1st wine tasting a blast!!!

I hosted my first wine tasting last night and we had so much fun! In spite of the fact it was the blind leading the clueless, I think we all came away from it a little more wine savvy.

There were 6 official wines in the tasting and 3 others that were included afterward. We stayed in the $9-$13 range. The winner was the least expensive: Cycles Gladiator Syrah- 2004 at $8.99.

We also tried a yummy Cline ancient vines Mouvedre 2003. This one was excellent w/ cheese and wasn't one of the original 6.

We going to have another one at the end of October.

Ronica, was the Cline mouvedre the small berry one or their regular. The small berry bottle runs about $30 just to help in case you have tossed the bottle.

I think it's the regular. My friend who brought it said it runs about $40 retail. She has a friend who is a rep for Cline who she gets it from. The bottle doesn't say anything about small berry. I liked it and I'm hoping I can get some more soon.

Excellent
Wine tastings can be educational, but more so, they can be a great chance to get round a table with friends and enjoy discovering what wines light your fire.
I've always been surprised how few straight Mourvedre's there are. It seems to get a bit lost in Shiraz/Grenache/Mourvedre blends - perhaps there's never much in there. It does seem to do better in Shiraz/Mourvedre blends though.
regards
Ian

Great!! Look out for the Cline late- harvest Mourvedre in the half bottle. Keep an eye on Wine Focus here this month...Cabs from Chile and California I believe!!

Ronica, I am not sure where you are, but the regular OV Mouvedre from Cline should be well under $20, more like 12-14. The Small berry however is more than $30 where I live.

Ronica, I am not sure where you are, but the regular OV Mouvedre from Cline should be well under $20, more like 12-14. The Small berry however is more than $30 where I live.

Bob, If I'm not mistaken (and I am often mistaken) Ancient Vines Mourvedre, as Ronica states above, says it all. It's not Small Berry as this is another product.

Check it out here: here goes Gary linking again.

Or did I miss something as usual? Oldtimer's Disease ...

By the way, I'm a member of Cline's Pendulum Club. I do it for the free popcorn and the opportunity to view the aviary behind the tasting room. They have one heck of a garden, too.

Sounds like a great time, Ronica! You realize, of course, that this was the "gateway" tasting. From here, you will just go deeper and deeper into wine geek-dom until you're hosting blind tastings of stuff like Croatian dessert wines and Loire whites.

And much fun will be had along the way...


Mike

Gary, aren't you saying the same thing I am saying. The Ancient vines is under $20 and the small berry is over $30. At least here in Lexington, I buy the AV mourvedre for about $13 and the small berry is about $31. Or did I misunderstand your meaning?

Gary, aren't you saying the same thing I am saying. The Ancient vines is under $20 and the small berry is over $30. At least here in Lexington, I buy the AV mourvedre for about $13 and the small berry is about $31. Or did I misunderstand your meaning?

I thought somewhere up there you were asking whether Ronica had the AV or the SB. And it seemed to my generally addled mind that you might have been suggesting that there was a SM AV. All I was doing was indicating that the SM and AV are different products without any twain-meeting. You are, however, absolutely correct about the difference in price.

Mike, you're right. We already have our next tasting on the calendar and my husband was laughing at me last night when he realized that I was reading the Wine Bible as he was watching a movie.

I'm going to get on Cline's website to see how much that wine's SRP is. My friend, who gets the wine from a Cline sales rep, must have had her info wrong. I hope she does, so that now I can afford it.