 La Fornace Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOC, came in second place with an average of 2.66. It cost $76 from Great Wine 2 U.

A - 2003 Cupano Brunello di Montalcino DOCG, came in third place with an average of 2.50. It cost $92 from Great Wine 2 U.

B - 2012 Stellekaya Hercules Stellenbosch South Africa, came in fourth place with an average of 2.20. It cost $27.50 from Great Wine 2 U.

D - 2005 Lombardo Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG Italy, came in last place with an average of 1.45. It cost $70 from Great Wine 2 U.

Overall I did not enjoy the wine. I was surprised at how much taste A had, given its age. In the end, everyone reminded me that it's more about the social interactions, which was close to a 5. Many expressed an interest adventuring out into different varietals. Overall it was a great time and I discovered that Alfajores pair wonderfully with a number of the Sangiovese we tasted!

Intimate Remote Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Tasting

As I mentioned before, we've watched a lot of WINEKING lately. One of the episodes involved a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc. I had never heard of this. Given my recent love of whites, I set about gathering a tasting. I could only find 4 of them, 2 from TotalWine and 2 from K&L. K&L had six or so for pre-arrival, but I wasn't willing to wait. Overall, it was slim pickings.

Ted and Shannon were eager to try the varietal, unsure they had ever tried it.

We let the wine breath and warm up for 30 minutes before we joined Ted and Shannon on the zoom. The ideal temperature for tasting these wines is 64-65 degrees. They were a little cold when we started. We had a great time tasting them.

I don't usually get much on the nose of the wines, but for the third wine I was thrilled to get a strong note of warm bread.

Results

A - 2019 Domaine de Marcoux, came in first place with an average of 3.63. It cost $60 from K&L.

B - 2018 Clos St Michel, came in second place with an average of 3.44. It cost $45 from TotalWine.

C - 2019 Domaine de Beaurenard, came in third place with an average of 3.25. It cost $60 from K&L.

D - 2018 Domaine Presidente, came in last place with an average of 3.00. It cost $36 from TotalWine.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc is interesting. All the wines were well made, but I'm not certain I like the flavor profile. More research may be required.

Intimate Remote Sangiovese Tasting

The results of the 2021 SF Chronicle Wine Competition inspired me to pick up 5 different tastings. If you snooze, the wine is unavailable. Even after springing into action the day the results were published, I found an Idaho Albarino unavailable to non club members after its Double Gold win. I was also disappointed to find that Texas Heritage Vineyard was unable to ship their Best of Class Barbera my way. Sue was somewhat relieved. Needless to say, I would have added a Barbera tasting, had they been available.

We've been watching a lot of WINEKING. Peter Koff's love of less familiar varietals has inspired me to expand my blind tasting. Sangiovese was the perfect place to start. Fortunately our good friends Ted and Shannon are always willing to try, indulging my madness.

The cherry blossom tree out front always looks beautiful when Spring is in the air, and my birthday near.

We let the wines breath for an hour before we joined the zoom session. We had a great time tasting with Ted and Shannon.

Results

A - 2016 Procedo, Red Willow Vineyard, Columbia Valley, came in first place with an average of 3.83. It won Double Gold at the 2021 SF Wine Competition. It cost $76 from the winery.

C - 2017 Las Positas, Estate, Livermore Valley, came in second place with an average of 3.58. It won Double Gold at the 2021 SF Wine Competition. It cost $48 from the winery.

D - 2017 Deer Hill Vineyards, Tiffany Hills Vineyards, Lamorinda, came in third place with an average of 2.96. It won Best of Class at the 2021 SF Wine Competition. It cost $55 from the winery.

B - 2016 Idle Cellars, Speedy Creek Vineyard, Knights Valley, came in last place with an average of 2.81. It won Gold at the 2021 SF Wine Competition. It cost $60 from the winery.

Intimate Valentine's Day Remote Tasting

Silverado sent me an email at the right time, offering a Valentine's Day Tasting, a bottle of their 2016 Geo and some truffles. It sounded fun to me. I added all of their 2016 Cab offerings and decided to do a blind tasting.

February a number of our friends participate in a dry month, promoted by a friend. We mostly refer to it as Teduary. This limited our participants. I pinged Paul, knowing Jennifer loved cabs, but they were unable to attend. I promised Paul we would do something in the future. I knew Jose had a new love of cabs, and had expressed a fondness for Silverado, which is why I was on their email list. He joined us.

We split the bottles, and let them breath an hour before we zoomed. We had a great time tasting with Jose.

Results

A -2016 - See Selection, Stags Leap District, Napa Valley, came in first place with an average of 4.50. It cost $90 from the winery.

D -2016 - SOLO, Stags Leap District, Napa Valley, came in second place with an average of 4.03. It cost $125 from the winery.

C -2016 - Oakville Station, Napa Valley, came in third place with an average of 3.73. It cost $90 from the winery.

B -2016 - GEO, Coombsville, Napa Valley, came in last place with an average of 3.70. It cost $75 from the winery.

#@%!$ing Merlot

 I've been wanting to try the canonical Merlot: Duckhorn Three Palms. Articles like The Napa Legends Making Iconic Wines You Can Actually Buy and Duckhorn Vineyards And The Unusual Triumph Of Merlot In Napa Valley further convinced me. It also showed up in 15th place as the only Merlot on the 2020 Wine Spectator Top 100 List.

I reviewed a lot of "Best Merlots" lists and found my other two bottles:

• 2017 Sequoia Grove Winery, Best of Class from the 2020 SF Chronicle Wine Competition
• Trefethen Family Vineyards, Oak Knoll District, Best of Class from the 2018 SF Chronicle Wine Competition. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the 2015 and had to settle for the 2018.

