Wine tastings - events and information

thanks to Crawlie for organizing and everyone for coming to my first tasting. And thanks to TCH for cleaning up!

and Mini-pup sends his apologies for any unpleasantness he may have displayed and hopes no one will take it personally. (ok, not really. the apologies are from me. mini-pup asks that next time everyone where shorts and no socks.)

For the record, mini-pup is fine. I could never dislike a dog. Well, not for very long anyway.

Thanks for hosting, wining, etc. Much better than the Thunderbird or Night Train stuff that I'm used to drinking.

Very much agreed with Jeeves. A sparkling tasting doesn't require as much discussion as I tried to assure Crawlie. Even I don't usually take much notes at the sparkling tastings I've lead. However a Aussie tasting...well I'd better see lots of notes or I'm going to have to crack the whip when I get back and subject you all to hours of wine tasting!

Glad everyone had a great time!

I volunteer to take the photographs again

So when's the next tasting? Australian Wines, I hear.

I'd like to invite the wine tasting Toytowners to an Aussie wine night, to be held on Friday 4th November at my place.

Ideally we have about 12 people, 12 wines and some nice nibblies - possibly aussie inspired.

For the wines, we will do a couple of whites - riesling and chardonnay
a few good reds - merlot, cab sauv, shiraz and possibly a nz pino
and to finish off with a little dessert wine.

i will probably spare you the sparkling shiraz, unless it is easily found in munich!!!

Please PM me to find out where and when, and so I know how much wine to buy.

The cost will be announced when I have the numbers.

So I guess you stocked up while you were in Aus??!!

I definitely tasted some of the new good things, and brought a couple back. will see what ends up on the table.

put me on the list please!

So, the wine cabinet is now filling up. I want to know final numbers for this Friday's aussie wine tasting by wednesday night. if you let me know by then, we will buy enough food and wine for everyone.

A PM will be going out to registered people by wednesday night.

If you decide after that to come, please pick up a nice bottle of aussie wine, and PM me to let me know you will be coming.

As a preview, we have a mix of reds and whites, and I am still hunting down a couple of elusive wines. Wines will range from cheap (but not tight arse cheap) to some quite nice and pricey drops.

My mouth is salivating just looking at them sitting there :-)

We'll be there, and we'll bring a nice warm box of sparkling-shiraz-n-coke

Excellant.
Well it appears we have about 13 people coming along, which is probably enough for our house to cope with. I should have the wines all ready by friday, and we'll try to start it at 7pm. A PM should be going out tomorrow to all those who've told me that they are coming.

For the rest of you - I will post the results of our investigations, so that you need only buy good wines :-)

Due to an unexpected extension to his business trip, and an unusual late working Friday for me, we kindly ask that no one arrives earlier than 7. And you might get put to work chopping bread or slicing apples or something if you do.

ok, i found my key to showem's flat (sigh of relief), so i will turn up a little bit earlier, at maybe 6.30 or 6.45
just in case anybody is waiting around or something, you can come and help me slice the apples

There is one spot that has opened up if anyone wants to come along. Just PM me if you want to take it up.

Yeah, and no need to turn up early - we will start about 7:30

More wine goodness International Wine Messe

Well it was a good night, and now most of the carnage has been cleaned up!

We have summarised the voting, and here are the results. There are some surprises, but the dead wine is unsurprisingly low.

The big winner was the Penfolds 389, although not so surprising, it was way more expensive than the other wines.
Peter Lehmann was quite good, and outperformed more expensive wines with its firm Shiraz flavour. It was also one of the wines from a region as opposed to the wines from several regions.
The other Penfolds also did quite well.
Wolf Blass did poorly, but one of those was corked, so should be totally disregarded.

Three wines were very close together, although they were very different in taste.

And the Australian Bush was put in its place, although was well supported by at least one taster...

Here are the raw results. If people want to elaborate on the aromas and tastes please do so.

Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 1998 87.4
Peter Lehmann Shiraz 2002 Barossa 83.9
Penfolds Bin 2 Shiraz Mourvedre 2003 69.0
Australian Domain Wines Petit Verdot 1999 65.0
Rosemount Estate Shiraz 2003 64.9
Simon Hackett 2000 Cab Sauv 64.6
Montana Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2004 57.0
The Long Flat Tyrells 2000 Chardonnay 55.6
Australian Bush Cabernet shiraz 2004 49.6
Wolf Blass Merlot 2001 43.5
---------------------------------------------------------------
Wolf Blass Presidents Selection 2001 Chardonnay 2.7

See you all at the next wine night, or probably at the International Wine Mess

Really enjoyed myself last night.. ...so thanks to you two for all the hard work...looking forward to the next one...did we say Italian wines? (Just in case the memory cells can't recall the end of evening discussion!)...

