WTN: Bordeaux blend tasting

[Jenise]

Last night I hosted a Bordeaux blend tasting for 64 members of the neighborhood wine group (with a waiting list of 13). The original intention had simply been to show people what amazing values are out there for savvy shoppers in this period of downturn and decline in the wine industry, and the Bordeaux blend theme just kind of made itself obvious when I saw what was available. I served three pairings, each consisting of a blend and a component grape. I served the Mulderbosch sparkling wine as a starter while people mingled. Just for yucks I've included the original retail or winery price vs. what I paid--delivered.

2021 Mulderbosch Chenin Blanc Sparkling Brut Western Cape
Brilliant wine. Loaded with rich fruit and minerality. There's a little jasmine and tarragon on the nose and dry honey, green apple, and Meyer lemon on the palate. As well, the texture's fabulous: creamy mousse, tingly acidity, and gorgeously dry. Major score at Last Bottle for $13/bottle (MSRP $26, and frankly already a QPR bargain at that price).

2019 Tamarack Cellars Cabernet Franc Wahluke Slope
100% Cabernet Franc (best we know). On release (it has aged in the bottle), this wine offered cranberries, dark cherries and the subtle herbaceous notes typical of this grape as well as hints of cedar, baking spices and milk chocolate. This winery has now closed. Winery price: $45, I paid $22.

2019 Juslyn Vineyards Perry's Blend Spring Mountain District Red Bordeaux Blend
There is this cassis and violet thing that happens in some Napa Valley cabs and cab-based wines, and this has it in spades along with red plum, blueberries and dark chocolate. My WOTN. Winery price: $150, I paid $44.

2021 El Enemigo Malbec Mendoza
90% Malbec is given lift and complexity from 10% Cabernet Franc and wins over a malbec skeptic like me. Peppery black and blue fruit with a pretty floral nose. Very attractive and satisfying. I paid $26 retail. Couldn't find any bargain malbecs that fit with my original intention, so best I could do was feature an excellent Argentine vs. paying twice the price for a North American one.

2019 Rutherford Hill Merlot Limited Release Stags Leap District
Black and blue fruit with extraordinary depth and concentration featuring black fruits, cocoa and cedar. Everything merlot should be but rarely is. This winery has a regular merlot that sells for around $30, but this Limited Release is their best fruit with extra attention. Winery price: $100, I paid $29.

2021 Beau Vigne Icon Napa Valley Red Blend
Sleek and sexy, brightly toned aromas of red, black and blue berry fruit with roasted sage, plum, milk chocolate and vanilla. Joyous. Winery price: $80, I paid $26.

2019 Long Shadows Wineries Pirouette Columbia Valley Red Bordeaux Blend
A rich, layered panoply of Bordeaux blend flavors--about 50% CS and 30% merlot, leaning toward black fruit as is the way of Washington reds with layers of plenty of French oak spice. Full-bodied and balanced with structure for aging. One of the finest vintages of this wine I've ever had, and I've been a fan since the first vintage in 2004. Winery price: $79, I paid $44.

[David M. Bueker]

Lovely tasting set up, and wow at the prices you paid.

I feel pretty exhausted setting up a tasting for 8-10, can't imagine 64. How many bottles of each? Lots of wine, even if someone monitoring tasting pours. Nice writeup

[Jenise]

I feel pretty exhausted setting up a tasting for 8-10, can't imagine 64. How many bottles of each? Lots of wine, even if someone monitoring tasting pours. Nice writeup

I did not do this alone! I was totally the HFIC and the whole evening was my idea and design, but I had a team of 21 to support me and make a month's worth of effort look effortless. I'd canvassed for volunteers six weeks earlier and then invited the entire gang over for an al fresco planning dinner--I provided all the food and wine, which I have learned is a sure-fire way to get eager volunteers.

We had a first hour in which guests grilled their own protein at the enormous cinder block grill behind our clubhouse. I called it the "meat and greet". I had a grilling team of four out there tending 80 lbs of charcoal and helping people do their cooking. For that, I had 18 bottles of the Mulderbosch ready to go, but we only opened 13 (such was that wine that I was more than happy to buy back the remaining bottles).

From there, guests travelled thru a salad buffet--we provided four huge salads (I made one of them)--on their way to their seats, and we provided each table with their own big loaf of hot and crunchy garlic bread and three bottles of San Pellegrino. Each eight-top got their own bottle of each of the red wines, and after dinner we distributed half bottles of a Rutherford Hill Zinfandel port (winery price $20, I paid $10) I didn't even list above, and a bowl of Belgian chocolate bark. Guests were able to take any leftover wine home.

While the grilling was happening we did some performance art, where guests were asked to bring gently used clothing for donation to the local food and clothing bank*, which they hung on clothes lines we put up all around the room while Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme crooned from the speakers.

And that's how it went. My cost: right at $35 per person.

*I donated a really lacy black bra, a relic of my PYT days and very first WLDG offline in Orange County. In a post that very week I called white zinfandel the training bra of wines, which turned out to be a fairly provocative thing to say in this male-dominated space, and generated a lot of conversation about other wines and other variations of this particular undergarment. Prepared for that topic to come up at the offline, I'd stashed this lacy D-cup bra in my purse, and sure enough, someone asked what kind of bra a particular wine being poured should be compared to. "This!", I said, dipping into my purse and pulling out this particular bra, which one of the bachelors immediately grabbed, held aloft, and announced his intention to take it to the restaurant bar to find his Cinderella. And of course, as emcee, I pointed it out and told that story!