C.R.O.W.N. 4 Results

Let me preface this by saying how wrong I was about pinot noir. I wrote that pinot noir "is tricky to pin down." Well, after tasting quite a few before and during the event, I think I can say that the grape is among the more identifiable varietals. There is still a wide range of flavours but I can taste that distinctive strawberry now.

And I think we all expanded our palates a bit. It was unintentionally challenging to find a decent pinot noir under the price limit of $22, but everyone passed the assignment with flying colours. Plus we got to use my new custom-made cloth wine bags for the tasting.

The results:

1) The People's Pinot Noir 2010, New Zealand $20.00

2) La Crema Pinot Noir 2010, Sonoma $21.90

3) Rock Wren Pinot Noir 2008, Prospect Winery, Okanagan $19.00

4) La Petite Paille Pinot Noir 2008, Little Straw, Okanagan $21.90  

5) Fat Bastard Pinot Noir 2009, France $16.00

The winner had five first-place votes, the runner-up four top rankings, so it was pretty close. The top four all scored well, with only the Fat Bastard not impressing (which surprised me since their Chardonnay is quite good). Compared to the others, La Crema was much more full-bodied and some even found it sweet. This was our entry and we lucked out that Superstore put it on sale the week of the tasting. The People's was more of a traditional pinot noir but a cut above and very engaging.

All of the New Zealand pinot noirs we researched were excellent by the way. The one we almost went with instead of La Crema was Yealands: like the winner Yealands really impresses up front and is great on its own. But for drinking with dinner I would go with La Crema. The Okanagan pinots were very good too.

In terms of learning something new and drinking good (cheap-ish) wine, the evening was a success.

C.R.O.W.N. 4

For the first time we will focus on a single varietal: pinot noir.

Like many people (way too many people from the point of view of the wine community), I got interested in pinot noir after watching Sideways. Miles' response when asked why he loves it so much is one of my favorite movie moments ever:

It's a hard grape to grow, as you know. Right? It's uh, it's thin-skinned, temperamental, ripens early. It's, you know, it's not a survivor like Cabernet, which can just grow anywhere and uh, thrive even when it's neglected. No, Pinot needs constant care and attention. You know? And in fact it can only grow in these really specific, little, tucked away corners of the world. And, and only the most patient and nurturing of growers can do it, really. Only somebody who really takes the time to understand Pinot's potential can then coax it into its fullest expression. Then, I mean, oh its flavors, they're just the most haunting and brilliant and thrilling and subtle and... ancient on the planet.

There is even a "Sideways Effect" which describes the masses of people who turned on to pinot noir as a result of the movie. Even though Sideways is a satire not to be taken too seriously, it did open my eyes to this grape. Although I still drink merlot, too, when I feel like it.

Pinot noir is tricky to pin down. I find it's not easily identifiable, like malbec or chardonnay. I will often buy a bottle of cabernet sauvignon or syrah that I've haven't tasted before because you have a fairly good idea of what you're going to get. But not pinot noir - each one is different. Some are very "thin" and others surprisingly robust. And to me they really are hit or miss. 

Should be fun.

C.R.O.W.N. 3

C.R.O.W.N. (Cheap Red or White Night) 3 was held September 25th. The theme this time was aeration: each bottle would be tasted with and without the benefit of our Vinturi wine aerator (which is supposed to open up red wines, very approximately the equivalent of one hour in the decanter, or one year in the bottle). The idea was to taste the difference between aerated and non-aerated wine from the same bottle.

How we did it: just before we started, I aerated half of each bottle into another clean bottle, and marked both the original and aerated bottles with the same number on a piece of masking tape. Then all ten bottles were bagged, shuffled randomly, and then given a letter A through J. So we had no way of knowing what we were tasting, whether or not they were aerated, or which wines were the same. (In fact, this was part of the fun, trying to guess aerated vs. non, and which were the same wines before and after.) Each couple brought one bottle costing no more than $30.

Now we come to the point where I have to confess that I lost the results. I know the page with the compiled results was in our living room the next morning, so it's not what you're thinking. I do have the list of wines tasted here, in order of overall scoring as I remember it:

1) Whistler The Black Piper GSM 2008 (Barossa, Australia) $30
2) Tinhorn Creek Cabernet Franc 2008 (Okanagan, Canada) $17.49
3) Seghesio Zinfandel 2008 (Sonoma, USA) $22
4) Renwood Zinfandel 2006 (Sierra Foothills, USA) $22
5) Summerhill Pinot Noir 2006 (Okanagan, Canada) $24.60

Some other notes from memory: the aeration did not always improve the wine's score. I wonder if this would have been different if we had stuck with meatier wines like Shiraz and Malbec, which tend to show the most difference from aeration. Also, in general wine scores did not change dramatically - either up or down - due to aeration. I think the Whistler Black Piper, for example, did well both aerated and not.

I really wish I had the full results, since most of us were quite surprised at the minimal effect the aerator had when tasting blind. We agreed that we might have to try this again to see if the results are the same. All in the name of scientific research, of course.

C.R.O.W.N. 2

Cheap Wine Night has been rebranded as "Cheap Red or White Night", aka C.R.O.W.N. The second one was set for April 25th, which is ANZAC Day so the theme was Australia and New Zealand. Due to scheduling problems we had to change the date to April 18th, but kept the theme anyway. Couples were asked to bring two bottles with a maximum budget of $40 combined.

