Last thursday we were about 10 wine-buddies gathering at our generous host Nick‘s home for a blind-tasting of red Rhône wines. This time there were absolutely no limits as all reds from all-over the Rhône-region were permitted, drastically differentiating it from our last tasting at Nick’s when only Southern Rhône reds were allowed, as well as from the last blind tasting at my place where boundaries were set by the Syrah varietal, originally stemming from that area but now being planted all over Planet Wine.

This means that each of the 12 bottles we popped that night could be anything from Côte-Rôtie and Hermitage to Côtes du Ventoux and Châteauneuf-Du-Pape, hence also mixing single-varietal wines with those that represent cuvées. As you can see, with each blind-tasting we are slowly encircling what both Rhône and Syrah have to offer. Are we gonna grasp the essence of it tonight? Dream on, dreamer.. Read the rest of this entry »

Finally a real blind tasting again. The last times we’ve been quite lax with our club’s rules I have to admit ;), but this evening all bottles were covered and then randomly numbered (and eventually re-mixed another time) so no bias was possible in our judgments. For this sum-up I kept the order of the tasting of course, just in case you wonder why vintages are so mixed up here. The theme was Tuscany, which includes of course the vast Chianti region, but also other famous appellation like Brunello di Montalcino for example. Generally the wines are made with the Sangiovese grape, but are most frequently combined in Cuvées with other varietals. Ok this should be enough theory! We were thirsty!

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