Notes from last night's monthly neighborhood tasting:
The appetizer wines, available for self-pour:
2006 Chuckanut Ridge Pinot Grigio: at the point where only a bottle and a half of the next two wines had been drunk, the three bottles of this wine were drained. I never even got to taste any. Was it that good, or did people just reach for the familiar grape name? I'll never know.
2006 Yellow Hawk Dry Muscat Canelli: Beguiling nose of spice and grapefruit. Same on the palate with almonds and minerality. Bright and seemingly unoaked. More off-dry than last year's, but just as intense. This has got to be one of Washington's most idiosyncratic and interesting white wines.
2006 Bernard Griffin Rose of Sangiovese: very very nice. Where I found prior years had too much RS, this one's bone dry and tastes of green apples and red rose petals.
For the sit-down wines, I took into account all the suggestions I got here before purchasing--in fact, I had more names than the wine store guy I chose to procure for me even knew existed--but in the end the final selection had more to do with availability than what I wanted. For instance, the Waving Tree Barbera was supposed to have been a Lone Canary Barbera, but the supply dried up and on Thursday I had to accept this substitution. Or use another sangiovese, which in retrospect would have been a better choice.
The wines were served blind. We had 53 voters, and every wine received first place votes. The point spread was pretty flat from 25 for the last place wine to a near three way tie at 52 for first place where wines D and E received the most first place votes but wine A caught up with the majority of 2nd place votes. Surprisingly, I mostly agreed with the group, where more typically my favorites fare no better than 3rd place with them.
2006 Woodward Canyon Dolcetto: I opened one of these on Wednesday since I had an extra bottle, and hated it. Neither Bob nor I could drink it: excessive VA, and pickly. Ugh. So I pulled the corks on the rest, and they spent all day yesterday in open decanters. I had tasted it again on Thursday and yesterday morning, and my opinion didn't change. So I put all them into decanters yesterday morning hoping to at least save the wine from being an automatic last placer. Apparently successful: zin-like raspberry nose, zinberry palate. Rich, balanced and complete, and something rings old world. I couldn't believe my eyes when this was unveiled later: my 1st, group 1st.
2005 Yellow Hawk Barbera: Splendidly aromatic and feminine nose of spicey cinnamon and violets, and no doubt one of the barberas. Short mid-palate at first, that only started opening up in the second hour. Had it been more open, it would no doubt have taken 1st place. As it was, my 2nd, group 2nd.
2003 Yellow Hawk Sangiovese: bricky color outs this as the oldest wine in the group. Lovely nose of old leather, cherry and sandalwood. More mature than I would have expected at just age 4 but pleasantly so, and a bit too subtle on it's own but totally alive any time one used it to follow the tomato-based foods. Sure, not as complex as it's real Italian cousins but it's unmistakably sangiovese and a very nice effort. It's agedness scared off the Yellow Tail crowd in droves, though, so where I gave it a 3rd place vote the group vote placed it 6th. Forgive them, lord, for they know not what they do.
2004 Brian Carter Tuo Rosso: Can't recall the numbers exactly, but this one is approximately 60% Sangiovese, 35% cabernet and 5% syrah. Black cherry and berry, structured and yet elegant, nothing overdone. Very obviously the cab blend and quite good. Group 4th, my 4th.
2005 Tamarack Sangiovese: Pretty nose, young, big and bold fruit, generous oak. I suspected the Tamarack based on my previous encounters with their wines, and it was. My 5th, group 3rd (and 1st place with the Shiraz Fan Club).
2005 Waving Tree Barbera: Dark purple and grapey, with a lot of extracted skin flavor and some plastic shower curtain VA. Didn't like this at all, yet it did get some 1st place votes, most oddly from my pal Pete, whose preferences usually track mine. My 6th, group 5th.
