TN: From a blind tasting lunch

2012 Pewsey Vale Vineyard Riesling The Contours Museum Reserve - clean, crisp Riesling with lots of citrus elements and hint of ripe pear although the wine finishes dead dry. A nicely aged Riesling, likely at peak now.

2015 Giuseppe Cortese Barbera d'Alba Morassina - from my cellar - some Barberas can be on the lean side but this one was fairly dark, with a balanced smooth finish, mid weight and some nice dark fruit (blackberry?) and almost a whiff of tapenade.

2013 Günter Triebaumer Blaufränkisch Reserve. - dark colour, nice nose of dark fruit with sight green hints, smooth and tasty. Very similar to a Chianti! The grape is a crossing of Blaufränkisch and St. Laurent.

2006 Baricci Brunello di Montalcino - medium colour, a bit of tr in the nose and black cherry ad plum, smooth on palate with a sweet medium length finish.

1994 Alain Brumont Madiran Domaine Meinjarre - an offbeat wine (Tannat grape) that I thought might work with the cheese and give some pause to the group but it turned out to be too long in the tooth, lean and narrow at the end.

Next month - North American Syrah

[Jenise]

That's one of the more diverse sets of wines to ever show up at one of our lunches. Killed me to miss it, but with four new inches of snow and ice and 22F outside I was wise to stay off the 8 miles of country roads I have to travel to the border, not to mention not risking a twisted ankle. Things were BAD down here.

Offhand question: why would a tannat work with cheese?

Offhand question: why would a tannat work with cheese?

Any mature red seems to work pretty well with cheese - doesn't need to be an off dry white or red to do the job, IMHO. Sadly, this one was over mature.....

[Jenise]

I don't even think whites need to be off-dry. For my tastes, white burgundy is one of the best cheese wines, especially with stinky, funky (muenster, limburger) and washed rind cheeses. I used to have an opinion that young cheddars worked better with the older reds and vice versa. I don't know if I still think that way, but I have to admit that mature reds isn't instinctively my first choice.

After being disappointed with the 94 Brumont Madiran, I opened another - 1994 Château Bouscassé Madiran Vieilles Vignes Tannat. After extended airing it showed much better than the other Tannat. Will slowly work through my other case and a half of assorted Tannats in future.