Before
So here's a wine tasting, tasting note. I'd been wanting to hold a proper knock down drag out blind tasting fight across price points and regions and it finally came to fruition a couple of weeks back. I have here the stained and bloodied notes from this unholy cage match featuring the great White (Wine) Hope. According to these carefully transcribed notes Vignnnnorrrel....humm 2 4 XXXX FRANCE = 2.2! Ok, so the no spitting tasting has it's drawbacks.
In the interest of science I should let you know the panel assembled featured some of the biggest names in regular attendance:
Me: Professional beer drinker. Recent reader of books on wine so that phrases like "contains sulfides" don't freak me out anymore. Some have said I'm a super taster. I think they're referring to quantity intake rather than any ability with the grapey taste thing.
Brother In Law (BIL): Owner/Manager wine & cocktail bar in DC. We all acted like his opinion didn't really count more but we stared at him a lot when he scribbled.
Halfsie (H): Ooeneph..Eonoph...Oennl...serious wine guy (wife was a Sommel...summel...wine serving person). Formerly of Northern California. Actually had a taste wheel application on his iPhone going. Yeah, I thought the same thing too.
Ach Du Lieber (ADL): The stern friend whose gustatory snobbery brooks no challenge. But he's a mate so what can you do?
Big G: (BG) The quiet one who always says "Oh, I don't know much about this" and then recommends the best wine at under $20 you've ever had. Consistently.
The match was refereed by The Wife who equates all this wine drinking by me as "having an affair with that damned grape". Loves her beer this one which is why I love her, but science demands my attention to this matter now.
All of the bottles were held in the same chilled condition, uncorked/uncapped one hour prior to tasting, all in the same glass (Svalkas from Ikea the foremost name in glassware....under $2 a piece). One ounce of wine was placed in the glasses and all six wines were served at the same time. The person that poured removed the bottles and then the wine was served by somebody else, blind tasting thing and all. Everyone spent 15 minutes individual (not talking or comparing notes) sniffing, tasting, slurping, starring furtively at the BIL, slurping some more, starring off into space, scribbling words like "acid" and "fruit" and then trying to peek at H's iPhone. At the end we all rated the wines from one to six and used various dubious mathematical calculations (the hypotenuse of the average and mean was divided) to crown a winner, which was actually kind of pointless but we'd come this far so we had to run with the contest mode style.
The wines were all fairly typical, with one exception, for Viognier. So the whole peachy apricoty thing is a given. All were full/fullish bodied.
Wine #1: Came in 6th place. I noted that it was dry with the taste being not to deep. Not bad but not much really. The voting shows it was average to low for everyone.
Wine #2: Came in 4th place. I noted that people have been much to harsh to the petrochemical industry. After all if one can serve pvc as a beverage then they must have something going on. This is the best tasting lemon plastic with a short aftertaste I've ever encountered. As far as wine not so much. For some reason two folks though this thing wasn't bad. Someone said "floral".
Wine #3: Came in 3rd. This one was the "one of these things is not like the others" item. It had a bit of amber color and some obvious wood treatment. Everyone knew that this was somehow different than the others. Oaky, nice fruit, even a bit spirit-ish (oxidation?). After the whole thing was done I realized it didn't really fit the bill if I was looking for what Viognier normally promises even though I really liked it and rated #1.
Wine #4: Came in 1st. Everyone but me rated this fairly high, which just goes to show you there's no accounting for taste. A slight bit of acid, nice and full and very viognier like. For me the nose was a bit off, which I'm wondering if is related to it being capped. One taster noted violets. I can see a bit of that.
Wine #5: Came in 5th. Nice fruit, the acid was present. I thought this a solid wine, though some of the others thought it was a bit "meh".
Wine #6: Came in 2nd. A good bit of depth, I thought this had the most, and easily the best length of the lot. I rated this #2 but it really should have been #1. Someone said "spiced".
And now to remove the masks:
#1 Georges Vernay Viognier Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes Le Pied de Samson 2007 ($20)
#2 Kunde Estate Viognier 2006 ($25)
#3 E. Guigal Condrieu 2005 ($55)
#4 Yalumba Viognier 2008 ($12)
#5 Georges Vernay Condrieu Les Terrasses de L'Empire 2007 ($40)
#6 Domaine du Bois de Saint-Jean Côtes du Rhône Blanc de Blancs Vendange Mannette 2006 ($30)
My thoughts are that the E. Guigal was too old for a Viognier but there's obviously some quality there. The two screwcap wines (Kunde & Yalumba) had the most negative notes regarding initial aroma (no one knew what was capped or corked). I'd buy more of the St. Jean no doubt. I've liked other Yalumba products but I wasn't that hot on this one. I was surprised the Vernay Condrieu didn't rate better but my pocket book is happy it didn't. I noted with interest that four different wines were rated #1 and #6 so there really wasn't that much of a consensus. I thought the BIL and Halfsie would be voting in lockstep since they're the most, you know, smart on this stuff. Not so.
My apologies for the lack of depth on the tasting notes but I still thought there'd be at least some entertainment to be had out of this hot mess.
Aftermath