All corks were popped this morning and all bottles were kept open the whole afternoon. No decanting, just slow-O.
Let me say right up front that a WB darling didn’t fair very well. Only one person of the 6 voted Ridge first, one other placed it second, three put it third, and one ranked it last. We did notice it opened up a bit if left in the glass for an hour, and a couple of us do think it has aging potential. Still, not something to brag about.
The top finisher was Chappellet with 3 first place votes and 3 second place. Next came the Adaptation with 2 first place votes, 2 second place votes, and 2 third place votes. Ridge slid in after that with a significant difference between the top 2 finishers, and the Beringer brought up the rear with only one person not ranking it last - and that person voted it next to last.
Honestly, I expected the Beringer to fall as flat on it’s face as it did. A few of our ‘judges’ have had wine tasting classes and are Bordeaux nuts so it wasn’t a stretch to see a wine like a Beringer not pass muster. It’s also not much of a surprise that the Chappellet ranked high - I just didn’t expect it to win over such a highly recommended wine by members of this forum according to this thread:
Anyway, it was quite an interesting night. We all agreed to do a 90’s theme for our next dinner. One of the women has a '97 Zin she’s dying to share.
On a semi-related note, does anyone want to swap for 3 bottles of 2012 Ridge Estate?
There has been a lot of love for the estate Cab, too, especially in the last couple months.
Anyway, IMO, it’s quite possible—frankly I’d guess probable—that the Ridge will come around to be a superior wine. But right now, on this night, it wasn’t. I’m a fan, and I can live with that.
Also, I’m not surprised that the Beringer didn’t keep pace, but it’s somewhat ironic in that it is the only one meant for early drinking.
That’s what the group is gonna find out. I’m not buying any more Beringer, but I have 3 more bottles of both Adaptation and Ridge along with plenty of Chappellet (both the Signature that we drank for the test and their higher end Pritchard Hill). In 2 or 3 years, the group will try the 3 blind again, then after a few more years pass we’ll do another blind on those 3 bottles, and finally the last blind tasting of the 3 almost a decade from now.
… yes, we’re that silly and yes, I will remember. Might even bookmark this thread.
Brought a mag of '05 to one of our wine club dinners and it didn’t make it to the end of the night.
Interesting results on the Chappellet. When I last had it in 2018, it needed much more air than it did when I had it in either 2015 or 2017. It took air after pouring through a Vinturi on night 2 to get to the point where it was as open as it was on PnP the two previous times.
Nice to see the evolution of the wines. Although I have my next few dinners already planned. think it would be a blast to do a $100 cab off and a $200 one also. I would be curious to see if our board darlings do indeed edge out their peers. The $100 version I will do in early spring.
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