Been a while for our drinking crew to have a structured themed tasting that doesn’t involve copious amounts Burgundy in some form. We decided to go with a US themed tasting, admittedly what we have access to here in Australia is fairly limited so it took a few reverse expats and people with some connections and some with deep pockets to get some of the wines available. As you know in Australia we are basically back to normal in terms of Covid so meetups and get togethers are fine.
I think there were 12 of us in the end, we kept to the theme for food as well, with pulled pork sliders, chicken sliders, buffalo wings, brisket and hot dogs by the truck load and even a slice of hot cherry pie to round off proceedings. All eaten over about an 8-9 hour window from a 2pm start. With The Boss, The Bob, Van Halen, Johnny Cash, John Denver all making appearances on the boom box.
I’ll be honest in saying that I was expecting some bloated, big wines, for the most part I couldn’t have been more wrong. Some fantastic wines, covering all parts of the spectrum, leaner, lighter, heavier and darker. Apart from a couple of examples the wines were well crafted and thought provoking and led to good discussions. All wines were served single blind.
If you want any impressions, on individual wines let me know, others who were there hopefully will pipe up as well.
For me the 04 Monte was close to my favourite (I’m biased) although the 08 did have a bit more acid and refreshing lift on the back palate, the Montelena was an exercise is decadence which I really loved. In the whites I really enjoyed the Evening Land, with its pure fruit and power and the Sandhi and Ceritas Porter Bass were not far behind. Although the general consensus was the Ceritas Trout Gulch and Walter Scott. Although a lot of the voting came down to one vote either way.
The Trousseau aka Muddy Water that smells and tastes nice, was a bit of a left of field wine, which had all the Jura lovers (oh wait, that is all of us) spruiking their thoughts. It was a more modern take on the grape with a less structured, drink now style which seemed to go down well.
Of the Pinots, the Cristom and Dr Edge Eola were my standouts, but the takeaway for me was how well they were made, with elements/characteristics of various countries coming out and coming together to produce really interesting wines.
And yes we had a cheeky Chablis to finish the night as a palate cleanser.
Thanks to Winston for the pics. Here is his Insta if you want the extra comments/banter on his posts, via Stories Winston (@winesthesia) • Instagram photos and videos