Many thanks to Greg for organising the evening and for both Showem and he for hosting such a good night.

Also thanks to upquark for his impromtu comedy set. I like to think I'm well versed in the art of self-deprecatiion, but someitimes it's good to watch a master at work.

One thing lacking from the wine selections was the true australian wine experience, - the cask of moselle (or perhaps fruity lexia). This was the staple of 80,s BBQs traditionally bought "for the ladies" along with four cartons of beer for the men.Knocks australian bush for 6 any day!

Hang on. Sadly, we all know that I'm no stranger to making an ass of myself in public but I don't recall doing anything out of the ordinary this past Friday. Aside from my inexplicable endorsement of the Australian Bush and my humble declaration that Helena intimidates me worse than a middle school vice principal, it seemed like business as usual. Did I do something horrible after Greg forced me to drink vodka (other than promptly fall asleep, that is)?

Edit: Mad props to Showem and Greg for splendid hosting. Avery nice evening.

thnx to Showem and Greg for hosting, it was great.

nothing has knocked the Lehmann Shiraz off its perch for me yet, though
the Penfold's 389 might have been marginally better, but at 3 times the price of the Lehmann wine IMHO it's not worth it

UpQuark, the fact that you don't recall anything out of the ordinary just makes it all the more funny

It was a good night, nice to try some wines that I would not normally purchase for drinking home alone infront of the TV, but for a night out or a nice dinner, yeah!
I like UpQuark thought the Aussie Bush was fine! Its drinkable, but then again, I was told my taste has not matured properly. Gold to one, shit to others!

How about for a night home alone in front of a computer?

You know you are a wine dork when you are reading about wine on the internet with 4 identically shaped glasses of wine sitting next to you of a blind tasting of 2003 Cab Sauv. you've set up for yourself. Tonight I'm tasting 4 samples of Etude Cab Sauv. (the winery I work for). 2 of the wines are our reserve wines selling at $140/bottle. 1 is our larger production Napa Cab that goes for $80/bottle and I don't know the third is but I'm about to check because I've decided my order of preference.

Well my first and second have flip flopped after they've been in the glass for an hour and I've been tasting between the 4. My last place has firmly remained there.

Now that I look at what I've been tasting I discover that they are all vineyard designates and the larger production cab is not here. Tomorrow I will ask my winemaker if they will all be bottled as individual reserve wines or if some of them will be shipped out to other wineries as they may not have made the cut to go under our label.

Oh I am envying you WG.

I am looking at the wines that we didn't get for the Aussie Wine night, and thinking about them for next time we do an aussie tasting. However I will be satisfyed with some Italian, French, and maybe we get a US wine tasting soon. I might get one sooner than others, because I will be in Boston next week (home to the well known MA wines).

Here is an interesting article about women's vs. men's ability to taste. It's long but good.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_...84/ai_103995707

The next wine tasting will be Sat. Feb 18th at my place, start time is 7pm. As with previous tastings you don't need to bring anything. Cost of the event will be split between those attending and should be around 18-20 euros. This includes wine and food (enough to make a dinner of, but finger food style, things to compliment the wines. As a super added bonus to this tasting, I have a bottle of one of the 2005 wines I made this past harvest. It is a pinot noir that I pulled from the barrel just before I came back. After sitting in barrel for 12-16 months it will be bottled and later sold for $40-80 (length of barrelling and final price will be determined by how the wine ages over the year, as we have an estate and a reserve pinot).

If anyone is interested in the winery I worked at here's the website http://www.etudewines.com/

I haven't decided on a theme for this tasting but I think it will just be a sort of Sara's favorite grapes kind of thing. As before I have some very nice tasting glasses that can be used but they are on the "you break it, you pay for it rule" which by the way has never happenned at a tasting...except for Crawlie cleaning up after one boy did he PAY for that You're also welcome to bring your own, but I recommend using mine.

PM me if you would like to attend, please DON'T post here as it clutters up the thread.