We met on a Friday night over zoom. We raucously tasted the wines. Remote wine tastings can be challenging with so many people. Michel introduced us to his new friend, Linda. She was brave to join us. It was nice to see a new face. She fit right in.

Results

B - 2017 Duckhorn, Three Palms Vineyard, Napa Valley came in first place with an average of 3.62. It costs $100 from K&L, $110 directly from the winery.

C - 2017 Sequoia Grove, Napa Valley came in second place with an average of 3.60, a virtual tie. It costs $50 directly from the winery.

A - 2018 Trefethen, Oak Knoll District  came in last place with an average of 3.06. It costs $50 directly from the winery.

All the wine was good and will taste even better in a few years.

Celebrity Rosés

Ted mentioned that Cameron Diaz had some new wine that wasn't supposed to give you a hangover after a couple of glasses or bottles, it was unclear which. Soon thereafter I saw a Wine Enthusiast Facebook post titled “Rosé is for When You Want to Get a Little Fancy,” Says Post Malone. We like to get a little fancy, so I started looking for celebrity rosés to taste. I did a little research and decided to add Jon Bon Jovi's and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's rosés in the mix.

I didn't ask the usuals if they were interested, because I assumed they would not be. We asked both of our sisters and they were happy to participate.

When the bottles arrived I sent a picture of them to Ted and Carlos titled, "The tasting nobody asked for"

To my surprise, Ted thought Shannon would be interested.

Days later I was talking to Paul, telling him about this horrible tasting I had planned. He too said he was interested.

I looked up the serving temperature for rosés and found there were two options.

I chose to serve the rosés at the cooler temperature.

Months later everyone had the wine and we met on the Saturday after the election.

Sue's sister, Barb, joined us from Massachusetts. Two of her children and their significant others also joined. So many that she had to zoom in twice. My sister Kellie joined us from Nebraska with Katie and a cameo by my mother and nephew Elliot. The rest of us joined from California. It was a coast to coast rosé tasting.

We tasted the wines, laughed, enjoyed each other's company, and learned new words. We could not truly blind the wines, given the bottle's unique sizes and the remote complications. We went through them one by one and stack ranked them.

Ted joined us to socialize, but he did not partake in any of the rosés. He does not like rosés.

Results

Miraval Rose 2019 came in first. It cost $22 from wine.com.

Shannon said they served this at cincin at some point.

Maison No. 9 - A Post Malone Project Rose 2019 came in second. It also cost $22 from wine.com.

Katie said she thought this tasted like it would give you a hang over the next day.

Hampton Water Rose 2019 came in third. It cost $20 from wine.com.

Shannon said this tasted like baby aspirin. Many of us agreed.

Barb liked this the best and kept saying I knew her taste.

Avaline Rose came in last. It also cost $20 from wine.com.

This was vegan friendly and organic.

It was surprising that all of the wines were made in France.

2020 SFCWC SLH Chards Gold or Better

Every year I look at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition results and usually am inspired to a blind tasting or two. This year wasn't any different, outside of being the worst year ever. Inspired by our love of Testarossa's Rosella's Chardonnay, I found a tasting of 5 wines in Santa Lucia Highland's Chards that won a Gold medal or better.

The wines were:

• 2017 Bernardus, Sierra Mar Vineyard
• 2018 Barton, Secret Garden
• 2017 Calerrain
• 2018 Tondre, Tondre Grapefield
• 2018 Soquel Vineyards, Partners' Reserve Lone Oak Vineyard

I had never heard of Barton, or Calerrain. It's always exciting to try new wineries.

It took me a couple of months to gather up all of these wines, with some mishaps along the way. At one point I was moving the Bernardus, Sierra Mar Vineyard and realized it was red. I had mistakenly ordered the Pinot from wine.com instead of the Chard. Luckily Bernardus was kind enough to find the Chard, even when the website said it was sold out. Barton too found enough of the Secret Garden after the website listed it as sold out. Reaching out to the wineries, before using 3rd party sellers, is something I'll do in the future.

Tondre was harder to acquire than you would think. The site did not reply to my inquiry, but I was able to find a wine shop in Fresno that helped me out. It seemed a little silly that I couldn't find some place closer, and maybe I could have. As it was, Tony at Bella Vino Cellar took good care of me.

Thankfully, I had friends that were excited to try the Chards. A couple of the usuals were not interested.

I defoiled and bagged all the wines.

Kait randomized and left them in groups so no one knew what letter corresponded to what wine.

We zoomed, enjoying the company and wine.

We used a Coravin, as did the Fosters. Bob gave me one of these years ago for Christmas. I never thought I'd find a use for it, but the virus and remote wine tastings have given the gift purpose. Rebecca's Coravin was fancy compared to ours, leading to envy, planned future investigation, and possibly purchases. They had pimped their Coravin with an aerator.

Results

A - 2018 Soquel Vineyards, Partners' Reserve Lone Oak Vineyard came in first place with an average of 3.84. It costs $12.50 as a special if you buy 6, but normally costs $25 for wine club members.

D - 2017 Calerrain  came in second place with an average of 3.57. It costs $35 directly from the winery.

E - 2018 Barton, Secret Garden came in third place with an average of 3.36. It costs $40 directly from the winery. This turns out to be from Boekenoogen vineyard, which is a coincidence, since we just tried a Boekenoogen from Wrath.

C - 2018 Tondre, Tondre Grapefield came in 4th place with an average of 3.22. It costs $30.

B - 2017 Bernardus, Sierra Mar Vineyard came in last place with an average of 2.90. It costs $35, club discounted down from $50.