Without further ado, the results:

1 - Nugan Estate Durif Petit Syrah 2007 (Riverina, NSW) $14.00
2 - Thorn Clarke Shotfire Shiraz 2006 (Barossa Valley) $27.99
3 - Peter Lehmann Shiraz 2006 (Barossa Valley) $17.00
4 - Heartland Stickleback Red 2007 (South Australia) $15.70
5 - Main Divide Riesling 2007 (Waipara Valley, NZ) $25.95
6 - Nugan Estate Pinot Grigio 2008 (King Valley, Victoria) $13.99
7 - Hardys Riesling Gewurtztraminer 2008 (South Australia) $10.99
8 - Angove Nine Vines Shiraz Viognier 2007 (South Australia) $15.99
9 - Roy's Hill Merlot 2006 (Hawkes Bay, NZ) $20.95
10 - Bleasedale Potts' Catch Verdelho 2008 (Langhorne Creek, South Australia) $15.95
11 - Wolf Blass Eaglehawk Semillon Chardonnay 2007 (Barossa Valley) $13.79
12 - Tempus Two Wilde Chardonnay 2007 (Adelaide) $14.99

This time I ranked the results based on how each person rated a wine compared to their own rankings. In other words, for each person I took the score and assigned a ranking of 1 to the top score down to 12 for their lowest. This way it doesn't matter if somebody's scoring system is out of scale with others, as long as they are consistent within themselves. Interestingly, the #1 wine was only ranked #1 by one individual, but was the second choice of almost everyone else. Wines 2-5 had more first-place votes than the Nugan Durif.

Next time we'll probably do away with scores altogether, and just have people rank their own list 1-12. Also, I just noticed a slight calculation error: the Angove Shiraz Viognier should have been one spot higher. Well, I had tasted twelve wines prior to doing up the spreadsheet that night, so a little human error is to be expected. I suppose next time I could spit out the wine to stay sharp (OK, that's not going to happen).

The two Nugan Estates were a revelation: both were excellent and great value at 14 bucks each. The Shotfire was a close second, and Peter Lehmann was another fine wine for a decent price.

Cheap Wine Night

Well, cheap wine night has come and gone, and basically we all had a blast. Ten people blind tasting ten bottles of wine, all under $20. We scored them on a 100-point scale, but some of us had a larger range of scoring than is usual for rating wine; this isn't a problem, since each person ranked consistently. But it does mean that the average scores might be a couple of points lower as there were a few 60's and even a 50 out there, which you wouldn't normally see.

Here are the results by average score:

87.3 - Finca Los Primos Malbec 2007 (Argentina) $9.99
84.6 - Peter Lehmann Shiraz 2005 (Australia) $16
83.3 - Henry of Pelham Baco Noir 2001 (Canada) $17.44
82.3 - Rodney Strong Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 (USA) $19.69
80.9 - Kim Crawford Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2008 (New Zealand) $19.99
78.0 - Lagarde Altas Cumbres Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec 2007 (Argentina) $10.99
74.8 - Montecillo Crianza Rioja 2005 (Spain) $13.99
74.1 - Calona Artist Series Merlot (Canada) $7.99
73.7 - Peller Estates Proprietor's Reserve Dry White Wine (Canada) $6.49
71.6 - Santa Rita 120 Chardonnay 2007 (Chile) $8.99

Hopefully we'll have another wine tasting night sometime soon. Some suggestions for the future are (a) have a more focused theme - say a specific varietal or country, (b) be less strict on the price, but perhaps set a total budget for each couple to spend, such as $40 max for two bottles, and (c) pour less - this ensures nobody is overserved, and more left over after the unbagging to share depending on who is driving and who liked which wine better.

Finca Los Primos Malbec 2007

OK, we're getting serious about this Cheap Wine Night. I have a list of over 200 top-rated wines that cost under $20, although a lot of those are from an American wine website and are probably (a) more expensive here or (b) not available anyway. Also making up the list are selections from the Canadian magazine Wine Access feature "Best Wines under $25", but of those wines only some are available in Alberta. But, there are still enough to make for a decent scavenger hunt. We had a fun night last night slowly picking through the aisles in a couple of liquor stores, cross-checking our printed lists.

This malbec rated quite highly, so we were happy to find it at Superstore under ten bucks. It's delicious. The first thing that hits me is its earthiness. It's what I think of when Paul Giamatti's character in Sideways refers to a wine's character as "ancient". That was part of the big Pinot Noir soliloquy, but I think it applies here. The Finca has a purply plum colour and some plum flavour, all extremely well balanced with good character and unfortunately little finish. The wine is great for sipping on its own, but would be great with red meat dishes. Complex and drinkable.

Given the price, I would get this fantastic malbec again in a heartbeat.

90 points. $9.99 at Superstore.

Cheap Wine Night!

We've decided to host a cheap wine tasting evening in a couple of weeks. We've asked five couples to bring two bottles: one under $20 and one under $10. We plan a blind tasting with a couple of prizes for best-in-show and best value. We've never hosted such a thing before, let alone attended one, so it should be interesting.

So, as we do our "research" (wink wink) for this event, we'll be restricting ourselves to the $20 and under categories for a little while. Even more than usual.