And I am still paying for it. God knows what the punishment would have been had I smashed a full bottle of wine...

Hence, the reason certain clutsy roomates are not allowed to touch, clean, or even breathe near these glasses...

Hey Winegirl: This may be sacrilege to the real vinophiles...but would you ever be willing to do a tasting with BIO/organic wines?

The numbers of BIO wine has increased dramatically in the past 2 years, and could be interesting to see the quality.

As many are from small vinyards, I would love to learn more about them

Thanks

Just a reminder that the tasting is this Sat. at 7pm. We're at 9 people right now, which is a very good size for a tasting but if they're are any late minute people who'd like to join PM me by Friday at the latest (as the amount of food and wine I buy is depended on how many are attending).

@gemini, sorry I didn't get back to you. I actually have quite a bit to write on the subject. I will be sure to write it over the next couple days. FYI I haven't got many wines for the tasting so far but one of them so far is a bio wine.

well, I was lucky enough to go to the wine-tasting on Saturday, and it was thoroughly fab - many thanks to Winegirl and Crawlie for being excellent hosts and sorry for drinking you out of house and home

I think this time the 3 whites might have been my favourites, with the Sauternes (combined with roquefort) just pinching the gold medal

I'm planning the next tasting for a week from Sat. (the March 4th). Location TBA. But for those interested keep that date marked. More details to follow later in the week. And tasting notes from the last tasting will be posted tomorrow.

Oooooh, I could join on 04th March!!! I'll keep an eye out on this thread!

top tip - this wine is reduced in Tengelmann now, it's only 1.99
It looks like they're getting rid of the last of their stock. It's not fabulous or anything, but for that price you can't go wrong, really.

I'd be interested too. How does it work? People contribute or what?

My husband and I have recently moved to Munich and would be interested in attending one of your wine tasting evening. What do we need to know apart from the date (4th March!)? Bring along wines? Contribute money? Thanks...

I used to drink this wine occasionally but about a month ago I got a bottle that had gone off. It was truly *horrible* and I haven't been able to try another bottle since. I hope the bottles on sale aren't so because they're bad.

We also had an off bottle at a wine tasting. I was showing the difference between a inexpensive and an expensive Rhone wine at the Rhone Tasting. Well the difference was made clean. The bottle was rubbing alc. Everyone dumped it.

The next tasting is March 4th at 7pm. The tasting/food fee will be 20 a person (there will be plenty of wine and food for dinner), assuming everyone who signs up shows up (otherwise I'll have to readjust for the missing person/s). The cost is only to cover my costs. I provide the glasses but if you break it you pay for it. I have to limit it to 10 people (plus Crawlie and I) because of space. PM me ASAP if you are interested as we are already half full. If you previously post to the thread that you're interested please confirm with a PM.

I will DEF post the tasting notes over the weekend.

Actually technically I think the next tasting will be Tuesday at The Arc but details to follow tomorrow.

a wine tasting at a sports bar...now that sounds interesting.

Just a reminder that the wine tasting is this Sat. There are a couple open spots still if anyone would like to join. I'm not sure about those of you who posted to the thread. If you would like to attend please PM me.

ach doh! mrs grazz and i are in oxfordcestershire for a wedding but i'd love to come to the next one if poss. sadly mrs g can't for the next 6 months minimum.

Due to illness there are now 2 open spots, if anyone wants to fill them PM me ASAP.

A wonderful evening of wines from Baden (plus a couple outlyers). Thanks for hosting, Winegirl and Crawlie. The Sautern was a great treat and the cheeses made the evening. Hope for another tasting evening soon!

I was thinking of having the next tasting Sat. (the 25th). But forgot to post it sooner. So as usually start time 7pm, 20 euros to cover food and wine. PM if you'd like to attend. Space limited to 10 spots.

Sorry, off to starkbier. Would be cool to see the tasting notes from the last two for those of us who weren't there.

I'm a dork! I can't attend that night either!

Next Wine tasting will be this Tuesday, April 25th at The Arc. Tasting will be Australian wines.

Next Tasting after that will be Thursday, April 27th. Tasting fee 20 euros, includes wine and food. Location will be my new apartment, so PM me for directions.

we're not drinking what's left of Hazza's Aussie Bush, are we?

Winegirl, your post isn't very clear I'm afraid. Is the tasting at The Arc also 20 Euros and does it also include food and wine? And the time would also be good to know.